Shia LaBeouf shares insight into “Lawless” after Cannes premiere

PanARMENIAN.Net - Shia LaBeouf has set aside some time to discuss "Lawless (2012)" after premiering the much-talked-about thriller at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Speaking to Flicks and Bits along with co-stars Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce, the "Transformers" actor opened up about how he filmed the violent scenes and where the brotherhood between him and his on-screen siblings was built, AceShowbiz reported.

On doing the intense fight scene with Pearce, the 25-year-old explained, "There wasn't a lot of fight training, the fight scene I did with Guy Pearce was really organic and it happened really fast." He added, "That's the way [director] John Hillcoat does his violence. It's messy, it's dirty, it's realistic. So it's not rehearsed like a ballet, it's rough around the edges."

LaBeouf additionally shared, "In terms of the training, at the least the Brothers, we all worked out pretty hard. We were always in the gym, that was like our community. Our brotherhood started in the gym, it felt like."

In the meantime, Pearce talked about his villainous character, Deputy Charley Rakes, who is said to be the "most extreme" in the movie. "The look of the character and his disdain for everything around him ended up, therefore, being the character that I played," he explained. "We really wanted to create somebody who was extremely creepy, extremely caught up in his obscure view of the world, and just someone who was memorable."

The "Prometheus" actor went on admitting that he didn't read Matt Bondurant's original book to learn about Rakes. "I knew from the beginning that this character that I was playing had been changed from the book. And so I chose not to read the book because I didn't want to find myself struggling with any changes that potentially were made," he reasoned.

Hardy, on the other hand, revealed how thrilled he was reuniting with his idol Gary Oldman. He said, "With 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy', the first time I worked with Gary Oldman, I had to watch him because we had to re-shoot...because my beard fell off while I was talking [laughs]."

"So we had to go back and re-shoot the entire scene that I had with him in that, in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'," Hardy continued. "Which is good because I spent my entire experience with Gary staring at him, and not returning any lines, because I think he's basically God, you know?"

"The second time, on 'The Dark Knight Rises' as Bane, I was kind of playing God, so I kind of ignored him, kicked him a bit, that kind of thing [laughs]," the British actor joked. "But Gary Oldman is one of my heroes, completely. I did nothing but gleam from him."

"Lawless" revolves around the three Bondurant brothers who run a small-scale moonshining family business. They later find their bootlegging business under threat in Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia. Hardy plays the oldest of the brothers, while LaBeouf stars as the youngest. Jason Clarke, meanwhile, portrays the other brother.

Also starring Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, the John Hillcoat-directed movie is slated for an August 29 release in the United States.