Shia LaBeouf, who played an Italian saint in the 2022 film, Padre Pio, was in a dark place when preparing for the role. But, according to the actor, it was just that place that prepared him to accept God’s love in Jesus Christ.
Shia LaBeouf’s Conversion Through Experience in Preparing for Padre Pio Role
Hollywood actor, Shia LaBeouf is known for movies like Honey Boy, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Fury, and Transformers. But it’s the 2022 film, Padre Pio that seems to have transformed him.
The former Even Stevens actor grew up with non-religious Jewish parents, and he says he was never committed to Judaism. So when he landed the role of an Italian friar in Padre Pio in the 20th Century, the actor had some studying to do.
Quickly, Shia LaBeouf learned that Pio was “one of the most respected saints that ever faced the earth,” as the actor put it in his interview with Bishop Barron.
Characterizing himself as an immersive actor, Shia LaBeouf found a friary where he could stay so he could begin to understand his character’s perspective. The friary he immersed himself in, Franciscan Capuchin, is located in California.
It was in this time at the friary, that the Hollywood actor encountered his savior. But according to the actor, the timing was right because “my pain made me willing.”
Apparently, at the time, Shia LaBeouf was in a dark place in his life, dealing with questions and doubts about life and God.
“I had a gun on the table. I was out of here,” he said. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all this happened, shame like I had never experienced before…the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe, you don’t know where to go. You can’t go outside and get, like, a taco. But I was also in this deep desire to hold on.”
But in his time at the friar where he felt he was surrounded by God’s presence, and he believes God’s love opened his eyes.
“This was the last stop on the train,” Shia LaBeouf said, speaking of the dark place in his life and how God intervened through his role in Padre Pio. “There was nowhere else to go…in every sense.”
The American actor sat down and talked about Padre Pio and his conversion experience in an eight-minute interview with Bishop Barron. Watch it here:
Shia LaBeouf explains that he related to Padre Pio’s journey, and this one his first inroad toward freedom.
