Watching his performance in Peanut Butter Falcon for the first time, he said, “felt good.
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“It took me a very long time to study and do some plays, and I’ve learned how to be a really good actor,” he said. He’s trying to leave his usher job in Florida and move to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time. Between Falcon and the upcoming Honey Boy (November 8)-from a screenplay by LaBeouf that addresses his difficult upbringing-the 33-year-old former child actor is coming clean with the challenges that have gripped his life and often impeded his career.įor Gottsagen, it’s a different equation. This year seems to be the one in which LaBeouf is exorcising his demons.
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Shia just had to find his way to get back with his team again and do this movie together.” But I do understand what he’s going through. He had a little edge with his dad and stuff. When I asked Gottsagen how he felt when LaBeouf was arrested, he replied, “I just wanted him to get back and do this movie together. (Brolin was originally set to play the famous wrestler Gottsagen’s character idolizes, but he dropped out once he was cast in Deadpool 2.) On a whim, Brolin agreed to be that person-and his attachment turned this pie-in-the-sky idea into a legitimate movie project. At this point Nilson and Schwartz had a script-but they couldn’t get anyone to read it. At the end of 2015, the actor announced via Instagram that his New Year’s resolution was to help people. None of them would likely have appeared in the film if it hadn’t been for Josh Brolin. It helps that Nilson and Schwartz also secured a stellar supporting cast, including John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Thomas Haden Church, and Dakota Johnson. That sort of playful banter-the kind that doesn’t shy away from or sugarcoat Gottsagen’s disability-is what makes The Peanut Butter Falcon feel so fresh and unique.
Gottsagen’s response? “I just didn’t know if you knew.” “I fucking know that you have Down syndrome, Zack. Gottsagen, according to Nilson, replied, “Well, I don’t know if you know this about me-but I get along with everybody, and it’s because I have Down syndrome.” When he was found, Nilson tore into him, worried about what could have happened to his friend: “I said to him, ‘Dude, you can’t just go off by yourself,’” he remembered. They also used their specific experiences with Gottsagen as fodder, like a time when the three of them were hanging out and Gottsagen got lost. With no formal screenwriting training, the two began the process by developing Gottsagen’s character, homing in on the actor’s specific strengths and interests: swimming and wrestling.
I did change Shia’s life around to make it better,” he said at the post-screening Q&A. When I met the filmmaking duo and their muse in March at SXSW, they were still coming down from the previous evening’s world premiere, where Gottsagen told a packed house how he helped his costar during a trying time. The result is a charming tale about finding family in the unlikeliest of places, centered on Gottsagen’s character, Zak-an obsessive wrestling fan who runs away from his assisted living home and befriends an outlaw (LaBeouf) who aides him in his pursuit to become a famous wrestler. With no real Hollywood connections, the duo relied on the kindness of strangers, some Instagram love, and their unrelenting will to get it done. The film, which won a South by Southwest Film Festival audience award back in March and will bow in theaters August 9, comes from two unknowns: Tyler Nilson and Mike Schwartz, who spent five years on a project designed to give their friend with Down syndrome, Zack Gottsagen, who was 32 at the time of filming, the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star. The Peanut Butter Falcon is the movie Shia LaBeouf was filming when he was arrested for public drunkenness in Savannah, Georgia, in 2017-and that may be the least interesting thing about it.
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