The Energon Pub

Transformers Star Tempted Death

Michael Bay, director of the upcoming Transformers, told reporters that he persuaded his young star, Shia LaBeouf, to climb onto the ledge of a tall Los Angeles building for a climactic scene. In the scene, LaBeouf, playing Sam Witwicky, appears to cling to a statue on the outer edge of the building's roof, with nothing beneath him puts several stories of empty space. (He was wired for safety.)

"I always like to put my actors in real circumstances, and ... there was a 17-story building downtown with the statue, and my producer says, 'How do you want to shoot that? We're going to do a blue screen, right?' 'Nah, f--k, we're going to put him up there.' And we put him on wires, and we rigged it, very safe, but there was only 4 inches to stand on."

LaBeouf makes his action-movie debut in the SF film, which is based on the popular 1980s Hasbro toy line, comics, TV series and animated movie. The actor, now 21, plays a teenager who finds himself caught between warring tribes of giant alien robots.

In the climactic scene, La Beouf had to cling to the side of a building. "Shia's like, 'Yeah, I think I can do it. I'm going to go up there,'" Bay recalled in a press conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., over the weekend. "So we're ready to go, and he goes—and, mind you, I would never go out there on my own; I would never do this—but he goes, 'Oh, man, I can't get up there. I can't get up there!' I said [sotto voce], 'Dude, you're going to embarrass yourself in front of the whole crew. You get paid way more than those kids on Fear Factor! Get the f--k out there!' So he did it, and it was really scary. But he was on cloud nine when he did." Transformers opens July 3. —Patrick Lee, News Editor