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4 days ago
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19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'I Turned Into An Animal': Shia LaBeouf Talks Cannes Doc ‘Slauson Rec' About Theater Collective (Exclusive)
Slauson Rec — first-time filmmaker Leo Lewis O'Neil's explosive documentary about the electric rise and heartbreaking fall of Shia LaBeouf's experimental theater collective of the same name — received a relatively quiet birth into the Cannes Film Festival, announced just seven days before the start of the 2025 edition. Weeks before the news broke, LaBeouf confirmed in a statement that he was 'fully' supporting the film despite how it captures all of his complicated angles, from talented hustler and charismatic leader to tortured artist and abusive mentor. He meant it. LaBeouf is backing it by fully leaning in and traveling to France for the doc's world premiere in the Cannes Classics section Sunday night, a screening that will mark the first time he's seen the finished film, or any of the footage for that matter. In another first, he agreed to talk about the film with The Hollywood Reporter in what is planned as the sole interview he'll do regarding Slauson Rec. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kevin Spacey's Comeback Bid Continues in Cannes With Honor From Better World Fund Cannes Hidden Gem: The Late Laurent Cantet's 'Enzo' Is a "Victory Against Death" Film AlUla: "Saudi Filmmakers Are Like the Crown Jewels for Us" He arrived ready to talk, logging on a few minutes early for a scheduled Zoom last Monday from a quiet corner in his expansive L.A. backyard. Sporting a full beard and an American Cinematheque hat, a smiling, reflective and unguarded LaBeouf was joined by O'Neil for what turned out to be an hour-long conversation peppered with compliments and affection. 'I see Leo and it's all love,' LaBeouf says. 'We love each other deeply.' O'Neil, who moved from Austin, Texas to Los Angeles, met LaBeouf in 2018 when the actor announced on Twitter that he was forming a new theater school at Slauson Recreation Center. 'I'll be there every Saturday at 9 a.m., building shit with whoever shows up. I'm trying to change the world,' he declared in the clip. More than a hundred people arrived that first weekend, and LaBeouf lived up to his word then too, by showing up for months trying to shape what he considered a theater laboratory filled with misfits smack in the middle of one of L.A.'s tougher neighborhoods. O'Neil, not an actor but desperate to find his place in the city and the group, picked up a camera and asked LaBeouf if he could act as Slauson Rec's official archivist. He stayed behind the lens for three years and, true to the official festival description, what O'Neil recorded 'examines the fine line between mentorship and manipulation' and finds LaBeouf 'pushing participants to their limits' through a mixture of tough love, verbal abuse and physical confrontation. Picking up that camera turned out to be a fateful move and the results of that documentation — all 145 minutes of it, shaped from 800 hours of footage — will be unveiled at Cannes with LaBeouf taking a seat in Buñuel Theatre. 'When this thing comes out, it isn't any worse than what's been said about me previously. Maybe it reifies people's ideas about me. I think, at heart, I'm a good guy. Am I fucked up? Yes. Is my process ugly and disgusting? Yes. Have I done horrible shit in the past that I'm going to have to make amends for the rest of my life? Yes. Does this movie change any of that? No. Does it also allow my people to get a foot into this fucking industry? Yes. So gas pedal down, green light go,' says LaBeouf, whose appearance in the film is capped by a redemptive interview that shows he's changed his ways. Thanks for doing this. It's an interesting interview with the two of you; Shia, you've been to Cannes many times, and Leo, this is your debut film and you got into Cannes. I can only imagine how you're feeling at the moment. O'NEIL I've never shown a film before, and I've never been to a film festival before so this is going to be insane. I don't know what it's going to be like. Shia, you've been for and in 2008 for a festival debut with . All of those appearances tell a story about where you were in your life and career. This must feel differently. What does Cannes mean to you and how do you feel about going this year for this film? LABEOUF That's a big ass question there. The one that was pretty impactful for me at Cannes, at least life trajectory wise, probably more impactful than all of those other films, came in 2012. I sent a short film called to Cannes that I plagiarized from Dan Clowes. It got into this award show thing and then I was kind of fucked. I fucked myself because what are you going to say? I wind up at Cannes and then — firestorm. That's how I found myself in performance art. Had that not happened, I wouldn't know Leo, you understand? Because what happened from that is I started to take my artistic agency back. We will get into all of the pros and cons that came from that, but the pros were that I started to create with a with people that were not necessarily on the A-list. I started fucking around with a bunch of people from a bunch of different creative life forms. That's kind of what led to Slauson and forming what was meant to be a lab. That's why Leo even had a way in, because he's not an actor by trade. He has not one poetic actor strand in his body, and we had to discover that he couldn't