Shia LaBeouf’s motivational speech will suck the hangover right out of you
Shia LeBeouf assisted some art students for a graduation project and the results were sublimely bizarre.
This video of Shia LeBeouf giving a pep talk or, as the video says, delivering “the most intense motivational speech of all-time” zoomed up to the front page of Reddit on Saturday, and I’m really unsure of what to make of it.
Now maybe it’s the hangover creeping in unnecessarily early, but that’s pretty much the last thing I wanted to see on a Saturday morning before 7 a.m. And yet, it’s rather mystifying. Like, I’m not sure if it’s good art or not. It feels like one part Tom Cruise in Magnolia (nsfw) …
… mixed with a heathy portion of Matt Foley.
According to The Guardian, Shia wasn’t just out there passing out motivational text; this was actually part of an art school project. The actor recorded 30-second introductions for any students who wanted a lead into their projects.
"“A lot of us became interested in the way that Shia was being used as an artist and engaging with his art practice, but also using his status as a celebrity as a platform for his work,” said Andrew Smith, one of the fine art students who spearheaded the project. “Shia LaBeouf is in this place that oscillates between the two worlds of his mass audience and his art audience. And this was also about branching those two audiences, making the live stream an access point for people who might not know or have visited a degree show.”"
And there we have it. I’m not sure what to make of this cat. If we’re in the trust tree and I’m being 100% honest, I’ve been intrigued by him ever since the video compilation of all his “no no nos” dropped on Youtube.
From there it’s been a roller coaster. Dropping acid as a part of his method acting, yanking out a tooth for Fury, growing a rat tail, making weird art videos where he shows his dong, alleging that he was raped by a woman at an art show. Shia is just far out there and, if nothing else, entertaining.
Props to a guy willing to live his life like performance art, but I just can’t help but wonder what’s going on behind those eyes. It’s like unravelling the Dayman – “what is going ooooon up here”.
Whatever. To each their own. Shia is a motivational champion of the sun blazing a trail across the interwebs and the real world.
(If you wanna get weird with it, here are all of Shia’s introductions for the students)