Actor Scott Eastwood revealed that Brad Pitt had to step in to prevent a physical altercation between himself and Shia LaBeouf on the set of the 2014 film "Fury." The incident occurred during filming and involved a disagreement over a scene where Eastwood's character was to spit on a tank.
Eastwood, speaking on the "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard" podcast, explained that LaBeouf became agitated when Eastwood, as his character Sergeant Miles, spat tobacco on the tank, a detail that was part of the script. "One day, he was having an episode and thought I shouldn't be spitting tobacco on the tank — which was in the script," Eastwood said.
According to Eastwood, he eventually told LaBeouf, "F*** you, stop pulling your s***" and threatened to fight him. "And then he got froggy and everybody broke it up," Eastwood recounted.
Eastwood described LaBeouf's acting approach on set as "very method," recalling instances where LaBeouf allegedly pulled out his own tooth and cut himself to prepare for his role as Boyd "Bible" Swan. "I'm going to whoop your a**," Eastwood told LaBeouf during the heated moment.
Brad Pitt, who starred as Don "Wardaddy" Collier and also served as a producer on "Fury," previously discussed the incident in a 2014 interview with British GQ. Pitt confirmed that he intervened after LaBeouf reacted negatively to Eastwood spitting on the tank.
"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 told GQ. "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 stated that he told Eastwood he was going to "clean that s*** up," and LaBeouf shared his reaction. "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 simply following the script's directions.
Eastwood suggested that LaBeouf, who he described as "tormented" and having "stuff going on," was a challenging presence on set. "It's funny, the film industry, it attracts psychopaths because it's art and business and they kind of intersect," Eastwood commented.
"Fury," directed by David Ayer, also featured actors such as Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, and Logan Lerman. The World War II film was released in the fall of 2014.