Director John Hillcoat recently weighed in on the long-standing rumours of an on-set altercation between Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy while filming Lawless in 2012.
The incident has sparked much speculation, with stories claiming LaBeouf “knocked out” Hardy, but during a Reddit AMA, Hillcoat set the record straight.
He confirmed that there was indeed a confrontation, but it didn’t go as far as one actor knocking the other out.
When a social media user asked, “Is it true that Shia LaBeouf knocked out Tom Hardy on the Lawless set? If so, what’s the story and how do you feel about it?”
Hillcoat quickly set the record straight, responding, “No, that’s not true.”
“But there was definitely a fight between them.”
He continued, “It escalated to the point where they had to both be restrained. But I was very pleased to hear it didn’t go that way because I would hate to see the outcome.”
The movie, set in 1931, stars LaBeouf and Hardy as bootlegging brothers.
Reportedly, the tension between them on screen was matched by some off-screen clashes.
However, in a 2019 interview, LaBeouf described their interactions more as playful roughhousing than serious conflict.
He recalled a moment when Hardy burst into a room unexpectedly, causing a humorous wrestling match that ended with Hardy tumbling down some stairs.
LaBeouf explained, “We used to wrestle all the time and [Tom Hardy’s] a big f*****g person, especially then. He was getting ready [to play] Bane.”
“We used to f*** with each other all the time but it just so happened that, this one week, my girlfriend was in town and he runs into the room.”
“The girl I was with at the time was terrified. She covered up and she ran into the kitchen and he picked me up and I didn’t have nothing on so now I’m naked on his shoulder.”
“We’re in the hallway, we’re wrestling around.”
Their playful wrestling brought them dangerously close to the top of a staircase, where Hardy apparently stepped too far and ended up tumbling down several flights.
LaBeouf added, “For the rest of the shoot, he told everybody I knocked him out.”
Lawless is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
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