Shia LaBeouf has confirmed he plagiarized the work of writer and artist Daniel Clowes.
Lebeouf's short film is reportedly an adaptation of "Justin M. Damiano", a 2007 comic written and illustrated by Clowes. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Clowes explained his reaction to viewing LeBeouf's newest short film teaser he posted on HowardCantour.com.
"The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I've never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf," Clowes said. "I've never even seen one of his films that I can recall - and I was shocked, to say the least, when I saw that he took the script and even many of the visuals from a very personal story I did six or seven years ago and passed it off as his own work. I actually can't imagine what was going through his mind."
LaBeouf has spoken about the creative process and development for the HowardCantour.com project in the past to website Short of the Week.
"I know something about the gulf between critical acclaim and blockbuster business. I have been crushed by critics (especially during my Transformers run), and in trying to come to terms with my feelings about critics, I needed to understand them," LaBeouf explained to the website. "As I tried to empathize with the sort of man who might earn a living taking potshots at me and the people I've worked with, a small script developed."
LaBeouf took to his official Twitter account to respond to the plagiarism accusations. Check out his apology below:
The actor ended his apology with a simple, "I f***ed up." However, multiple sites have reported one of LaBeouf's posts could have been plagiarized off a Yahoo! Answers comment posted by user Lili:
"Merely copying isn't particularly creative work, though it's useful as training and practice. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work, and it may even revolutionalize the "stolen" concept."
