Late last week, actor and living art project Shia Labeouf made a troubling admission during an interview with Dazed magazine, saying that he was raped during his performance piece #IAMSORRY earlier this year in L.A.
The project involved Shia sitting silently in a room, as patrons came in one-at-a-time to be in his presence and interact with him using various props. In his exact words, the incident occurred when:
“One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for ten minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me …There were hundreds of people in line when she walked out with disheveled hair and smudged lipstick.
It was no good, not just for me but her man as well. On top of that my girl [actress Mia Goth] was in line to see me, because it was Valentine’s Day and I was living in the gallery for the duration of the event – we were separated for five days, no communication.
So it really hurt her as well, as I guess the news of it traveled through the line. When she came in she asked for an explanation, and I couldn’t speak, so we both sat with this unexplained trauma silently. It was painful.”
The internet has reacted strongly to the young actor’s claims, with some coming out in support, and others, including the always-down-for-a-controversy Piers Morgan, slamming it as a publicity stunt.
Since then, two of Shia Labeouf’s collaborators in the #IAMSORRY project, British artist Luke Turner and Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö, have come forward to tell their side of the story.
Per a report in The Guardian, the artists jointly issued statements, saying “Nowhere did we state that people could do anything they wanted to Shia during #IAMSORRY”, and that they put a stop to the incident and ejected the woman as soon as they became aware of her.
Nowhere did we state that people could do whatever they wanted to Shia during #IAMSORRY.
— Luke Turner (@Luke_Turner) November 30, 2014
As soon as we were aware of the incident starting to occur, we put a stop to it and ensured that the woman left.
— Luke Turner (@Luke_Turner) November 30, 2014
When questioned about why he didn’t call the police, Turner responded that gallery staff were initially unclear as to what had happened, and offering no further comment other than the fact that the woman had “run away” soon after.
Labeouf is currently promoting the war movie Fury, for which he became an army chaplain’s assistant and had a tooth ripped out.
Photo: Gareth Cattermole via Getty Images
