{"id":20158,"date":"2022-08-02T13:19:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=20158"},"modified":"2022-08-02T13:22:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:22:45","slug":"actor-shia-lebouf-makes-comeback-as-beloved-saint-padre-pio-in-upcoming-film-says-hes-found-something-way-bigger-than-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/08\/actor-shia-lebouf-makes-comeback-as-beloved-saint-padre-pio-in-upcoming-film-says-hes-found-something-way-bigger-than-myself.html","title":{"rendered":"Actor Shia LeBouf Makes Comeback as Beloved Saint Padre Pio in Upcoming Film, Says He\u2019s \u2018Found Something Way Bigger Than Myself\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Denis Makarenko \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Venice Film Festival announced on Thursday that Shia LaBeouf\u2019s new biopic, \u201cPadre Pio\u201d will be amongst the films premiering during this year\u2019s Venice Days. According to an Italian interview<\/a> with the film\u2019s director, Abel Ferrara, the film follows the youth of the Catholic saint and Capuchin friar and \u201cis not a biography but rather a parallel journey between two worlds, that of Pio locked up in a convent, fighting against the temptations of spirit and flesh, and that of workers \u2018and peasants\u2019 movements, committed against the landowners in the years preceding fascism.\u201d Born Francisco Forgione in 1887, Padre Pio is most famous for experiencing a \u201cstigmata.\u201d Catholic Education<\/a> describes the stigmata as \u201cthe spontaneous appearance of the wound marks of our crucified Lord on a person\u2019s body.\u201d After experiencing the event several times and having performed several miracles<\/a>, Pio was beatified in 1999 by Pope St. John II and canonized in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ferrara stated he had hoped to cast LaBeouf due to his \u201crestless spirit\u201d and recent conversion to Christianity. The director noted that LaBeouf \u201ctook a dip in the dark\u201d and had gone to live in a monastery for months to prepare for the role. LaBeouf has had a series of public breakdowns and arrests since his \u201cEven Stevens\u201d and \u201cTransformers\u201d days. The star fell into addiction and accusations of plagiarism for a short film he claimed to have written but appeared to have plagiarized from a 2007 comic \u201cJustin M. Damiano.\u201d A series of arrests and disorderly conduct followed, including, most famously, in 2014 when LaBeouf appeared at the red carpet premier of his new film \u201cNymphomaniac: Volume I\u201d with a paper bag<\/a> over his head and the words \u201cI am not famous anymore\u201d scrawled across it. His critically acclaimed 2019 autobiographical film \u201cHoney Boy,\u201d appeared to put his troubles behind him but in 2020 he was fired from a project for his behavior and was then accused of abuse by his former girlfriend. He checked into rehab in February 2021.<\/p>\n

With the casting of his role in \u201cPadre Pio,\u201d a more pensive LaBeouf appeared in a brief Instagram post<\/a> in the summer of 2021. In the video, he described his time on a pilgrimage with Franciscan friars to San Giovanni Rotondo, where Pio lived from 1916 until he died in 1968. The star noted that he had been met with \u201cnothing but grace\u201d and he was \u201cimmersed in something way bigger than myself.\u201d The pilgrimage went as far as Rome, with a stop at Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church where Pio\u2019s partially incorrupt remains are housed. Friar Hai Ho, one of the fellow travelers, commented on his Instagram, \u201cWe continue to [pray] for them, for those involved in the movie, and for continual graces\u2026\u201d It can be hoped that the experience will be good for LeBeouf\u2019s soul who appears, like actor Andrew Garfield<\/a>, to have been touched by his roles as a person of faith. As LeBeouf said in his video, \u201cIt\u2019s super attractive to see people give themselves to something so divine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Venice Film Festival announced on Thursday that Shia LaBeouf\u2019s new biopic, \u201cPadre Pio\u201d will be amongst the films premiering during this year\u2019s Venice Days. According to an Italian interview with the film\u2019s director, Abel Ferrara, the film follows the youth of the Catholic saint and Capuchin friar and \u201cis not a biography but rather…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":20164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nActor Shia LeBouf Makes Comeback as Beloved Saint Padre Pio in Upcoming Film, Says He\u2019s \u2018Found Something Way Bigger Than Myself\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shia LeBouf is set to star in a new biopic film, "Padre Pio," which details the youth of a Catholic saint, saying "I've found something bigger than myself."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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