Shia LaBeouf took acid for film role

Forget Robert DeNiro, who famously gained 60lb to portray overweight ex-boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, or Adrien Brody, who volunteered to remain locked in a mortuary drawer for hours while starring in The Jacket. There's a new method kid in town, and he used to be in those Transformers films. Shia LaBeouf dropped acid for 24 hours to prepare for a role in forthcoming gangster film The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.

The 26-year-old actor told USA Today he wanted to deliver a realistic rendering of a scene in which his character trips on LSD for Fredrik Bond's film. "There's a way to do an acid trip like Harold & Kumar, and there's a way to be on acid," he said. "What I know of acting, Sean Penn actually strapped up to that (electric) chair in Dead Man Walking. These are the guys that I look up to."

LaBeouf also drank moonshine for his role in the new John Hillcoat prohibition-era gangster film Lawless, released in the UK early next month. "It's not quite method acting," Hillcoat told USA Today, but "method-like."

However, there is apparently a line that even LaBeouf will not cross. He is due to appear next in Lars von Trier's controversial, reputedly pornographic Nymphomaniac. The actor told USA Today he had already received requests from the Danish enfant terrible for photographs of his nether regions: Von Trier, it appears, is set to use body doubles.

"There are rules," said LaBeouf, pointing out that he has to consider his girlfriend's feelings. "I have ethics, I'm not completely out of my mind. But I don't think there's anything wrong with sex. Sex is beautiful if it's done right. And I wouldn't just do it for no reason. Sex is different than love, and there is a separation, and that middle gap is what the movie's about."

LaBeouf's comments would appear to contradict those he made in an interview with MTV last month, in which he indicated a willingness to do anything Von Trier asked. "[Von Trier] is very dangerous," he said. "He's the most dangerous dude that I've ever showed up for. I'm terrified. I'm so terrified, which is why I have to go. We'll see what happens.

"[The movie] is what you think it is," he added. "It is Lars von Trier, making a movie about what he's making. For instance, there's a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says we're doing it for real. Everything that is illegal, we'll shoot in blurred images. Other than that, everything is happening."