just hold a camera. Leo had to get in the middle, too. Leo had to do a bunch of weird shit, too. We all had to do it. That was the beauty of what we were doing and why there was so much trust. Probably because of that trust is why Leo's movie is in Cannes because it's rare that a filmmaker gets this kind of trust with a subject. From 50 subjects. Credit to Leo. Leo, what's your response to hearing that? O'NEIL I don't take it lightly. That group really was my family for years. Falling in love [with the group] and working through that is never something I took lightly, and I still don't. It's a huge honor to have been able to make this thing. LABEOUF Ooh, did you hear his voice right there, Chris? His voice shifted. I could hear the weight of it in his voice, that it's substantial. O'NEIL I'm nervous. All of this, yeah, it's huge. Let's talk about the movie because there may be people who read this interview unaware of Slauson Rec or how it inspired a documentary. What's your pitch or how would you describe this film in your own words? O'NEIL I describe it as my experience through this family that I found in an art community in South Central L.A. at a time in my life when I was living down the street. [LaBeouf interrupts to call out to his wife, Mia Goth, who is exfoliating in the couple's backyard. 'She's happy,' he says.] LABEOUF Sorry, go again bro. O'NEIL It's hard for me to pitch this thing because it is so personal. It's hard for me to say, 'Hey, this is my life and why it matters.' But there are universal themes in it, and it's a complex portrait of not only Shia but of the group. These are people that were my best friends, collaborators and family. Shia, people may be surprised by the fact that you're traveling to Cannes for the premiere or that you're doing an interview. Why are you talking to me, and why are you going to Cannes? LABEOUF There's a tradition of this kind of deep, intimate documentation. My former boss's wife [Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor Coppola] made one of the greatest documentaries of all time with Hearts of Darkness. No love lost. I see Leo and it's all love. He's not my husband or nothing, but we love each other deeply. There's no other way you could have documented some of this stuff. Werner Herzog made a movie called My Best Fiend. I told Leo to watch it. He probably never did, but sick movie. All these dudes were best friends. One was a pretty dedicated actor [Klaus Kinski] trying to experiment with the method in the late 1960s, 1970s Germany, which I'm sure was crazier than my time. And guess who showed up to the premiere? Everybody. I'm not going to speak on society and where we are, but this isn't new. It's not a novel thing that your friend films you in a process. Now for me, I know who I am and who I was during the process. So yeah, I'm naked and I'm shitting on myself throughout most of the film. It's a very uncomfortable thing, but then you weigh the pros and cons of it all and back to that utility chunk, God doesn't send mail to the wrong address. I don't think I'm unique or special. I don't think I'm the first in my line of work or any creative craft to lose the plot a bit. Leo documented it in a loving way, but full-blown — I turned into an animal. There were boundaries that should have been set up, and I brought my instincts in there. Anytime someone's instincts swallow another person's agency — unhappiness. There's got to be a proverb like that somewhere, but I'm not as well-read as other people. This is a flawed sin; trying to make something happen in a contentious area with a bunch of people who had their own history. It was an egalitarian dream that failed for a bunch of reasons. There's unacceptable shit in there. There's beautiful shit in there. What this won't be is a lack of accountability. This won't be me saying, 'I did this because of that.' None of that type of shit. What it will be, maybe, is a love letter to art. It is some insight into a collaborative sport, a deeply instructive look into the difference between doers and teachers or coachers and players. I know what I'm not, I'll tell you that. I know what I'm not because my perfectionism is not for leadership. It doesn't foster healthy standards. You want to do good sometimes, but you learn that you're not the guy. There's an electricity to those early scenes in the documentary, beginning with the video you posted on Twitter to invite people to join you for this lab experiment, and that buzz continued in those first few weeks because it really felt like you had this incredible creative passion that needed an outlet. What was behind that? LABEOUF Looking at it now, it was probably an extension of my deep need to connect with others through performance art, and it feeling insubstantial, probably. Leo, as you state in the documentary, you had just moved from Texas to Los Angeles, 'running from heartbreak.' Describe who you were when you found Slauson Rec and what drew you in? O'NEIL I was desperate to belong. I was desperate to be a part of something. I wasn't unique in that way. I was about as fresh-faced as you can be. I had only been in L.A. for about a year. I didn't know what I was doing. I had been beaten up a little bit, and was in survival mode, stealing food and shit. When I found this place, it opened up the whole world. It was magic in the beginning, and we all felt it. You made what turned out to be a fateful decision to pick up a camera and document what was happening inside Slauson. How did it feel to ask Shia if you could? O'NEIL