Over the years, Shia LaBeouf's name has become synonymous with Hollywood bad boy, thanks to a series of high-profile arrests. In a new book, LaBeouf opens up about his run-ins with the law — since the age of 9 — and how those arrests affected his life.
"I have been incarcerated five times. The first time I was only 9 years old. It was in Pacoima, California. I was arrested for stealing a pair of Nike Cortezes from a local shop and held for six hours," LaBeouf writes in the new book, Prison Ramen.
The book features essays from celebrities about their arrests. LaBeouf pens an essay titled "Error Breeds Sense," that details his long history of jail time, including an arrest at age 11 for stealing a Gameboy Pokémon from Kmart.
As the essay continues, the stories turn darker. LaBeouf says that his third arrest was after he, "tried to stab my neighbor."
His biggest takeaway from the incident was that, "being in jail is not the move. It sucks ass."
Despite this revelation, LaBeouf has been arrested three more times. Once in Chicago, once in New York City, and most recently in Austin, TX. While LaBeouf doesn't write about the Austin incident, he does write about the other two.
"The fourth time I was in Chicago and I wouldn't leave Walgreen's, so I was taken to spend the night in jail. For some reason, I had the best sleep ever," he writes.
"I went to see the play Cabaret. I didn't behave very well during the performance and ended up spending twenty-five hours or so behind bars," LaBeouf writes about his New York arrest following disorderly behavior during a production of Cabaret.
In recent years, LaBeouf's strange antics have overshadowed his work, and even made him the joke of the internet.
In Prison Ramen, LaBeouf says that his time behind bars helped him get through life's biggest challenges.
"When I'm nervous in my creativity, I think of my failures in life and in art," he writes. "Thinking about my screwups loosens the grip of fear. It's freeing to fuck up and to recover."