Scott Eastwood revealed that Brad Pitt had to step in after a tense confrontation with Shia LaBeouf on the set of Fury, later describing his co-star as a “psychopath” who’s “clearly tormented.”
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Working alongside Brad Pitt is something many actors dream about. For Scott Eastwood, however, one of his strongest memories from filming the 2014 World War II drama Fury wasn’t a scene in front of the cameras, but an off-camera clash with fellow cast member Shia LaBeouf that briefly threatened to turn physical.
Speaking on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, Eastwood – the son of the legendary Clint Eastwood – reflected on the intense atmosphere director David Ayer created while preparing the cast to play a battle-hardened Sherman tank crew.
Alongside Pitt, LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal, Michael Peña and Logan Lerman, the actors went through a demanding boot camp designed to build the kind of bond soldiers might develop in combat.
But while the training was meant to unite the cast, one disagreement soon turned into a battle between co-stars.
‘This guy’s crazy’
Before the situation turned hot, Eastwood recalled LaBeouf pulling out one of his own teeth and cutting himself to stay immersed in character.
“He’s a very method [actor]…From what I recall, he pulled out one of his teeth before we even started shooting,” Eastwood, 40, told Shepard in the Aug. 3 interview.
“Then he cut himself. And I remember thinking, ‘Okay, this guy’s crazy. I’m just going to keep clear from this guy because I don’t really I don’t play this game. You go and do that, but there’s plenty of ways to do a performance in a movie.”
Despite trying to avoid conflict, Eastwood said the pair eventually clashed over a scene where his character spat chewing tobacco onto the tank.
“One day he was having an episode, and he thought that I shouldn’t be spitting tobacco on the tank…which was in the script,” Eastwood said, explaining that he snapped as the disagreement with his co-star escalated.
“Hey, f**k you. Stop pulling your st… I’m going to whoop your ass,” Eastwood told the Transformers star, who he earlier described as a “compete pain in my as**”
After confronting LaBeouf, who apparently “got, you know, froggy,” Eastwood said that several people moved to intervene before it could go any further. Among them was Pitt, who “sort of broke up broke up broke up” the “little a tense moment.”
‘Clearly tormented’
Looking back, Eastwood suggested the confrontation reflected broader tensions involving LaBeouf on set rather than a one-off disagreement.
“Everyone had moments with Shia that were, I think at one point going to come to blows or not,” he said, pointing to the distinction between LaBeouf’s undeniable talent and the behavior he experienced while making the film.
“Shia is clearly tormented and has maybe got, you know, some stuff going on – and certainly addiction,” The Lucky Strike star said on the podcast. “The film industry attracts psychopaths because it’s an art.”
“At the same time, when you see that performance, you’re like, ‘Holy s**t, that’s magnetic.’ It’s really interesting to watch,” Eastwood added, praising LaBeouf’s talent.
How Brad Pitt remembered the incident
Years before Eastwood revisited the incident, Pitt, 62, also reflected on the confrontation while speaking with GQ.
According to Pitt, both he and LaBeouf initially believed Eastwood was disrespecting the Sherman tank by spitting chewing tobacco on it, not realizing it was part of the script.
“We were driving down the road, I’m in the turret, Shia is at the other turret, and Scott is on the back, spitting [chewing tobacco],” Pitt told the outlet. “And I’m starting to get pissed off, I’m starting to get hot, because this is our home, he’s disrespecting our home, you know? So, I said, in the scene with the cameras rolling, ‘You’re going to clean that shit up.’
“Shia clocks it, and you have to understand, we’ve been through severe boot camp already, we’ve been through a lot in this tank. Shia saw it and felt the same – he’s disrespecting our home. So Shia had the same reaction I did and started having some words,” Pitt said, adding that he “had to get in” to break up the scuffle between his two co-stars.
“The funny thing is,” Pitt recalled, “when we got home at the end of the day and read the script, it said Scotty’s character is ‘chewing tobacco and spitting it on the back of the tank.’ He was just doing as instructed in the script! So, we were the knobs in the end.”
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