Those first couple of weeks I didn't film out of respect, but I always had my camera with me. I wanted to be a part of this thing so bad but I knew that I wasn't an actor so I had to find my place. That meant working up the courage. I remember the moment I asked and my heart [was racing]. I still remember the email Shia sent out to the whole group saying I was the official archivist. I think it maybe was the first official position in the company. I took a screenshot of the email and remember being so psyched that I was a part of this thing. I felt like I had finally found something. Shia, what did you see in him and why did you say yes? LABEOUF Leo's a very eclectic cat. I could see who was connecting with not just the class but the neighborhood, who sits where and who was there first. He all the makings of somebody you'd want to play ball with if you were the one picking teams. I didn't know much about Leo. He doesn't put it all on the table right away. A year in, or something like that, we got mutual friends. We started kicking it on weekends, going to concerts. We had a whole other thing going on with another group of friends, like we were having group therapy. I was deep into the [12-step] program at the time and I had this pink cloud. Dudes come into the program with nine months [of sobriety] and they're ready to read the whole book to you. I was in one of those places, and the tentacles of that extended into all other facets of my life. One of my friend groups was a group of rappers whom Leo know,s and we used to kick it at their house and run these group therapy sessions. I don't know how productive it was, but they sure were sweet, love and warm. That wasn't a class, and we didn't film it. We just talked about our feelings out loud as dudes. As Leo states in the doc, the group started to dwindle once people realized they weren't getting free acting lessons from you. Did you get a sense that there was a cult of celebrity around you or that people had ulterior motives? LABEOUF Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were multiple things going on. You had some real heavy hitters in the beginning, too, guys who came in that were real sharpshooters. A lot of the meat eaters that I thought were really special were gone in the first three, four months, because back to this egalitarian thing, we came in and it was hippie dippy. I came in philosophizing about certain things, meta-modernism, and my head was seeped in a whole bunch of art stuff. I'm a street kid but these were highfalutin ideas. I was down with it, but that egalitarian, hippie-dippy stuff was tough when you put it on the floor. We were so focused on equality that we were ignoring individual efforts, and that created a lack of accountability. That's cool when it's the YMCA, but when you're trying to win the Super Bowl, it created tension and it hurt our sustainability. It hurt our freedom, it hurt our innovation. It destroyed our theater. That's what I think. A lot of things destroyed it. One of the heartbreaks for me was that I caved to the sweetheart bullshit for so long that it became systematic. By the time I tried to turn the train around, I couldn't control myself. That stemmed from a whole bunch of dysfunctional behavior, which I'm not proud of but I'm happy it's documented. Yes, that's true. Yes, I look like a fucking asshole. Yes, my boy got into Cannes. I can be both disgusted with myself and happy as fuck for my guy. I can be both things. The pandemic proved to be a real turning point for Slauson Rec, and mounting the drive-thru performance is when the cracks deepened. Shia, you said that the pressure was on your shoulders so what was that like to carry? LABEOUF I've gotten in trouble a little bit recently for speaking on other actors' processes. I don't mean to downplay nobody. I'm just talking about my own shit. I've done all these things. Leo met me at a time when my trust was skyrocketing because I didn't think I was running the show no more. But that took a whole lot of getting beaten down by the world. It's not that exciting of an answer but I was just trying to fit in where I could get in and trying to be useful even with all the fucked up stuff that I've done. I am a sinner. Yes, no doubt. I really do identify with the good thief on the cross, not the fucked up guy, not the first one, the second one, the one who will openly admit it. I'm that guy and I'm okay with that. You know what I'm saying? Maybe it's getting too weird now. Fuck. But I guess what I'm trying to say is now thinking about what he's made and him getting into Cannes, boy, it feels like a mitzvah. However, I can open the door for any of the people that were on that three-year journey with me at any expense other than that of my child. I think I can still do my thing. When this thing comes out, it isn't any worse than what's been said about me previously. Maybe it reifies people's ideas about me. I think, at heart, I'm a good guy. Am I fucked up? Yes. Is my process ugly and disgusting? Yes. Have I done horrible shit in the past that I'm going to have to make amends for the rest of my life? Yes. Does this movie change any of that? No. Does it also allow my people to get a foot into this fucking industry? Yes. So gas pedal down, green light go. Leo, you've described the group as a family, and that means you were documenting what was happening in your family. What that was at times was confrontation, sometimes aggressive, sometimes abusive, sometimes difficult to experience and to witness. How did it feel to be holding