Shia LaBeouf’s new movie The Tax Collector got panned by critics when it came out on Friday.
But the 34-year-old artist/actor didn’t look like he was worried when he headed out on his daily jog around his Pasadena neighborhood this Monday.
Shia was dressed to sweat, wearing his usual tee shirt and leggings combo for the run.
Chin up: Shia LaBeouf didn’t let bad reviews for his new movie The Tax Collector get him down Monday
He had his hair slicked back and a bristly beard across his jaw. While the star usually opts for sunglasses, he seemed to have forgotten his shades, seen squinting into the sun.
After a few loops the former Disney Channel star headed home to relax.
Shia’s film The Tax Collector opened to scathing reviews this weekend, with the LA Times calling the David Ayer-directed action/drama ‘one of the most atrocious viewing experiences of the year’ right in the headline.
Moviegoers were equally as underwhelmed with one social media user tweeting: ;That didn’t stop the movie from topping box offices, however.
Getting a leg up: Shia was dressed to sweat, wearing his usual tee shirt and leggings combo for the run
Bright idea: While the star usually opts for sunglasses, he seemed to have forgotten his shades, seen squinting into the sun
The movie took in $317,000 while screening at 129 theaters in the US, according to Variety.That’s compared to runner-up The Rental, which brought in $123,744 from 187 screens.
At the Vineland Drive-In in Los Angeles, the RLJE Films-distributed project made the highest single-day amount since the theater reopened.
Right now 1,195 movie theater locations are open in North America, and of those, 229 are drive-ins.
The Tax Collector also reportedly earned around $1million via video-on-demand platforms like Google, iTunes, Amazon and FandangoNow.
The film was the center of controversy before it even debuted.
Mixed bag: The Tax Collector got panned by critics but was the weekend’s top box-office earner
Director David Ayer recently had to defend the project after accusations LaBeouf’s character was an example of brownface.
Ayer’s latest film tells the story of a crime lord’s ‘tax collector’ is Los Angeles and how his life is upended when a rival boss arrives to town.
The cast is almost exclusively Latinx POC except for LaBeouf, 34, who donned a dark-trimmed hair and a ‘barrio accent.’
Several social media users have accused LaBeouf of taking on a Los Angeles cholo persona and looking ‘Mexican’ for entertainment purposes.
In two interviews with LA Times, Ayer doubled down on his stance and did not back down from his choice to cast LaBeouf as ‘Creeper.’
‘He’s a white guy playing a white guy. He’s not taking anyone’s work away,’ the director told the publication.
Controversy: Director David Ayer defended the film against criticism Shia was in ‘brownface.’ The film tells the story of a crime lord’s ‘tax collector’ and features a majority Latinx cast
Surface level: Critics have pointed out LaBeof’s appearance in The Tax Collector, as well as an apparent ‘barrio accent’
Ayer initially hit back at allegations of brownface on Twitter on July 1, where he again insisted LaBeouf was playing a white man in the film.
‘Really important answer – Shia is playing a white boy who grew up in the hood. This is a Jewish dude playing a white character. Also the only white dude in the movie,’ he wrote.
Ayer, a white man who grew up in California, added in a series of follow up tweets that he grew around Chicano culture.
‘I grew up hood and I’m a white boy. Chicano culture is inclusive – I’ve seen whiteys, Asians, Blacks, Filipinos all putting in work for the hood. It’s part of street culture,’ he wrote.
It was noted that The Tax Collector doesn’t specifically establish the ethnicity of LaBeouf’s character.
Director David Ayer, a white man who moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, denied the allegations that he facilitated brownface in his movie
The 52-year-old filmmaker explained: ‘Shia is playing a whiteboy who grew up in the hood. This is a Jewish dude playing a white character. Also the only white dude in the movie’
Ayer: ‘I grew up hood and I’m a whiteboy. Chicano culture is inclusive – I’ve seen whiteys, Asians, Blacks, Filipinos all putting in work for the hood. It’s part of street culture’ Pictured: Shia LaBeof in The Tax Collector
‘I get the complexities of the issues of historical representation in film and brownface. … It’s also like American Me, Blood In Blood Out. It’s a ’hood culture thing,’ Ayer added.
Critics of The Tax Collector have also said the movie enforces harmful and violent stereotypes associated with the Mexican American mafia.
‘My first impression was like, ‘Oh look, a cholo movie starring Shia LaBeouf,’ and technically that’s what it is,’ Lalo Alcaraz, the editorial cartoonist and satirist told the LA Times. ‘There’s no literal brownface, but it’s definitely cultural brownface.’
Some cast members of the Tax Collector have since spoken out in defense of both Ayer’s ability to cover Latino communities and LaBeouf.
Chelsea Rendon, who played Lupe in The Tax Collector, called the movie a ‘really great story.’
Stereotype: Critics of The Tax Collector have also said the movie enforces harmful and violent stereotypes associated with the Mexican American mafia
‘I think it’s just a really great story, showing the gritty streets, and that’s what David does best, when you think of Training Day and Harsh Times and End of Watch, they have this grittiness to them,’ she said.
‘In all these movies, [Ayer] included the Chicano culture, he did it in ‘Suicide Squad,’ where he had the first Latino superhero Jay Hernandez play the Diablo, he’s put brown people in front of the camera more than anyone,’ said Bobby Soto, the film’s protagonist.
‘He’s Chicano inside, he’s raza 100,000 percent, it’s crazy.’
In regards to the brownface allegations, Rendon added that LaBeof’s character is recognizable to anyway who grew up in the area.
‘Shia plays a white boy who grew up around Mexicans, and if you grew up in the ’hood, you know that white boy!’ she said.
Time to pay: The film is out now, screening at select movie theaters and streaming from your couch via video on demand