Shia LaBeouf’s ‘Fast Times’ Stoner-King Performance Has Received The Ultimate Praise

Last month’s charity table read of Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a viral success thanks to Dane Cook (you read that right) rounding up an all-star line-up of celebs including Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, John Legend, Ray Liotta, and more. Cook also scored an impressive headline-grabbing coup by reuniting Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to read the infamous pool scene together. Not to mention, the whole thing was narrated by Morgan Freeman. But there was one performance that stole the whole virtual show: Shia LaBeouf as Jeff Spicoli.

LaBeouf’s fully-committed stoner performance from inside the front seat of his truck had Penn, the original Spicoli, repeatedly cracking up, so that’s high praise already. And now comes word that Fast Times screenwriter Cameron Crowe watched the table read and absolutely loved LaBeouf’s “wild and brave” acting. Via Variety:

“Tore up the room, too. It just brought everybody to a place of giddiness, that made the whole thing work, for me,” Crowe says. “Though I may not ever get over Morgan Freeman reading my stage direction that I wrote when I was 22. That’s kind of like, ‘Whoo. Okay.’ It’s like Morgan Freeman reading your diary. It was thrilling and slightly scary. But it was fantastic.”

While LaBeouf’s Spicoli was a viral sensation, it had stiff competition from Freeman whose narration of the classic masturbation scene that Pitt and Aniston reenacted was deemed his best work ever by the internet and even his fellow celebs at the table read. As the production wrapped, Julia Roberts can be heard yelling, “Morgan Freeman, you’re the MVP!”