the camera in those moments? O'NEIL I was already a year and a half into my role with the company so it had become so innate that it was always going to be what it was no matter what. I filmed every moment, no matter what. Because of the level of comfortability, I felt a real responsibility to keep documenting, I think in part because what we were doing felt so special, important and groundbreaking to us. When the moments got tricky, I kept filming. Looking back on it now, there were certain moments in the film that I just can't believe I captured. I'm surprised I didn't put the camera down and walk away, or say, 'Whoa, man, give me a sec.' But I had a role, a job, and that was my place,e so I kept going. Shia, you had some intense confrontations with [Slauson Rec members] Sarah, Zeke and Sam. Which one has been hardest to watch or relive? LABEOUF Well, see, I haven't watched any of these. You understand what I'm saying? I haven't watched any of this. There's deep sorrow about what went on. I am going to watch it for the first time in Cannes. What I know about my experience with these people, of course, is conflict with 50 people. In a theater company, there's conflict all over the place. You got to understand that Sarah came out of another theater program that was run by James Franco. When she came to us, she was already a wounded bird and we were being very delicate with her, and that shaped a lot our company. We had to be very careful about a lot of stuff. Almost so careful. It's like having an intimacy coordinator. Sure, everyone's safe, but fuck, try to create something impossible. That stuff started to affect us. That was probably the hardest one because this all happened before everything that happened to me in terms of ego death. We had to navigate a lot but we also had to be true to this neighborhood that we were in. You can't be the loudest voice in the room because you feel the most wounded. We can't have the wounded woman be the centerpiece of the theater company we were building in Slauson, California. It's crazy. Navigating that and the race relations, the stuff with Zeke felt brotherly. The stuff with Cyrus felt brotherly. There were wrestling contests that went on in the park all day long. It was a madhouse. This wasn't a bunch of theater kids getting together to make theater. This was a bunch of kids who don't fuck with theater making theater. It was Lord of the Flies. It was a devised theater company that, to me, was a laboratory. It started as a lab. That's when it felt the healthiest to me because there wasn't any leadership. We were all just observing things and experimenting. When it went haywire was when we were down to the wire. The world had shut down. We had to financially sustain ourselves. We had a finite amount of time to be able to pull something off before people lost complete faith in us. We had made this agreement with the Natural History Museum to pull something off, and we had to make something. We can't just naval gaze. We can't just make shapes. We had to build a narrative, and that was very hard to do with 50 people. I'm sure it's well documented in Leo's thing, but there was frustration in herding cats. You must've experienced that kind of tension before? LABEOUF There's a whole bunch of conflict and tension on a film set. I come from a whole bunch of schools of that kind of conflict, from Oliver Stone to Lars Von Trier to Michael Bay to [Steven] Spielberg. I've seen different versions and musicality to that tension, some cuter than others. I wasn't the deliverer of healthy standards because the music I listen to isn't cute. It's not a cute thing to do what I do. I don't consider it, 'Just hit your mark and tell the truth.' That's some Spencer Tracey or some Disney Channel shit. It's just not my shit, and that's okay. People didn't show up to the spot because it was free. We had to eat a whole bunch of shit. We didn't have chairs for a long time. Shit wasn't comfy. We had to earn our spot, all of us. People believed in the North Star that I was pitching which was that we were going to have to bleed a little bit. It was going to hurt. You have to ante up. You have to pay the price to be great. You can't just show up without having done any push-ups and play for the Raiders. That's not to absolve myself of not being equipped to be in the position that I was throughout the process. It was just, like, fuck, we ran out of plays. I don't know if this is in the documentary but we were looking for directors and that got crazy, too. It got insane. It got so political. It wasn't about the truth anymore. It wasn't about how to get down to the marrow, the capital T truth of fundamentalist theater. There's a moment in the documentary when you say that the way that the harsh way you speak to people in the group is the way that you talk to yourself about yourself. LABEOUF Absolutely. You've got to understand that the guy in the documentary that Leo has made is a godless man. This is a man with absolutely no spiritual principles at all. I'm really running the show. It's the same kind of thing that sometimes Coppola exhibits in Hearts of Darkness and it's the same kind of thing you see in My Best Fiend. I don't think it's unique. I do think it's current. I wasn't leading with love. None of my creativity was leaning on love and generosity and patience and the things that you get out of parenting or the things that you read about in the scripture, none of it. No principles, no guiding line other than be good. Whatever it takes. Leo, you included a moment in