Scott Eastwood has revealed he and actor Shia LaBeouf nearly came to blows while filming the 2014 war movie Fury, and that Brad Pitt had to step in to break up the tension.
The 40-year-old actor, who is the son of Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood, made the revelation Monday on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
"Look, Shia is clearly tormented and has maybe got some stuff going on - it was tough," Eastwood said. "There was sort of an incident that happened - I've talked about it - Brad Pitt sort of broke up a little, a tense moment."
The clash stemmed from a scripted moment in which Eastwood's character, Sergeant Miles, spat tobacco on the side of a tank. The Daily Mail said it had reached out to representatives for LaBeouf for comment but had not heard back.
What Happened on Set
"One day, he was having an episode and thought I shouldn't be spitting tobacco on the tank - which was in the script.. and then I finally said enough is enough," Eastwood recalled.
Eastwood said he told LaBeouf, "F*** you, stop pulling your s***," and warned, "I'm gonna whoop your a**." "And then he got froggy and everybody broke it up," he said.
LaBeouf played tank gunner Boyd "Bible" Swan in the film and took what Eastwood described as a "very method" approach to the role, including pulling out his own tooth and cutting himself to get into character.
"OK, this guy's crazy. I'm just going to keep clear from this guy," Eastwood recalled thinking. He added, "I don't play this game - you go and do that, but there's plenty of ways to do a performance in a movie and be professional also, right?"
Fury's Cast and Director
Fury was directed by David Ayer and also starred Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal and Logan Lerman alongside Pitt, Eastwood and LaBeouf.
Eastwood said tension with LaBeouf was not unique to him. "Everyone had moments with Shia that were at one point, gonna come to blows or not," he said. "It's funny, the film industry, it attracts psychopaths because it's art and business and they kind of intersect."
Brad Pitt's Account
Pitt, who played Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier in the film, gave his own version of the incident in a November 2014 interview with British GQ.
"We were driving down the road, I'm in the turret, Shia is at the other turret, and Scott is on the back, spitting juice," Pitt said. "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?"
Pitt said he told Eastwood he was going "to clean that s*** up," and that LaBeouf "saw it and felt the same. So Shia had the same reaction I did, and started having some words. But it soon got out of hand, then I had to get in after the cameras were rolling, and explain it to Scotty."
Pitt clarified that Eastwood "was just doing as instructed in the script," which called for his character to be "chewing tobacco and spitting it on the back of the tank."
Fury, a World War II drama, hit theaters in the fall of 2014.
