Do we like Shia LaBeouf?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A 2026 guilty plea to three counts of simple battery, a settled abuse lawsuit he had denied, and only one standout piece of good work to set against it.
LaBeouf grew up in front of cameras: a Disney Channel kid who went on to lead the Transformers and Indiana Jones films. He turned his rough childhood into Honey Boy, a film he wrote and which Alma Har'el directed, with LaBeouf himself playing a version of his father. It was a genuine artistic swing, and it is the best thing on his ledger.
The ugly chapter came in 2020, when his ex FKA twigs sued him in Los Angeles, alleging physical and emotional abuse. He denied the accusations in a 2021 court filing. The case settled in July 2025 on confidential terms, so no court ever ruled on it. Soon after the suit landed he said he had been “abusive to myself and everyone around me for years”, and he apologised to people he'd hurt.
It isn't new behaviour. In 2017 Savannah police arrested him in a hotel lobby, and a video TMZ posted showed him accusing officers of racism and telling a Black officer he was “going to hell”. He posted an apology saying he was “deeply ashamed” and made no excuses for it.
Then came Mardi Gras 2026. A New Orleans police report said video showed him shirtless, shoving one person to the ground and punching another in the face. He was arrested twice that month, and in June he pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery. He got a six-month suspended sentence and two years' probation, and has to stay away from the victims and the bar.
On the harm test, police said he repeatedly used homophobic slurs, which is an allegation that was never tested at trial. His lawyer called it a “minor Mardi Gras bar tussle” with no evidence of bias. In a March interview he said he'd “never had a problem with gay people”, then said big gay people are scary to him. That is his own explanation for the night, and it's not a good look. I found no campaigning against anyone's rights, and nothing on vaccines or the climate.
The good stuff is thin on what I could verify. Honey Boy, and his public apologies in 2017 and 2020, are what's on record. I found no charity work or kind acts, and no reporting of him standing up for others at a cost to himself. That's honestly the whole list.