TIFF: 'Man Down' Director Dito Montiel on Shia LaBeouf's 'Crazy Energy' & Never Knowing What's Going to Happen

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Over the past
decade, Shia LaBeouf’s legal troubles -- from arrests to plagiarism -- have
nearly outshined his acting career. But like many troubled actors before, the
29-year-old actor has managed to remain a fixture in Hollywood by aligning
himself with notable directors.

His latest
film, Man Down, is a testament to the goodwill he’s developed, reuniting
him with director Dito Montiel. The two previously worked together on Montiel’s
2006 directorial debut, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, which helped
cement LaBeouf’s leading man status as he transitioned from Disney star to box
office draw. 

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In the
post-apocalyptic war drama, LaBeouf plays a PTSD-ridden vet whose only goal is
to save his wife (Kate Mara) and son with the help of his best friend and
comrade, played by Jai Courtney.

Although
LaBeouf wasn’t doing any press at the Toronto International Film Festival where
the film premiered, ETonline sat down with the 50-year-old director to discuss
the actor’s method acting, his evolution over the past decade, and how LaBeouf
displays similar attributes to Robin Williams.

ETonline: It’s
been nearly a decade since you two worked together on Saints. How has
Shia changed?

Dito Montiel: He’s always
gone for it. It’s really fun. When we shot that movie, there’s this scene in
the bathroom where he really went for it. He has that crazy energy. I think
he’s become a better actor.

You say “crazy
energy.” How do you mean?

He’s got a
little bit of everything. He’s intense. I like the idea that I don’t know if
he’s going to jump off the screen and attack me, or the cameraman, or an actor.
It brings an edge to what you’re doing. It’s perfect for this role, that’s for
sure.

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What did you
see in him the first time around?

I didn’t really
know him, and he made a bunch of audition tapes -- three of them -- and he kept
sending them and I hadn’t looked at any. I liked another actor that his agent
represented at the time, and she told me that she’d talk to me about the other
guy as soon as I looked at Shia’s tapes. So I did. And man, he was just really
good.

What made you
want to cast him as the lead for Man Down?

We’d kept in
loose contact over the years, and when I was working on the re-write for Man
Down
, I started thinking he’d be someone special for this. I sent it over
to him and when we talked he was all in. It was pretty organic.

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Were you
concerned about his reputation at all?

I don’t care
about that stuff. Man, if you had a camera on me in my 20s, I’d be in a lot
more trouble than him. It is what it is. I think it’s probably a difficult
time, there’s a camera on you everywhere you go these days -- so trouble is
probably easier to come by.

How was his
attitude on set? 

He’s intense,
and he cares a lot about everything. He can’t care more, and that’s a nice
thing to work with in an actor. He’s obsessed with every word he’s going to
say, every reason, every door handle he’s going to touch and why he’s going to
touch it. That can be exhausting, but at the same time it’s nice that an actor
cares that much to want to understand it -- especially with a character like
this. 

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How is it to
direct someone like that?

It’s the deal
with directing. If you’re going to come wanting to work really hard, you’re
never going to bum me out. This was a film with really great actors. It wasn’t
like I needed someone to motivate Gary Oldman [who co-stars in Man Down].
I had a good scene out there with people like Kate Mara who really can act and
care about their roles. It’s always nutty though, that’s the deal. I enjoy not
knowing what is going to happen next. If they decide to do something crazy, I’m
going to keep rolling.

Was there a
specific “something crazy” that happened?

This was a
tough shoot. It was a hard film -- mixing a weird set of emotions -- between a
very violent scenario and a very compassionate scenario. At the end of the day,
it is a husband, his wife and their son, so there is love mixed with intense
violence. That’s a very touchy thing to film and to act. It was constantly
terrifying. I was really uncomfortable making this movie. I mean, you have a
little boy under a table crying and the father with a gun to the mother’s head.
You feel like you’re not being a really decent human being allowing to roll on
this situation, but you have to tell the story. That was tough for me.

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Was there
anything Shia did on set that surprised you?

All I cared
about was things feeling real. This situation is real, but real in a tough
situation. I was surprised how they kept it honest the whole time. It’s easy to
be exploitive with a movie like this -- crazy people can just be crazy and
violent people can just be violent. This was a sweet, sour and salty
combination, so everything was a surprise.

Why was it that
you wanted to tell this very intense, very emotionally sad story?

I have friends
who have had PTSD, and you can get it from other things than war. It can happen
from rape or from street violence. When I was first reading the story -- and
it’s a bit of a weird way to relate to it -- but my father had epilepsy. He
would have seizures when I was a kid, and the old way to help the clamping down
of the teeth was to take your two fingers like a hook and put them in their
mouth so they don’t bite off their tongue. One time I did that, and it started
to really hurt. They have no control in that moment, but my dad had just enough
awareness -- which is really weird to me -- that he could stop. So I kept
envisioning this scene, throughout the madness of this film, the world ending,
that the father still sees his son.

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How has Robin
Williams impacted you since working together on Boulevard?

You know, it’s
weird, making a movie is like life compacted into three months. You have these
very intense relationships with people and you talk to them every day -- your
editor, the casting people, music people, your actors -- then it ends. It’s
like a circus life. Then you run in to each down the road, so of course when
you hear about something like Williams’ suicide, you feel it, but it’s just
life sped up. It makes sense in that awful way that life has to make sense --
we’re all going to die. But it was very, very sad.

It’s a weird
world, you tap in to people and you’re trying to get everything you can out of
them in this short amount of time. Robin was very giving in that way. He cared
-- different than Shia -- but intense in his own way. He had a scene where he
was opening a door, and he would ask, ‘Why am I going through this room?’ I
loved that he wanted to know everything. We would take walks all night long
when shooting in Nashville and talk about the next scene instead of going to
eat lunch. That was very impactful. Here’s a guy that has nothing left to prove
to the world and he’s taking a walk with me instead of eating because the next
scene means that much to him. If he does it, you should do it. And that
includes me. I should care that much.

Man Down hits theaters on Oct. 30.