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TIFF 2015: Shia LaBeouf gives grim outlook on future at ‘Man Down’ press conference

Actor Shia LaBeouf attends a premiere for "Man Down" on day 6 of the Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

TORONTO – Actor Shia LaBeouf expressed a bleak outlook on the future at the Toronto International Film Festival.

At a press conference for the post-apocalyptic war thriller Man Down LaBeouf was asked by a reporter for his thoughts on the future of our world.

“We’re in a tough spot. The world is in a tough spot,” he replied. “It’s like world war three, right?

“You’re in the middle of something really wild going on right now – more so than ever, in my life, I think.”

The question was also posed to co-star Kate Mara, who simply replied: “I hope that the future of our world is not as pictured in this picture.

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Man Down stars LaBeouf as a former marine named Gabriel who’s dogged by memories of the battlefield as he searches for the whereabouts of his son.

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Jai Courtney plays his best friend and fellow soldier alongside Mara as his wife and Gary Oldman as a military psychiatrist.

LaBeouf said, as an actor, Oldman “is very intimidating,” and such a dynamic worked during their scenes together.

But off camera they bonded.

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“He’s like this father figure for me. It’s more than just an actor. He’s a really tender, sweet man – and that’s not to naysay the hard Gary because there’s a hard Gary too,” said the former Transformers star.

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“But he’s not hard with me. He’s really sweet with me and always has been. So I look up to him, but he’s not shy about throwing love around, you know. He’s in my corner. It feels like that. It’s not just some actor-actor relationship thing.”

Dito Montiel directed the screenplay by Adam G. Simon, who said he was living on the streets when he first started writing the story.

“In fact, there’s a letter that Gabriel writes to his son Jonathan in the film, was a letter that I wrote to my son in a parking garage where I slept, where I stayed the night.

“So I wrote that and a few other scripts and was just trying to hustle for about six to eight months.”

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