CELEB
A Director's Debut Turns Chaotic
Josh Penn Soskin expected challenges when he began filming his debut feature "The Rooster Prince" in November 2025 in Oklahoma. What he didn't anticipate was watching his lead actor Shia LaBeouf completely lose himself in a scene so powerful that it blurred the line between performance and reality. According to Soskin, LaBeouf delivered a performance that was "brilliant, and often so meta" that the director found himself hesitant to call cut, even as chaos erupted around him.
The Breakdown
During a pivotal scene set in a parking lot, LaBeouf's character. based on Soskin's late brother David, a renowned Harvard psychiatrist who struggled with bipolar disorder. experienced a devastating breakdown. "He was screaming across a parking lot," Soskin recalled. "Tears and sweat in his eyes." The intensity was so overwhelming that crew members found themselves frightened and hurt by what they witnessed. Soskin admits he was "about six inches from a panic attack" as LaBeouf vanished from set immediately after the scene concluded.
A Personal Connection
For Soskin, watching LaBeouf unravel stirred something deeply personal. His brother David, who passed away from complications related to his mental health struggles, served as the inspiration for the character Eli. "He was in deep pain. In fact, he was in even more pain than all the pain he was causing," Soskin reflected. "This was the kind of pain I had seen in my late brother David's eyes. Pain I couldn't fully understand, or even soothe." The director found himself praying to his brother for guidance as he faced the daunting task of salvaging his fragile production.
The Brothers' Bond
Before his diagnosis, David Soskin was more than just a sibling to the filmmaker. he was an idol and mentor. The two brothers shared a passion for cinema and literature, making plans in high school to become the next Coen brothers. David would casually mix intellectual discourse about epistemology with stories about surfing, existing on an austere diet of tofu and broccoli while reading Greek mythology on the StairMaster. When he eventually drifted toward psychiatric studies rather than filmmaking, Soskin realized his brother was simply trying to understand and heal himself.
Picking Up the Pieces
Despite the emotional wreckage left by LaBeouf's intense performance, Soskin faced an impossible task: delivering a speech to his crew within 12 hours that would convince everyone to continue. "I had absolutely no idea what to say," he confessed. The producers were reportedly nervous about the film's future, and the production's momentum seemed derailed. Yet somehow, Soskin managed to rally his team, and "The Rooster Prince" continued forward with LaBeouf still attached to the project alongside co-stars Jackson White and Melissa Leo.
