The actor Shia LaBeouf has claimed a woman raped him during the performance of his one-man art piece #IAMSORRY earlier this year.

Speaking to Dazed magazine in an email interview, he wrote: “One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for 10 minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me.”

#IAMSORRY consisted of LaBeouf sitting silently with a paper bag on his head, bearing the legend “I am not famous anymore” – members of the public queued to be able to sit in front of him in the one-on-one piece. It ran for five days in February at a Los Angeles gallery.

LaBeouf said that news of the incident “travelled through the line” of people waiting, and reached LaBeouf’s girlfriend. “When she came in she asked for an explanation, and I couldn’t speak, so we both sat with this unexplained trauma silently. It was painful.”.

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One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for ten minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me… There were hundreds of people in line when she walked out with dishevelled hair and smudged lipstick. It was no good, not just for me but her man as well. On top of that my girl was in line to see me, because it was Valentine’s Day and I was living in the gallery for the duration of the event – we were separated for five days, no communication. So it really hurt her as well, as I guess the news of it travelled through the line. When she came in she asked for an explanation, and I couldn’t speak, so we both sat with this unexplained trauma silently. It was painful.

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Stereogatari said:

The fuck. This is the kind of shit I'd expect to hear on the GTA radio.

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demon said:

No means no.

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One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for ten minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me… There were hundreds of people in line when she walked out with dishevelled hair and smudged lipstick. It was no good, not just for me but her man as well. On top of that my girl was in line to see me, because it was Valentine’s Day and I was living in the gallery for the duration of the event – we were separated for five days, no communication. So it really hurt her as well, as I guess the news of it travelled through the line. When she came in she asked for an explanation, and I couldn’t speak, so we both sat with this unexplained trauma silently. It was painful.

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Alienous said:

What was this #IAMSORRY thing all about? Was it like a locked door deal? Was it spontaneous? How did the woman know to bring a whip, and why didn't someone in the 'line' come running through the door during the 10 minute whipping duration? Was the boyfriend stopping them?

Guys, my mind is full of fuck.

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The piece was part of a wider series of performance art events by the actor, triggered by what he calls a “genuine existential crisis” after he was accused of plagiarism when he lifted portions of a Daniel Clowes short story for a film he was working on. LaBeouf wrote streams of bizarre tweets, quoting notorious apologies from famous individuals, and hired a skywriting plane to etch an apology across the Los Angeles sky. He also wore a paper bag to the Berlin premiere of Lars Von Trier’s film Nymphomaniac, and said he would be retiring from all public life.

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GrizzNKev said:

So he's saying he was so committed to his performance art that he couldn't just sand up and walk out of the room while being hit by this woman, and he was also so committed to his performance art that he couldn't tell anyone what had just happened.

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SquiddyCracker said:

Hm, didn't he explicitly say that people could do anything to him during that art project?
If that was what he, explicitly, said; and he did not rescind said open permission for the woman to have sex with him, is it really rape then?

Consent can be given in advance to acts, and if given in advance will have to be retracted if the person no longer wish to have sex.

At least that seems to be the case from a legal POV, could someone with legal background chime in on this?

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demon said:

No means no.

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To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging (and best-known) performances. She assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force which would act on her. Abramović placed on a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, olive oil, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.

Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained passive) people began to act more aggressively. As Abramović described it later: “What I learned was that... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” ... “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere.

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GrizzNKev said:

So he's saying he was so committed to his performance art that he couldn't just stand up and walk out of the room while being hit by this woman, and he was also so committed to his performance art that he couldn't tell anyone what had just happened.

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GrizzNKev said:

So he's saying he was so committed to his performance art that he couldn't just stand up and walk out of the room while being hit by this woman, and he was also so committed to his performance art that he couldn't tell anyone what had just happened.

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SquiddyCracker said:

The whipping part was, expected, at the very least.
Before you were let in to see Shia, you were offered three objects (the whip, a perfume bottle, and printed out tweets) - that you were allowed to do anything with when you were in Shia's presence.

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Alienous said:

I'm thinking he had to of said something like that. Otherwise the 10 minutes of whipping just doesn't make sense to me.

Was it a "What do you want to do to Shia LeBeouf, anything goes" thing?

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SquiddyCracker said:

Hm, didn't he explicitly say that people could do anything to him during that art project?
If that was what he, explicitly, said; and he did not rescind said open permission for the woman to have sex with him, is it really rape then?

Consent can be given in advance to acts, and if given in advance will have to be retracted if the person no longer wish to have sex.

At least that seems to be the case from a legal POV, could someone with legal background chime in on this?

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Exr said:

We must all make sacrifices to create truly inspiring art

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Cizeta-Moroder said:

"Why didn't ___ just bite the dick off of the rapist"

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