Another sequel for Shia LaBeouf

Shia LaBeouf from the film Wall Street 2, which opens here on September 23. Photo / Supplied

At the time of our Transformers interview, when Shia LaBeouf came out of nowhere to be cast as the star of Michael Bay's blockbuster, he swore like a trooper and did not hold back his opinions for one minute. Even now as we meet to discuss his latest leading role in Oliver Stone's Wall Street; Money Never Sleeps he hasn't changed a bit. Just ask him about the failure of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"I think the audience is pretty intelligent," he says in his brisk manner of speaking. "I think they know when you've made shit. And if you don't acknowledge it, then why should they trust you the next time you're promoting a movie? Harrison Ford and I talked about it. He wasn't happy with it either. The movie could have been updated. It's just hard to enforce innocence on an audience that's not innocent anymore."

LaBeouf recalls coming to the Wall Street set with the approach that if he disappointed the fans twice, his career was over. "This was fight or flight for me. I showed up with a whole different mindset."

Indeed the 24 year-old star could be accused of sequelitis. Transformers spawned a sequel (the third instalment is currently being filmed), Indiana Jones was a sequel as is the new Wall Street movie where LaBeouf fills Charlie Sheen's shoes as the hot young stockbroker alongside another acting icon, Michael Douglas.

"I had to earn Harrison's trust; I never had to earn Michael's," he says. "Michael was there for me from day one, supporting me and giving me guidance on how to micro-manage Oliver. Had I not had Michael, I'd have been floundering."

Initially he was intimidated by the idea of working on a film that was going to stretch his dramatic chops. So he voraciously learned everything he could about the stock market. "Only because I felt completely outclassed as an actor - there was no way I was going to look at Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas and feel like an equal, because I'm the kid from Transformers. And the only way I could feel comfortable was to know more than them. I knew nothing about math before I got to this movie. I got kicked out of every school I ever went to. It was a really wild experience. I studied for my Series 7s, the bar exam for traders. I was really deep into this world."

As it happened he made some serious money, reportedly turning US$20,000 into US$380,000. "Nobody was putting money into financials, then financials exploded," he explains. Hence he came to the Wall Street set full of brio and with money bulging from his pockets.

"Shia did an incredibly job of working with the people on the markets," says Douglas. "He's a very clever young man."

In the film LaBeouf plays a proprietary trader, who is disillusioned when the company he works for, Keller Zabel Investments (headed by his mentor, played by Langella) is viciously taken over by Brolin's Bretton James, a partner in a powerful investment bank, for a fraction of its worth. After attending a lecture by the famed Gordon Gekko, as he promotes his book, Is Greed Good? LaBeouf's Jake seeks out advice from the man who also happens to be the estranged father of his girlfriend Winnie (Carey Mulligan). He naturally holds hopes for their reconciliation.

Interestingly, during the course of the filming Mulligan and LaBeouf fell in love. "Carey's an incredible actress," he says. "She's outrageously gifted, like an emotional samurai. She's incredible."

It's perhaps a testimony to Stone's casting that they were meant to be together. "I just had a hunch they would click as actors and they did," Stone says. "It's a strange chemistry - he's so American and she isn't American at all. Carey's English, reticent and shy."

On screen their difference is part of the appeal. "I was thinking Gekko's daughter, as a product of failure, would be scared of marriage, and Carey made that work," says Stone. Of course Jake is sunk into the depths by her rejection and LaBeouf, who loves being pushed by his directors, wasn't disappointed by being sent there.

"Oliver's an incredible person. He can be a Viking, he can be the Easter Bunny; he can be a nurturer and he can be very malicious - it depends on who you show up as. You have to be able to divulge all your insecurities and all your vulnerabilities. He's a genius and I followed him into the fire. I've always had very intense relationships, like love affairs, with my directors. For me at least they become my whole world for those months."

He is closest, though, to Spielberg. "I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work," he says of the director who also executive-produced the Transformer movies. "I talk to him often enough to know that I'm not crossing the line [by dissing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]. I would never disrespect the man - I think he's a genius as well. He's done so much great work that there's no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball, you drop the ball. And you either acknowledge it or you lie forever.

"He might have a completely different opinion about the movie. I can only speak for myself. But Steven never faults me for that. This is who I've been since day one, it's never changed and Steven's never asked me to change."

As for Transformers 3, he says "I have obligations I have to fulfil and I'm super-excited to fulfil them. Yeah, my sensibilities are shifting but it's not like I'm embarrassed to make this movie. I think we can make some big updates. There's a human toll this time. The Decepticons are going after humans. There's a lot of death. It'll be darker, I imagine."

LOWDOWN

Who: Shia LaBeouf
What: Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas and Carey Mulligan
When and where: Opens at cinemas September 23
Also: See Canvas in Saturday's Weekend Herald for an in-depth interview with Oliver Stone