Francis Ford Coppola Is Full Of Praise For The Actor He Once Called The 'Biggest Pain' To Work With

A big part of being a filmmaker is learning to manage actors' egos. And if there's someone who knows that all too well, it's legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Over the course of his lengthy career, Coppola has worked with multiple actors with reputations for being difficult. He famously directed Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" at a time when Brando was becoming increasingly disinterested with his chosen craft. Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper was apparently quite challenging on the set of Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and, by his own admission, the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" star clashed heavily with Brando on set. However, there is one actor, in particular, whom Coppola reportedly called "the biggest pain in my f***ing a**." And yet, the celebrated director is full of praise for this individual as a performer all the same. 

The actor in question is none other than "Transformers" star Shia LaBeouf, who appeared in Coppola's 2024 sci-fi epic "Megalopolis" — a highly controversial film whose financial failure lost Coppola a significant chunk of his own money. In the 2025 tell-all documentary "Megadoc," LaBeouf, whose own scandals led to his massive downfall from fame, claimed Coppola told him to his face that he regretted hiring him. The divisive star also shared that Coppola's declaration about him being "the biggest pain in [his] f***ing a** of any actor [he'd] ever worked with" was the only time the Oscar winning director ever swore on set. Given the stories about Brando and Hopper, Labeouf apparently took exception to this. "'Really? Any actor? You're just being dramatic.' He's like, 'I'm not being dramatic, get out,'" he professed (via People). Seemingly taking the high road, Coppola subsequently gushed that LaBeouf was a "great and interesting actor to work with" and praised his performance in a July 2026 Instagram post.

Footage from "Megadoc," which chronicles the troubled production of "Megalopolis," reveals that director Francis Ford Coppola and star Shia LaBeouf regularly clashed over the creative process, with the "Honey Boy" star usually being the one to instigate arguments. However, LaBeouf insists that his prodding was strictly professional, and he still has a great deal of respect for Coppola. "No [I did not like the movie], but I love him," the controversy-prone actor reasoned during a June 2025 appearance on the "Bad Friends" podcast. "We fought all through the thing, 'cause it wasn't my dream, and I was trying to learn his dream, which you're always trying to do when you're on a movie — you're trying to learn your guy's dream. Sometimes, those dreams aren't easily accessible," LaBeouf continued. 

The "Holes" star also acknowledged that, while his days as a child star are obviously long behind him, he still feels like a "baby" compared to the filmmaker in terms of sheer life experience (Coppola is the patriarch of a massively influential Hollywood family, after all). In the "Godfather" director's aforementioned Instagram post, he similarly implied that there were no hard feelings between himself and LaBeouf. Coppola even concluded the message by writing, "I sincerely wish him all the best!" But while the two are amicable now, things were apparently a lot more heated when they were actually in the thick of filming. 

In fact, based on LaBeouf's own words in "Megadoc," it got to the point where he was legitimately fearing for his job. "I'm worried about getting fired all the time. I'm serious. Every day, I think I'm out of here," he confesses in the documentary (via USA Today).