Shia LaBeouf’s wonder years

last updated 8 January 2015

Shia LaBeouf had some very strange parents, says David Hochman in Playboy. The 22-year-old actor came of age in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, the son of two free spirits. “My dad was working as a clown, so clown makeup and clown outfits were all over the place. There was a chicken living in the apartment. Sometimes I’d see my dad doing this Dances With Wolves Zen kind of chicken dance, trying to get the chicken to get comfy with him.” LaBeouf’s hippie mother viewed clothing as optional. “The nudity was weird, especially when her friends came over. My mom would be playing naked connect the dots or whatever. She’s in the middle of a bunch of naked women tracing auras around one another’s bodies with incense and then sitting together and humming for prolonged periods.” Still, LaBeouf didn’t yearn for normality. “Kids came over to my house so they could do all the things they couldn’t get away with at home. Staying up all night. Playing with fireworks. I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. When you’re a kid, that seems cool.”