LaBeouf, who plays an outlaw bootleger in the movie, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he was convinced to join the project when director John Hillcoat "took me down to Hamburger Hamlet and asked if I wanted to be in GoodFellas in the Woods."
Shia LaBeouf didn’t so much quit the show Orphans, it seems, but simply moved from stage to audience.
The New York Times reports that the young actor, who left what would have been his Broadway debut last month over “creative” differences with director Daniel Sullivan and star Alec Baldwin, was sitting in the front row for the first preview performance Tuesday. He was said to be effusive in his applause, at one point slamming the stage with his hand, and left right after the curtain call.
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A spokesperson for the play told The Times that LaBeouf bought a ticket and did not inform anyone of his intent to attend the show.
After he announced his departure from the play — he was replaced by Ben Foster, who now shares the marquee with Baldwin and Tom Sturridge — LaBeouf tweeted photos of e-mail exchanges with Sullivan and Baldwin. In one, Baldwin wrote to him, “I’ve been through this before. It’s been a while. And perhaps some of the particulars are different. But it comes down to the fact that what we all do now is critical. Perhaps especially for you. When the change comes, how do we handle it, whether it be good or bad? What do we learn? I don’t have an unkind word to say about you. You have my word.”
LaBeouf responded, “same. … good luck on the play. you’ll be great.”
A revival of Kyle Lessler‘s 1983 drama, the play focuses on two orphaned brothers living off the proceeds of petty theft in a run-down North Philadelphia row house.
