Days after Shia LaBeouf revealed in an interview with Dazed that he’d been raped during his February art exhibit #IAMSORRY in Los Angeles, his artistic collaborators have confirmed his story.
British artist Luke Turner and Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö worked with the actor on the project, which allowed visitors to sit in a room alone with LaBeouf who wore a bag over his head. The artists both took to Twitter on Sunday to clarify what took place.
In the email interview with Dazed, LaBeouf described the alleged assault as “painful,” saying:
One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for ten minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me… There were hundreds of people in line when she walked out with dishevelled hair and smudged lipstick. It was no good, not just for me but her man as well.
There was a fair amount of backlash online immediately following LaBeouf’s rape claim, with many people questioning the validity of the attack. Piers Morgan, in particular, has publicly lashed out at the actor, tweeting on Friday that LaBeouf was “pathetic” and his statement “demeans real rape victims.” After Turner and Rönkkö issued their own statements on the incident, Morgan challenged Turner, asking him how they could let the attacker walk away. Turner replied:
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