Shia LaBeouf #IAMSORRY Collaborators Address His Rape Allegations
Shia LaBeouf's collaborators on his #IAMSORRY art exhibit seemingly back up the actor's claim that he was sexually assaulted by a patron of the show.
Nastja S?de R?nkk? and Luke Turner, the two contemporary artists who worked with LaBeouf on the project last February at an L.A. gallery, spoke out about the incident Sunday on Twitter, saying they "put a stop to it" and "ensured that the woman left."
In response to a question from journalist Piers Morgan, Turner added his own observations, including that the alleged rapist "ran out" of the gallery.
Previously, R?nkk? was asked if any of the visitor's responses to the show stood out to her. She mentioned "darker sides of human nature," but not rape.
"Humanity, empathy, understanding – but we also encountered some darker sides of human nature," she told Dazed magazine. "Shia became something like a mirror, and people had to decide whether to meet him as a person or see him as an object, essentially. We had a 'no photography' policy, but the Internet is full of selfies taken with a crying man. I think this reveals a lot about the society and times in which we live. Sometimes it felt more like a psychological experiment, a case study of human character, rather than a performance."
Watch The Insider With Yahoo's Michael Yo's report on the #IAMSORRY exhibit:
LaBeouf went public with the rape allegations in annother interview with Dazed, which was released three days ago. Asked if any of the experiences during the six-day show — during which he sat in a small gallery space, wearing a tuxedo and his infamous "I am not famous anymore" bag as visitors had one-on-one time with him — he said, "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… There were hundreds of people in line when she walked out with disheveled hair and smudged lipstick. It was no good, not just for me but her man as well."
He continued, "On top of that my girl [Mia Goth] 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 traveled 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."
This was the first time LaBeouf revealed his alleged rape. It's been a wild year for the actor, who was involved in a plagiarism scandal, announced his retirement from public life, wore a bag on his head at a movie premiere, was arrested for his drunken outburst during a Broadway show, and has been in treatment for alcoholism.