“As a celebrity/star I am not an individual — I am a spectacular representation of a living human being, the opposite of an individual”

LaBeouf at the premiere of
Fury in Washington D.C, Oct. 2014
(Department of Defense
photo by Marvin Lynchard)

Said : Shia Saide LaBeouf (Born: June 11, 1986 in LA), an American actor and director who became known among younger audiences as Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens. 

He made these remarks in response to email to Variety‘s questions that appeared in NY Film Editor Ramin Setoodeh's post yesterday.

The 28-year-old actor believes that celebrities are ‘Enslaved’. When asked about his feelings as an artist, LaBeouf said : "The craft of acting for film is terribly exclusive and comes with the baggage of celebrity, which robs you of your individuality and separates you. The performance work is democratized and far more inclusive. As a celebrity/star I am not an individual — I am a spectacular representation of a living human being, the opposite of an individual. The enemy of the individual, in myself as well as in others. The celebrity/star is the object of identification, with the shallow seeming life that has to compensate for the fragmented productive specializations which are actually lived. The requirements to being a star/celebrity are namely, you must become an enslaved body. Just flesh — a commodity, and renounce all autonomous qualities in order to identify with the general law of obedience to the course of things. The star is a by-product of the machine age, a relic of modernist ideals. It’s outmoded."

LaBeouf is the executive producer of “LoveTrue,” an experimental drama from director Alma Har’el (“Bombay Beach”) that merges fiction and documentary, with vignettes set in Alaska, Hawaii and New York. 

See a clip of “LoveTrue” featuring actor Will Hunt below :