Shia LaBeouf Lost The Lead In “Call Me By Your Name” To Armie Hammer Over “Bad Publicity”

Looks like the director of Call Me By Your Name accidentally created a self-fulfilling prophecy. But luckily for him, the shitstorm he tried to avoid ended up happening after his movie made a lot of money and accolades. James Ivory, who wrote the screenplay for CMBYN, has a new memoir out next week called Solid Ivory, and in it, he talked about how Shia LaBeouf almost got the lead in the movie but the director of the film, Luca Guadagnino instead gave it to Armie Hammer. Why? Because Shia had some “bad publicity.” Oh good, since Armie Hammer was so squeaky clean… until the horrible abuse accusations.

FKA twigs recently sued Shia LaBeouf for allegedly abusing her during their relationship. But CMBYN came out in 2017 before twigs’ lawsuit. The “bad publicity” that James is talking about is Shia getting into drunken fights at clubs and violently screaming at his then-girlfriend Mia Goth in 2015. GQ got their hands on an excerpt from Solid Ivory and James explained how all that drama cost Shia the job, even after auditioning with Timothée Chalamet and doing amazing. James even said they were a “very convincing hot couple.” Okay.

Shia LaBeouf was also dropped like that. He had been contacted for the part of Oliver. At this, I was doubtful. I didn’t know much about him, so I watched some of his films. He’s an extremely good actor. But as an academic writing about the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, he would be a stretch. Well, I thought, he would be a sort of diamond-in-the-rough-scholar type, like my friend Bruce Anawalt. Shia came to read for us in New York with Timothée Chalamet, paying for his own plane ticket, and Luca and I had been blown away. The reading by the two young actors had been sensational; they made a very convincing hot couple. But then, too, Shia was dropped. He had had some bad publicity. He’d fought with his girlfriend; he’d fended off the police somewhere when they had tried to calm him down. And Luca would not call him, or his agent. I emailed Shia to offer reassurance, but then Luca cast Armie Hammer and never spoke to, or of, Shia again.

Well, good choice in avoiding the guy who would later be accused of more domestic abuse and instead choosing the allegedly abusive cannibal. Totally dodged a bullet.

Pic: WENN/Avalon