Last week news that New York advertising art director Mario Licato was punched in the face for resembling actor Shia LaBeouf went viral across the internet. While commentary has ranged from sympathetic well wishes to laughter at the bizarre incident, Licato the most interesting response to the news came from Shia himself.
In recent interview with Cosmopolitan, Licato described a voicemail he received from an apologetic Shia:
It was a pretty long voicemail. He was like, “Hey, this is Shia LaBeouf … I just read an article that you were punched in the face because you look like me?” And he was like, “Aw, man. That sucks. I’m so sorry. But I get it. It’s happened to me before.” And then he was like, “I don’t know. I wish I was in New York. I’d come bring you soup.” He was just like, “This sucks. I don’t even know what to say. I’m sorry. People are just crazy. Just because you look like me?” I was obviously laughing the whole time. And then he was like, “Here’s my phone number. Don’t give it to anybody. Please, please, call me back. Call me back if you want to. We could chat. Let’s giggle over this. Maybe there’s a silver lining in all this. But call me back.” And then he was like, “And once again, this is Shia LaBeouf, the guy you got hit for looking like. And yeah, man, I’m sorry. I’m just really sorry.” And he was like “Keep your head up, G.” And that was it.
Licato is unsure of how Shia got his digits, “I don’t even know my work number so I don’t know where [he] got it from.” The voicemail seemed to be extremely sincere and apologetic according to Licato, “He sounded bummed and genuinely really bad. Like he just felt like shit. Like I can’t believe this happened. This sucks. And he was just like, “I wish I was in New York but I’m not.” I thought it was really funny that he wanted to bring me soup.” He plans to return Shia’s call before the weekend is over.
