The Greatest Game Ever Played
An Interview With Shia LaBeouf

You might not know his name just yet, but that probably doesn’t matter to Shia LaBeouf. At age nineteen, the young actor speaks at length about the dangers of overextending yourself in this business as well as a desire to own a lasting, meaningful film career. After beginning with Holes, his past few projects have been supporting roles in genre films such as I Robot and Constantine. Now coming into his own, LaBeouf stars this Friday in The Greatest Game Ever Played as one of sport’s history’s little known, yet most influential heroes.

Did you play golf before the film?

Shia: No. No. Absolutely not. I wasn’t even a fan of golf to tell you the truth. Only reason I was a fan slightly would be because I’m an actor and a pretty heady guy, and out of any sport it’s the most intriguing for an actor. The reasons are because you watch those programs, those guys playing, and they miss these little six inch putts. Their whole life depends on that putt and they’ll miss it. Unlike football or basketball they don’t scream like, “Aw fuck!” None of that happens. They kind of look at the audience, take their hat off, wave and smile. When in reality, inside they’re crying and screaming and their life is over. That’s a man, you know?

How much training did you have to do for this role?

Shia: When I first showed up, Bill Paxton said, “Go watch Bagger Vance, because that’s exactly what we’re not going to make.” Because that’s a slow, boring, drawn out- That’s somebody filming golf. That’s not somebody in the mind of a golfer filming that. So, when Paxton said, “Watch Matt Damon. And then ask a golfer if they liked Bagger Vance. And no golfers I’ve asked have like Bagger Vance. Especially when I was going to get to the training. As far as the training goes. No golfers have liked Bagger Vance because Matt Damon trained for two weeks to get his swing correct. He’s playing the best golfer in the world. You know, you watch the Bobby Jones story he trained for three weeks to get Bobby Jones’ swing. Those are guys who were the best golfers in the world at the time. Bill said, “Look, we’re not going to do it that way. You know? We’re not shooting this like a golf movie. You’re going to be a cowboy. It’s going to be a shootout. It’s not a ball. It’s your life. That’s not a club. That’s your weapon.” So, the situation became, “Look, we’re going to shoot this to make it real. To make it a real film with money behind us. Then we’re going to really golf.” So, I trained for six months. Started off at the UCLA golf team. Because golf was such a slow sport to me. Such a boring sport, being with the UCLA college guys, guys my age, guys with golf groupies, guys who would go out and party. It made it more real to me. Something along the lines of somebody I could equate myself with. Rather than talking to a fifty-year-old man about why he loves golf, I was talking to nineteen-year-old kids about why they loved golf. And it was a level playing field for me to start off on. And then I asked them what their favorite golf films were. Happy Gilmore. Caddy Shack. The quintessential golf film hadn’t been made. You know? It’s all satire of golf. So started off with the UCLA golf team, training wise. Then I went to US Open and was on the course with Adam Scott through the entire competition. Saw the immensity of it. How big it was. How big the sport was. How big the competition was. Then I did seven hours a day, seven days a week golf training with three different golf pros in two different states. I did virtual reality training. We did calisthenics. Yoga. Six months to get that swing. It’s not baseball. It’s not Bernie Mac and his movie, you could just swing a bat. Golfers watch a golf film and the façade is dropped. The curtain is gone once they see a swing that looks fake.

Do you keep it up?

Shia: No. I mean, does Tobey Macguire still ride horses?

You don’t think you’re going to go back out?

Shia: I will. I will. It’s just, right now, I’m an artist, man. That’s my priority. And I know Mark Frost told me never to watch your handicap because then you’ll get addicted to golf. It’s like crack. So I’m not trying to know my handicap. Or know my score. I play recreationally. But for the film it was nuts. It was non-stop. We didn’t have off time. Every off time we had we were playing.

Did it give you an appreciation for what they do?

Shia: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s the most intense sport. It’s the only sport in the world where, not only do you hire trainers, but you hire a therapist to tour with the team. It’s insane. Think about that. That’s crazy.

In addition to training, did you also study the history of golf?

Shia: I read every piece of literature Francis Ouimet ever read. Read every book he ever wrote. Read every book Harry Vardon ever wrote. I watched every piece of footage on Vardon and Ted Ray and on Francis. I met with Francis’ family. I did as much training as Mark did so he could write the book so I could develop my own opinion.

Was Francis’ family supportive of the movie?