the documentary where one of the members explains Shia's behavior as, 'Hurt people hurt people.' Is that how you thought of him and did that help you come to terms with his behavior? O'NEIL Of course. Yeah. That statement is very true. Yeah, that's definitely part of the complex portrait in this film. I don't want to speak for Shia, but I believe that to be true about him from what I know about his life. I know he's gone through some shit in his life and that impacts how somebody treats others, how they behave and how they move through their own life. It's part of the DNA. Shia, you mentioned the ego death, how does that play into what happened? LABEOUF Yeah. I came up as an actor who was always discounted. When I came in, Haley Osment was popping and I was just some kid on Disney Channel. A couple years past that, I was just some other guy who was on some insubstantial shit. Even in my successful films, I was the insubstantial actor. I remember that feeling deeply. I remember one time Ryan Gosling came to set when we were making Transformers, and I remember feeling so intimidated even though he was very lovely. I remember feeling so insubstantial and this shit is all over his documentary. This is all of my own trauma mixed into me trying to get a theater company to pop off. At the time, my whole identity was wrapped up in the quality of the moment. When we were running this company, I couldn't get scared in the moment, like, what we were doing was dog shit but take a breath and walk away. I didn't have that tool in my toolbox. I got frustrated when I felt like I was speaking the language and people weren't listening, they couldn't understand or they didn't care. All of those things felt mute, but I had given my life to the thing. I'm not going to excuse none of it. Don't print this or we'll redo the interview if it comes across that way. I have to own all of my shit and I do. I own all of it. No excuses. The behavior: Abhorrent. No excuses. No explanation. I'm happy my boy got into Cannes. In the documentary, you mention the financial pressure of funding the operation yourself. How much money did you put in? LABEOUF Out of pocket, probably $300,000 in totality, maybe more. There came a point when my business manager said, 'This is unsustainable.' When COVID kicked off, everything got very, very weird. We tried to do a fundraiser and YG came and performed. We were ecstatic. We thought, 'This shits going to go off.' Then the Natural History Museum came in, and we felt like all the intellectuals were fucking with us now. Then with COVID, we tried to get the play going and I almost had a nervous fucking breakdown trying to get that off the ground. It wasn't fun no more. We could never develop other directors. The financial situation became unsustainable. The love was gone in a way. Leo, you got Shia to sit for an interview that bookends the documentary. It's a really profound and emotional interview for a number of reasons. But as a viewer, I could hear the emotion in your voice … LABEOUF Oh, boy, the pain. I remember that. I remember that. We hear you crying. What was that moment like for you to film and to experience? It's the first time you're hearing Shia express regret, apologize and take accountability for what happened. O'NEIL I hadn't seen Shia for two years. We hadn't really talked. I had a dream of him standing in front of a Christmas tree. It was a week before Christmas so I texted him and said, 'Hey, can I come and interview you?' He said, 'Yep, pull up tomorrow.' I pulled up. Sure enough, there was a Christmas tree with decorations. I set up the camera and we had this moment. I prepared all these questions. By the time I got through the questions, we were just running off and talking. Shia is a big brother to me, and he was especially during that time. He really taught me a lot. Not seeing him for that long was tricky. I care about him a lot, and I wanted him to be well. Then we started getting into all this shit and it turned into a personal apology to me, I just broke down. It was the first time I had heard him basically say, 'I'm sorry the dream failed. I'm sorry for what happened.' I couldn't hold it in. I started crying. That was really important for me to put in the film because the whole film is seen through my eyes. It's my perspective. I'm holding the camera and filming every day. It is my diary. To have that moment at the end of the film was really important to me because I care a lot. Shia, how did it feel to apologize to him? LABEOUF I'm in a program. I've got to own my side and I've also got to make it right. Me going to Cannes, being a support system, it's all part of my process. It's a weird thing to talk about because there are mechanics to making amends. It's not one and done. There's the emotionality to it all, of course, and there's a follow through, which is part of what this interview is for. During that interview, you say that you want to make amends to the group but you weren't sure how to do that. Where are you in that process? LABEOUF Well, it's interesting. Leo's been part of some of them. I've done some of them on my own to come back from Louisiana. I just saw Ash. We hung out, we made it right, walked and talked and had a meal. I do that sort of as it pops up. I still owe Bojangles attention in time. You can't do it all at once. I got a 3-year-old, and there's a lot going on in life. I bite off little chunks as they pop up in life and as the universe directs you. But yeah, that's the goal. I've talked to a lot of people since then and I