In a new interview with Word on Fire Catholic ministries’ Bishop Robert Barron, actor Shia LeBeouf said he converted to Christianity after shooting the film “Padre Pio,” where he plays an Italian monk. To prepare for the role, LeBeouf stayed in a monastery where he was able to learn deeply about the religion.

LeBeouf’s conversion to Christianity came after a string of legal troubles, which ultimately led to suicidal thoughts. In 2021, he was charged with two misdemeanors, petty theft and battery, after he stole a man’s hat during a fight. Shortly after, LeBeouf’s ex-girlfriend and pop star, FKA Twigs, sued him over abuse allegations. Shia has denied any type of abuse towards his ex-girlfriend who claimed their relationship was a “living nightmare.”

After these back-to-back scandals, LeBeouf really struggled mentally. “I had a gun on the table. I was outta here,” he said in his interview with Bishop Robert Barron. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all this happened. Shame like I had never experienced before — the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe. You don’t know where to go. You can’t go outside and get like, a taco.”

These suicidal thoughts came during his time filming “Padre Pio,” where LeBeouf says this was the darkest point in his life. He mentions in his interview that he did not accept his role in “Padre Pio” to find God but feels like his fate was all in God’s plan. He says his mindset going into this film was focused on his career, not on finding God.

“I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him. Drawing me away from worldly desires. It was all happening simultaneously. But there would have been no impetus for me to get in my car, drive up [to the monastery] if I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna save my career,'” LeBeouf told Barron during his interview.

Throughout the interview, LeBeouf spoke about how new he is to the faith, saying at the beginning of his conversion, he wasn’t even sure he’d been baptized.

“I didn’t know I was baptized. I had been baptized earlier in my life and didn’t even remember it. My uncle had baptized me in the [Trinitarian formula],” he explained.

LeBeouf describes how finding his faith has truly pulled him out of the darkest period of his life.