Mel Gibson: My Heart Goes Out to Shia LaBeouf

By Antoinette Bueno - July 09, 2014

Controversial actor Mel Gibson recently chatted with IndieWire about the Lifetime Achievement Award he received from the 2014 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, when the talk quickly turned to Shia LaBeouf's recent disturbing behavior and his less than stellar image with the public.
Gibson of course had his own image crisis when he went on a now infamous anti-Semitic rant during a 2006 DUI arrest.
Related: Gary Oldman Defends Mel Gibson -- 'Take a F*cking Joke'
"When I see somebody like Shia LaBeouf with the bag on his head and stuff, my heart goes out to the poor guy. I think he's suffering in some way, or why would he do that?" he sympathized. "And it's easy to point the finger at him and say that he's this, that, or the other, and it's easy to judge. But I'm sure he's going through some kind of personal, very painful, cathartic thing that he has to exorcise and get out there. He'll probably play it out and come back ... He'll be all right."
LaBeouf, 28, also clearly has Gibson's approval.
"I actually like the kid," he said. "I think he's good."
LaBeouf landed such high-profile roles in the Transformers franchise and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull before becoming arguably more infamous for his questionable behavior off-camera. On June 27, 2014, he was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct after reportedly being disruptive at a Broadway performance of Cabaret in New York City.
Gibson also got candid about the nature of fame in the nearly 20-minute interview with IndieWire.
Video: Inside Shia LaBeouf's 'Cabaret' Arrest
"You're a target. And you have to be really adept at tap dancing and dodging the bullets. And sometimes you get hit. Sometimes mortally," he said. "It's pretty bad."