Shia LaBeouf Admits Ben Affleck's Guidance Helped Him As An Actor, Reveals Why He Turned To God

Shia LaBeouf has been struggling with inner demons and spiraling out of control over the past couple of years, but he is getting stronger. The Fury actor reveals he looks up to actors Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Joaquin Phoenix, since they too have dealt with darkness. The first actor he really looked to for guidance, however, was Ben Affleck.

"Ben is a really charming dude. He was the first guy who really took me off to the side and made me feel like I could do it," Shia told Interview during his November cover shoot.

The Batman star produced the 2003 film The Battle of Shaker Heights and it was there that he helped Shia transition from child star to seasoned actor. "[He said,] 'Keep your head on straight, kid, and don't let all this get to you.' He knew that I had cameras in my face and that there were expectations to perform," the 28-year-old told the publication, which hits newsstands on Nov. 11.

"I think that's always been my issue. I'm prone to theatrics in my life. Ben saw that and was trying to curb it before it became an issue."

Since Ben gave Shia this advice, his life has gone in a downward direction when it comes to personal issues. The Company You Keep actor has "taken a break from Hollywood," been arrested for disturbing Cabaret and recently fought with Alec Baldwin on the set of their play Orphans.

"I've been going through an existential crisis. If you look at my behavior, it's been motivated by a certain discourse. Metamodernism has influenced a lot of my action in the public in this last year and a half-the idea of diametrically opposed ideas happening all at once: the irony and the sincerity, birth and death, the immediacy and the obsolescence," he admitted during his interview.

Despite his rough year, the former Disney Channel star is ready for a change. He is going to focus on regaining the reigns of his own life. "I've been a runner my whole life, running from myself. Whether to movies or drinking and drugging or f---ing calamity or whatever it is, I've always been running. I'm a dude who loves delusion. It's why I love being an actor - I never have to actually look at myself or be faced with my s--- or take responsibility," he admitted.

The Lawless actor revealed that after his dark spell, and twisted past, he found God recently on the set of Fury. "I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way-in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page. But it was a real thing that really saved me," he told Interview.