know that 50 of these motherfuckers wanted to go to Cannes. But it's interesting, my team has seen the movie and they tripped. The people who love me — [manager John Crosby] and [publicist Melissa Kates] —are scared. What's the scariest thing? The consensus was how me and [Zeke aka Ezekiel Pacheco] got down [in a fight]. So, I called Zeke. Me and Zeke had made it right awhile ago. But I called him and told him the movie's coming out. Leo was on the phone. With the movie coming out, it's going to make people feel a whole bunch of different ways. When the spotlight hits you, it makes you feel a whole bunch of different ways. I got to stay open and current with everything and everyone in my life. If people who felt like we had made it right pop back up and say, 'I don't feel right about that.' I got to deal with it. It's like whack-a-mole. My whole life has a lot of that. At a certain point, you get out of a sullen, sunken, emo-boy and you enjoy making it right. I'm looking forward to it, dog, as the gophers pop up, I will joyously deal with it as best I can. And when I can't, I hand it over and keep it simple. That's where I'm at. You have some momentum in your career. You've had some movies come out with great reviews, including David Mamet's and . And you got recently cast in Are you worried that this documentary could impact the forward momentum you have in your life and career? LABEOUF The roadblocks are the same. I have creative friends. I'm working out of garages, dude, that's is part of the beauty of what Slauson was. Slauson was an avenue for me to not have to wait for permission. I was chasing that before everything happened. Before crash and burn. There was already a deep instinct inside of me to self-generate. That's what these comedians do with their podcasts. That's part of what Slauson was for me. I'm finding people to work with now who are like-minded, who know me, who really know me, and are open to working with me. People who don't know me or who found out about me some other way, are not open to working with me. And that's okay. God doesn't send mail to the wrong address. I deserve all that. Leo, you're now a filmmaker with a movie in Cannes. Your first movie. Since you have a good track record with visions after seeing the Christmas tree, what do you foresee for your future? Where do you go from here? LABEOUF That's a big question, man. Awesome. O'NEIL My biggest goal with this film is to start conversation. In whatever way that happens to the biggest scale possible and the most impactful scale possible, that's a win for me. Wherever it ends up, wherever it goes, that's the big win for me. People have been asking me what's next, and the only answer that I have for what's next is something sincere. I have to fall in love again. How do you support yourself right now? O'NEIL This film supported me for the two years of edit, but it's time to sell it so I can move on and make something else. Who paid for it? O'NEIL My wonderful executive producer, Kevin Knight, paid for it. This is his first film he's ever financed. He's a lifesaver, a magic man. Shia, what would you like to see Leo do, or what do you foresee for him? LABEOUF Oh, I think he's the Werner Herzog of my generation. A lot of people have diaries — cool. A lot of people have really nice spirts and are enjoyable and can socialize with the multitudes the way Herzog can. Leo is that. I don't think he's as aware of it as I am, maybe. But I think wherever that dude points, it's big. That's what an artist is. He's got a strong index finger. He's very specific. And what that fool points at is big. He's fucking dope. Shia, where do you go from here? LABEOUF I go wherever the wind blows me. I'm a hired gun. I'll go where they let me go. O'NEIL Can I point out one thing? Since Herzog just got brought up, I have an email from Werner Herzog printed and framed on my wall from when Shia gave me his email. I reached out and asked if he could help me out. [O'Neil out of his chair, takes the frame off the wall and sits back down.] Here's what he wrote me: 'Leo, I am certainly the wrong person as I have no affinity in theater at all. Shia is a wonderful actor, and we met only once, but I think he's too optimistic about any input I could give to your project. Best, Werner.' LABEOUF Fuck yeah, dude. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Interview edited for length and clarity. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Bay district schools and PCBPD team up for online safety workshop
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – As technology continues to evolve, online safety for children is a bigger issue now than ever before. Bay district schools and Panama City Beach Police are teaming up to teach parents how to better protect their kids. Police Chief J.R. Talamantez is hosting the last Parents Against Predators workshop of the school year on Tuesday night. BBIA scholarship presentation strengthens workforce The free program will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Mosley High School. Parents will learn how to ensure their children stay safe online, recognize potential risks, and make responsible choices. Parents of all students, no matter their age or where they attend school, are encouraged to participate. And free dinner will be provided while supplies last. For more information, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Indian Express
07-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Can Fin Homes is no longer a market darling, but are better days ahead?
