Actor Shia LaBeouf said that fear of "big gay people" contributed to his arrest during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans last week.
In a video interview released Saturday with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan, the 39-year-old actor addressed the circumstances surrounding the incident.
"When I'm standing by myself and three gay dudes are next to me touching my leg, I get scared," he said. "I'm sorry. If that's homophobic, then I'm that. Yeah."
He added, "I'll be honest with you, big gay people are scary to me."
LaBeouf also said he was uncomfortable with people he believed were gay being in close proximity to him.
"I'm good with gay — be gay over there, though," he said. "Don't be gay in my lap."
He later said, "That's why. I was drunk, and it's Mardi Gras.
"So everything I'm saying is nonsense."
Authorities arrested LaBeouf in the early hours of Feb. 17 outside a business on Royal Street, according to New Orleans police.
Officers responded to the scene around 12:45 a.m. during the city’s Fat Tuesday festivities. He was charged with two counts of simple battery, authorities said.
Police said LaBeouf was accused of hitting two people. A police report stated that video from the incident shows a shirtless LaBeouf shoving one person to the ground and striking another in the face, "causing his nose to possibly dislocate."
He was arrested upon his release from a hospital later that day, where he had been treated for "unknown injuries," NBC News reported, citing authorities.
Jeffrey Damnit, a local entertainer identified in the police report as Jeffrey Klein, said he was among those involved in the confrontation.
"He hit me, he connected a few times with punches, he pushed me a few times," Damnit said.
Damnit said LaBeouf "just got nuts" while attempting to start fights and telling people he would beat them up.
He said LaBeouf pushed him from behind earlier in the night at a bar, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.
Damnit and others restrained LaBeouf and tried to get him to leave, but he refused and became more aggressive, according to Damnit and the police report.
LaBeouf is known for starring in the "Transformers" film series and the Disney Channel show "Even Stevens."
The New Orleans arrest is not his first legal issue. In 2017, he was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness and made racist remarks to police at the time.
He later apologized, citing addiction as a struggle, and the public drunkenness allegations were dropped.
In 2020, British singer FKA Twigs sued LaBeouf, alleging he choked her and knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
The case was settled out of court last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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