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How Many Times Did Shia LaBeouf Plagiarize Other’s Work?

When we talk about plagiarism we mean the act of presenting or passing off someone’s work as your own, with or without the consent of the actual owner. Plagiarism can come in different forms like including someone’s work into your own without giving them any of the credit. According to a survey done by the Psychological Record, about 36% of undergraduates have admitted to plagiarizing written material. But did you know, this has also been an issue in Hollywood? Actor Shia LaBeouf was actually in hot water for consistently plagiarizing others’ work.

Shia LaBeouf was widely ridiculed in 2012 for plagiarizing his directorial debut. When He apologized publicly to the original artist, Dan Clowes, people found out that his apology was copied from a Yahoo Answers post in 2010. According to reports, he’s plagiarized other peoples’ work about 14 times!

Who is Shia LaBeouf?

Shia LaBeouf was born on June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Shayna and Jeffrey LaBeouf. He grew up in a hippy lifestyle and would often tell people that his parents were weird, but they loved him. 

He would often accompany his father to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, as he had a hard time coping with being a war veteran. LaBeouf even spoke about the mental and verbal abuse he suffered from his father. At one point, Jeffrey had even pointed a gun at his son when he was experiencing a war flashback. LaBeouf also mentions that his father had been on drugs and was placed in rehab for addiction to heroin. 

During this time, his mom held down the fort. But eventually, financial problems took a toll on the couples’ relationship and they filed for a divorce. LaBeouf lived a modest life growing up. His mother sold fabric and brooches, and they lived on welfare and food stamps. To deal with the hardships and his parents’ divorce, LaBeouf would often perform and act for fun.

LaBeouf got his first break in the early 2000s as Louis Stevens in Disney Chanel’s Even Stevens show that won a Daytime Emmy Award. He eventually broke through big-budget films like Disturbia and Transformers and the rest is history. (Source: BuzzFeed News)

Shia LaBeouf’s History of Plagiarizing Others’ Work

Despite having a great career, LaBeouf faced a lot of scrutiny since 2012. It was evident that he had been abusing drugs and his career was getting out of control. Aside from being fired from projects and getting in trouble with peers in the industry, LaBeouf was also caught plagiarizing people’s work.

LaBeouf plagiarized an apology to Alec Baldwin in February 2013 after he suddenly quit his role in the Broadway show, Orphans. He said he had creative differences with the production, but it turns out he just couldn’t get along with Baldwin. He sent an email to Baldwin with words ripped off from an Esquire article in 2009. To rationalize his actions, he yet again lifted another line. This time from David Mamet. 

But the biggest plagiarism issue concerning LaBeouf was his directorial debut. His short film HowardCantour.com premiered at the May 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but it wasn’t until December 2013 that people noticed that the film was almost an exact adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel.

The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I’ve never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf. I’ve never even seen one of his films that I can recall — and I was shocked, to say the least, when I saw that he took the script and even many of the visuals from a very personal story I did six or seven years ago and passed it off as his own work. I actually can’t imagine what was going through his mind.

Daniel Clowes

Unfortunately, instead of apologizing sincerely. LaBeouf decided to lift a random person’s apology from Yahoo! Answers to send to Clowes. (Source: Time)

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