Can Fin Homes is regarded as one of the most respected housing finance companies (HFCs) in India. Its reputation stems from a simple reason: it avoided the mistakes that brought down several of its peers. In the years leading up to 2018, many HFCs aggressively expanded into real estate developer financing — a strategy that backfired in the aftermath of the 2018 IL&FS crisis. A lack of funding exposed gaping issues in the developer financing segment, leading to the downfall of many companies, including DHFL, PNB Housing Finance, Edelweiss Housing Finance (now Nido Home Finance), and Indiabulls Housing Finance (now Samaan Capital). During this period, Can Fin Homes continued to remain profitable. Its NPAs ratios were the best in class, not only during the 2018-19 crisis but also during the Covid lockdown. Yet, its price-to-book value has been continuously trending downwards despite a profit growth of 19.3% between FY19 and FY25. Fig 1 (Source: The P/B ratio has steadily declined and is now below levels seen during the Covid-19 market crash. The stock has not performed well either. Fig 2 (Source: Why is this happening? Several structural shifts in the regulatory and competitive landscape post-2018 help explain the de-rating. Regulatory change in favour of banks: Until 2019, HFCs were regulated by the National Housing Bank (NHB), which acted both as a regulator and a refinancer. This led to concerns over a conflict of interest. Regulatory norms under NHB were relatively light touch — capital adequacy norms were lower, liquidity requirements minimal, and asset-liability mismatches (ALM) weren't strictly monitored. This allowed HFCs to grow rapidly, often by borrowing short-term and lending long-term. The IL&FS crisis changed everything. In response, the Finance Act of 2019 transferred the regulation of HFCs from NHB to RBI, aligning them with NBFCs under tighter scrutiny. Post-2019, HFCs faced several new challenges: Higher Capital Requirements: Equity capital as a percentage of loans was raised to 15% (from 12%), phased in by 2022. Strict asset liability norms reduced the freedom to raise short-term funds for long-term loans. Exposure Norms: Builder loans and LAP (Loan Against Property) came under tighter control. Funding Costs: The RBI doesn't refinance HFCs like NHB did, removing the conflict of interest. Banks also enjoy cheaper, more stable funding versus HFCs. The result was that HFCs have lost their funding edge, and banks, flush with deposits, are much better positioned to give home loans at lower rates. Is asset quality also worsening? Not significantly. Can Fin Homes' GNPA ratio as of FY24 stood at just 0.9%, the best among peers. However, a slight uptick since FY23, at a time when most peers have shown improvement, could be a cause for concern. Fig 3 (Source: First Principles Investing, Annual Reports and Investor Presentations) Fig 4 (Source: Motilal Oswal Report on Can Fin Homes – Q4FY25 Update) In addition to the above, one possible reason for a de-rating could be branch-level frauds detected over the last 2-3 years. A branch in Ambala reported a fraud of Rs 40 crore in FY23, and another branch in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, reported a fraud of Rs 3.5 crore. Another incident involved a whistleblower complaint by an employee in October 2024 alleging recruitment fraud by a senior executive. While isolated, a combination of all these factors has likely led to the de-rating in Can Fin Homes. Is profitability a concern? Profitability has not declined materially. However, while ROE remains high compared to listed HFC peers, it has trended downward compared to FY18. Fig 5 : (Source: Can Fin Homes Ltd FY24 Annual Report) Further investments in IT overhaul and branch expansion is likely to put pressure on margins in the near term until benefits of these investments begin to accrue. Does Can Fin suffer from operational challenges? Disbursement growth remains a key hurdle in expanding the loan book. In FY24, total disbursements fell to Rs 8,177 crore, down from Rs 8,947 crore in FY23. In FY25, it is up by a meagre 4.8% at Rs 8,568 crore. Fig 6: (Source: The reason for continued slowdown, especially in Q3FY25, was due to Karnataka's e-khata issue that stalled nearly Rs 400 crore worth of business. As a result, Q3 FY25 disbursements were flat year-on-year. Impact of IT systems overhaul Can Fin Homes is in the midst of an IT overhaul. This involves implementing a completely new Loan Origination System (LOS) and Loan Management System (LMS) package, along with other key operating functions. Implementation is expected to take 9-12 months, and the project is expected to go live in Q3 FY26 (October-December 2025). However, near-term disruptions are likely. The IT expenses have already increased by about Rs 3 crore per quarter since the March 2024 quarter. From FY27, annual operational costs are expected to rise by approximately Rs 25 crore per year. The initial capital expenditure is also significant, estimated potentially around Rs 60-75 crore, which will be amortised over 6-7 years. Has Can Fin Homes' business model changed for the worse? While salaried customers still account about 72-73% of the loan book, the company is tweaking its product mix. It's now strategically increasing exposure to self-employed segment (SENP), which accounts for 35-38% of incremental disbursements and its share in total loan mix has gone up from 25% in FY22 to nearly 30% in FY25. The company is expanding Loan Against Property (LAP), opening it up to new customers, and is aiming to take LAP to around 7% of total mix. These changes aim to protect margins and find newer avenues of growth. But this raises a fundamental question. Can it go down the risk curve, grow well and keep portfolio quality at similar levels compared to when it was primarily serving salaried employees