Shia LaBeouf: I Had An Existential Crisis

Actor Shia LaBeouf has given his most-straightforward explanation yet for his erratic behaviour over the last year or so.

The 28-year-old was asked what had been going on in his life by Ellen DeGeneres as he appeared on her chat show in the US.

And he replied: "I had an existential crisis. I had some hiccups, some judgement errors."

Ellen then asked him about his infamous paper bag stunt at the Nymphomaniac premiere - and his subsequent art gallery session where members of the public were invited to interact with him as he sat with a bag on his head.

The Fury star explained that he had been "really, truely apologetic" and wanted to learn more about people's response to his public persona.

"There was a lot of negativity online, so I thought, 'Alright, let's see what this negativity is about, let's invite it in'," he explained.

"I thought for sure people were going to come in and be super mean, but it wasn't that way at all. It was very human - once they got in there everything changed.

"They stopped looking at me as an object, they started looking at me as a human. And they were very loving."

Getting even more serious, he went on to open up about his inner conflict.

"I'm a kid of abandonment and I thought being good at being an actor would somehow fill that void," he confessed.

And he compared that impulse to the attention-seeking writers of internet comments who "want to make a mark".

Asked what had got him out of his wayward behaviour, he quipped: "Jail. Jail was quite scary."