LaBeouf expressed a closed mindset toward going to a recovery program such as AA, which has been ordered by a judge. “I feel like the restrictive nature of recovery leads you into unhappiness because it’s rigid and there’s a mystery that’s inherent to health,” he said. He desires an “unhinged, maniacal joy,” a “freedom,” and something “existential.”
Around this point, LaBeouf read Callaghan a quote from Catholic author G.K. Chesterton’s book “Orthodoxy”:
Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland.
“And I feel like that guy,” LaBeouf said.
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“When you’re in that state, that like mystic party state, do you feel true joy?” Callaghan asked.
“I feel connected,” LaBeouf answered. “You know what I mean? I feel connected to people.”
When Callaghan questioned the actor about the events of Feb. 17, LaBeouf did not know how much his bond was or who had bailed him out of jail. Once he was bailed out of jail, he went right back to the French Quarter.
“You can’t have half a Mardi Gras,” he said. “It’s existential. It’s almost spiritual.”
When LaBeouf mentioned that the reasons why he got sober in the past were because he was ordered to by a court or because of women, Callaghan pointed out that those are “external factors.” The interviewer suggested to LaBeouf that drinking to cope with sadness is not a helpful way to deal with those feelings.
At one point, Callaghan asked if the person LaBeouf was with was pushing him to do the “program,” presumably AA. LaBeouf said, “No sir…No. I loved program for a very long time and yet I am a big God boy, you know…I found God through [the] program.”
“My path isn’t over,” he said. “I’m still in the middle of it, but I’m on the path. You know what I mean? I’m not just out here being debaucherous.”
“Every time I think about me, I’m unhappy,” LaBeouf told Callaghan, explaining that he drinks and parties to get away from that unhappiness. Callaghan suggested that LaBeouf might want to interpret fighting because of drinking as a “wake-up call.” Maybe if LaBeouf wouldn’t drink, he wouldn’t go to jail.
“Who gives a f*** though?” LaBeouf replied. “It’s another experience. Jail will be another adventure.”
“I’m with God, bro,” he said. “I just move with God. God’s going to move me around.”
“You think God’s, like, a monotheistic, singular deity?” Callaghan asked.
LaBeouf said he did. “I believe in the Trinitarian church,” he said. “I’m a Catholic full-blown.”
Later, LaBeouf talked about the importance of making restitution for wrongs done. “You got to make amends,” he said. “First thing you got to do is you got to say what you did. Then you got to say how it’s never going to happen again. And then you got to show and prove.”
When Callaghan asked how LaBeouf was going to show that he would not get into bar fights any more, the actor replied, “Boy, you got me.” He said people sometimes see him as an “opportunity” to incite problems, adding, “That’s not to minimize my behavior, but I get it.”
LaBeouf knows he needs to address his behavior. “Does that mean I got to go to rehab again?” he asked. “I’m just not into it, bro. I don’t think my answers are there. I don’t. I genuinely don’t. If I genuinely did, I’d go. I don’t think I have a drinking problem. I think I have a different problem, and I’m going to address it.”