only? The consensus, assuming market valuations are a reflection of investor consensus, is that Can Fin Homes of 2025 is not the Can Fin Homes of the last decade. Facts versus outcome Investors such as 3P India fund 1 which have consistently raised stake in Can Fin Homes Ltd over the last few quarters have a contrarian view. Their actions suggest that it believes that factors such as disbursement slowdown, IT overhaul, product mix changes are either temporary problems or unlikely to materially change the competitiveness of canfin homes. On an absolute basis, the P/B ratio is at a 10-year low. Fig 7 (Source: On a relative basis, Can Fin Homes valuation is towards the lower end of the spectrum (Top 15 HFCs in India). Does it deserve this valuation? Is the market factoring in too much negative? Or is the market factoring in a slow but continued decline in performance? Investors looking to either invest or reconsider their current holdings in the HFC space are faced with these questions. There are no easy answers, and how it plays out remains to be seen. Note: We have relied on data from and throughout this article. Only in cases where the data was not available have we used an alternate, but widely used and accepted source of information. Rahul Rao has helped conduct financial literacy programmes for over 1,50,000 investors. He has also worked at an AIF, focusing on small and mid-cap opportunities. Disclosure: The writer or his dependents do not hold shares in the securities/stocks/bonds discussed in the article. The website managers, its employee(s), and contributors/writers/authors of articles have or may have an outstanding buy or sell position or holding in the securities, options on securities or other related investments of issuers and/or companies discussed therein. The content of the articles and the interpretation of data are solely the personal views of the contributors/ writers/authors. Investors must make their own investment decisions based on their specific objectives, resources and only after consulting such independent advisors as may be necessary.
West Australian
28-04-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Election 2025: Albanese urges teens to watch Netflix show Adolescence
Anthony Albanese has encouraged all schools to use the Netflix show Adolescence as a resource to educate boys on gender violence, saying it is 'absolutely so important' young people watch the program. The acclaimed show depicts a family after their teenage son stabs a girl to death and the role social media played in the tragedy. The Prime Minister, campaigning in Roberston on the NSW Central Coast on Monday, singled out the program as he announced more funding to fight domestic violence. He said gendered and domestic violence were part of the reason for the government's social media ban preventing children under 16 from using platforms such as TikTok and X. 'One of the reasons why the social media ban is important is that young people, at a very young age, when they're developing, are exposed to some pretty hateful stuff out there, the rise of misogyny,' Mr Albanese said He said he would encourage schools to show Adolescence to students, but wouldn't match a commitment made by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to make it free for schools. 'I encourage anyone to have a look at it. It's scary,' he said. 'These parents depicted not knowing what their young son, who they love, has engaged in. 'And there's a scene towards the end there where the father … says we thought he was safe. 'He was in his bedroom, we thought he was safe. 'Well, it's had tragic impact for him, but a worse impact for his victim and so this is something we need to have conversations about.' Speaking more broadly on domestic violence, Mr Albanese said current efforts to reduce rates of gendered violence 'isn't working'. 'That's the truth. You know, we are not doing well enough as a society. This is a whole of society problem,' he said. 'Governments can take action, but it's whole of society problem. We need men as well to have conversations with each other, to call it out when they see unacceptable behaviour, to address it, have those conversations.' However he said he was encouraged by bipartisan support for tackling the issue, which includes the National Plan to end Violence Against Women and Children in a generation. He was asked directly about the death of 19-year-old Audrey Griffin, who was killed by repeat domestic violence offender Adrian Torrens after a night out with her friends. Torrens was found dead at Silverwater Correctional Complex last week. Mr Albanese said Ms Griffin's death was 'tragic and horrific'. 'My heart goes out to the family and the friends and loved ones of Audrey Griffin this announcement, of course, wouldn't have impacted on that,' he said. 'One death from violence against women is one too many, and this is just an enormous tragedy, and we continue to work through these issues. 'As I said before, this needs a whole of society response.' The Prime Minister visited community housing provider Pacific Link Housing to announce the Coast Women's and Children's Trauma Recovery Centre in East Gosford, a new $20m initiative to help victims of domestic and sexual violence. Just moments after Mr Albanese arrived for the media event, the Coalition also sent out a media release for the exact same $20m funding commitment. Mr Dutton said he was committed to addressing the scourge. 'As a former police officer who attended numerous domestic violence call-outs, I know the trauma and lifelong impacts that can occur as a result of these horrific crimes,' he said. 'A government I lead will be focused on delivering real change so that families, women and children are safer and we work toward reducing the impact of family and domestic violence.' Domestic Violence helplines
