Shia LaBeouf's Fans Explain Why They're Waiting Insane Hours to See #AllMyMovies (And Watch Him Sleep)

It’s impossible to know why Shia LaBeouf is sitting in a downtown New York City movie theater right now, in the middle of a 72-hour marathon of all of his feature films. But the people watching alongside LaBeouf — or those waiting in long lines to get into the 50-seat theater — have a simple answer as to why they’re sitting in Auditorium 6 of the Angelika Film Center: “Why not?”

The 29-year-old actor, who’s gone from reliable young star of blockbuster films to art-world enigma over the last two years, began his latest installation, titled #AllMyMovies, on Tuesday afternoon. Within hours, fans began to descend upon the Manhattan art-house cinema, filling up the small theater where the actor is camped out, and forming a line out the door and down the block (those who can’t make it to the theater have been watching on a live stream close-up of LaBeouf’s face, watching as he chomps popcorn, slurps soda, and grows increasingly sleepy).

When Yahoo Movies arrived on the scene on Wednesday morning, a screening of the 2008 anthology film New York, I Love You had just started, and about 60 people (a number that grew quickly) were waiting for their turn to sit in the theater. There’s no time limit on how long someone can stay, which meant the line moved slowly.

The line outside the Angelika (cereusbright/Instagram)

Angela, a 21-year-old student living in the East Village, said she had gotten to the Angelika with a friend at around 7 a.m. “Honestly, I was still awake and he texted me at 4 in the morning and was like, ‘This thing is going on,’ and I was like, ‘I’m not doing anything else better, so might as well!’ ”

She had been there for about three hours when we caught up with her, and was only midway through the snaking line. She planned on waiting it out until about the early evening, which guaranteed her at least a little bit of time in the theater. She was one of many twenty-somethings in attendance who’d grown up with the early 2000s Disney Channel series Even Stevens, the show that launched LaBeouf’s career at the age of 13.

LaBeouf transitioned from there to mainstream blockbusters, highlighted by the Transformers triology. After being caught plagiarizing a comic book for a short film he made in late 2013, LaBeouf began a series of increasingly esoteric and unexplained stunts: he set up a makeshift camp to apologize to fans (and cry a lot) in the wake of the plagiarism; walked red carpets with a bag that read “I am not famous anymore” over his head; and began a run of transfixing (and sometimes controversial) music video appearances.

People at the Angelika on Wednesday were aware of his prior antics, and the mystery that often surrounds them, which fueled the curiosity of the patient moviegoers on Wednesday.

Jason, a 22-year-old student, arrived at 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, got into the theater at 5 a.m. the next morning, and stayed until about 10:30, when he had to bail so he could take a nap before an afternoon work shift.

“A lot of the discussion last night in line was, ‘What do you think this all means?’” he said. “[Its meaning] is so nebulous, and of course he’s not going to be particularly verbose about it, since it’s performance art. Some people think the reasons are entirely based on his reaction to his own work. I think it’s probably more interesting for him to see it go backwards, to see how he’s come as both an actor and his movies. I think in some sense he’s probably going to walk away from this and say, 'I need a better agent.’ Some of his movies are rough.”

As live-stream viewers can attest, LaBeouf has not shied away from indicating his true feelings about some of his crappier films, even if he’s keeping a vow of silence throughout the event, which began without any sort of public announcement.

“He seemed to detest the Transformers movies,” Jason reported. “When the second one came on, as soon as it started, he straight up went to the back of the auditorium, laid in the back, put a blanket over his head and didn’t get up until he heard that it was over.”

Scott, a 21-year-old film-lover from Long Island, had been at the Angelika since 2 a.m. and was on the verge of finally entering the auditorium. Like most other people there, he felt that he was attending a well-thought out event, not any sort of psychotic episode.

“I absolutely think it’s deliberate,” he said. “I don’t know what sparked in him to shift from making blockbuster movies to doing performance art, but I think it’s great and I think it’s creative. Maybe someone on his publicity team is nudging him to do it, but this is pretty hardcore for publicity.”

Another Scott, this one a 29-year-old software-company owner, echoed that sentiment: “I don’t think he’s lost it. I think it’s all very meticulous.”

Added Anastasia, a 27-year-old physical therapist: “I don’t think it’s cocky, because it’s not like he’s made up all pretty and stuff. He’s just chilling. I think it’s just a matter of being real. I think people in Hollywood are so worried about keeping up their appearance, and he’s just real.”

For the most part, though, most of the conversations veered away from the event that they were waiting so long to attend. The young crowd — mostly students with the day off for Veteran’s Day — spent more time talking about their prospective careers, dating apps, the books they were reading, and relationships. Anastasia talked about her recent move to Queens from Los Angeles; Tim, a 19-year-old photographer studying at Pace, gave concrete examples of how he was working to achieve his dream of becoming a filmmaker. A makeshift community had sprung up, with people taking turns napping and making food runs for one another.

When discussions did return to LaBeouf, however, there was no real sense of fervent fandom, making the event even more unusual.

“I remember being in middle school and seeing Disturbia, and of course growing up with Even Stevens, so he was always around, but he was never someone whose career I followed,” Jason said. “There’s a strange cult around him, but no one is like, ‘Oh my god, he’s amazing.’ That’s the strangest thing about this entire thing: Why Shia LaBeouf? It’s really interesting because he’s not super-beloved, but so many people have flocked to this.”