In a bid to remain alive and noticed or something, Shia LaBeouf recently spent 24 hours in an elevator in Oxford, England for his latest collaboration with performance artists Rönkkö and Turner, a project called #ELEVATE. The three dispensers of inexplicably compelling stunts invited everyone within walking or marathon-running distance of Oxford Union to stand in the elevator with them and, according to Variety, “talk with [LaBeouf] […] about whatever they want.” The whole thing was live-streamed on YouTube because eventually everything will be live-streamed, including people watching live-streams at home on their porn-streaming chairs.
“How do we do this and not feel douchey about it?” asked LaBeouf during the stream, a question he should perhaps have asked himself earlier. Despite that moment of introspection, the project lacked the self-deprecation of his #AllMyMovies marathon—the stream, which mostly lingered on closed elevator doors and mumbled conversations, even lacked the shock value of his notorious green-screen rant. That is, until LaBeouf finally gave in to one fan’s pleas for a some simple battery.
Oxford student and fellow performance artist Oscar Plomer-Roberts can be seen and heard on the livestream, alternately begging and taunting LaBeouf to punch him in the face. The actor showed restraint within the confined quarters, though, and said that while he was happy to hurt himself for his art, he wasn’t comfortable hurting others. Eventually, LaBeouf did lightly slap the guy, who later confessed hat his own claims of being a performance artist were intended as a dig at the actor. But Plomer-Roberts now admits LaBeouf is a “great guy,” thereby providing the kind of rave review the actor has long sought for his artwork.