Shia: It’s funny, you know? We got these reviews back from like the president. Bill Clinton said it’s his favorite movie he’d ever seen. George Bush Sr. handwrote a note to the Disney publicity department saying that he loved the film and he would love to do whatever he can to get this film to the right audience. And that he loved the film and it was his favorite film as well. Larry King said it was better than Seabiscuit. We had all these reviews. The most important review came from Ouimet’s daughter and granddaughter who came up to me after the screening and said, “You were Francis for an hour and a half.” They were crying. That’s like, that was my job. That was my goal. Once that was said to me, then the rest of it’s cake. Then if this movie doesn’t make any money my job was done, you know? That’s bigger than an Oscar. I mean that’s humongous when the person who lived with Francis his entire life comes up to you and she’s crying and she says, “You were Francis for an hour and a half.” I believed you. That’s a big deal.

Why didn’t he ever go professional?

Shia: Because Francis never really wanted to win the US Open in the first place. He wanted his father to love him. He wanted his father to respect him and treat him as a man, as an equal. And his father had a pride issue with what he was doing. This is the difference between this movie and every other sports movie you’ve ever seen. It’s like every other sports movie villainieses the opposition. Or the enemy team is the enemy team and they got spikes on their shoulders, “Aah, look at them. They’re crazy!” It’s garbage, you know? This is a totally different thing. Harry Vardon was going through the same issues. Even on top of that, he had found a father in Harry Vardon’s words. He found a father in Eddie Lowery. He found a father in golf. He just wanted attention. He just wanted love. He wanted to feel like a man. The only way he was going to feel that way was through his father. He just so happened to create a dream and a route that he didn’t realize at the end of that rainbow was going to be this insanity. He didn’t realize what was attached, that it was a classification change. That you were dealing with a struggle that was happening in 1913 where the immigrants were coming to this country by the boat loads, literally. They had no hero. Francis didn’t know that he was going to be that hero. He didn’t even like it when he was there. It just so happened that he became that. It just so happened that he reinvented the entire sport. It was one of the first major blows to this classification war that was going on in America, was this event. It was more than just golf. It was more than just golf to Francis, but less than what it seems like in the film. I don’t think Francis really knew what was happening. There would be times where he’d look around and there’d be a hundred thousand people there. You got to think about that. Staple Center doesn’t fit a hundred thousand people. You’re on a golf course with a ball and you’re whole life is on the line and a hundred thousand people looking at you. The pressure is insane. You’re not even thinking about playing.

Do you try to be more selective when picking your projects? Opting for quality over potential box office?

Shia: I don’t need four million dollars for a movie. I’m not into that Hillary Duff, Lindsay Lohan let me go get paid right now. You know what I’m saying? That’s not my life. This is not a career that’s going to end in three years. Some people juice their orange until there’s nothing left. Now I understand that. That’s a route to go. I was Hillary Duff, I’d do the same thing. I swear to God. I mean sometimes you just know. You know, you just know. But then there’s other times where you feel like you can make a change and make a difference in the business. Or add what you have to the business and that you protect. You don’t just give that away.

How do you know you have it?

Shia: It’s not even that I have it. I know that nobody else has it. So even if I don’t have it. I don’t believe I’m a great actor. I don’t believe that I am some amazing fucking- You know, I’m the dude! I don’t believe that. I just know that there’s nobody out there that believes that.

A few of your past films have been commercial. How do they fit in with where you want your career to go?

Shia: Well, you know the thing is about film and this business in general, there’s stepping stones. Nobody just jumps into this situation. You have to make certain sacrifices to get certain places. Certain movies, you know, I Robot wasn’t made because I loved I Robot. I Robot was made so I can make Constantine. Constantine was made so I can make this. I mean that’s the way that the business works. It’s like, it’s a puzzle piece and you fit it all in so you can finally get to the destination, and I’ve gotten there now. From this point forward there will be no more of that puzzle piece. It’ll be all things that I love. I’ve gotten lucky. To be nineteen and be able to now pick and choose what I want to do based on creative decision and artistic decision rather than financial decision. Or rather than clout and things like that. There’s also situations where I’ll read a script and they go, “Oh, but you can’t get any money foreign. You have no foreign finance.” And I understand that completely. Would it be a better movie? Who knows? But I know that a lot of these films that get made are made with actors that aren’t right for the role just so that they can finance it and make money overseas. Filmmaking has changed, man. It’s not always the right actor gets the right role. It’s the actor who can get the money to make the movie gets the role. That’s the business. The sad part is that people aren’t really jumping behind quality film. Because I’ll tell you right now we’re not going to win our weekend. You know who’s going to win our weekend? Into the Blue. That’s the sad part of this life. This whole business is sad that way. Companies like Disney will make movies like this every once in a while. So my job in this company is to be there every once in a while. Holes was not a regular Disney film. This isn’t a regular Disney film. Herbie the Love Bug is a regular Disney film.