Alec Baldwin Says Film Actors Are Like Celebrity Chefs

Alec Baldwin is so over Shia LaBeouf and the silly things he says and tweets. Mr. Shia “Stop Please Just Stop” LaBeouf and Mr. Baldwin were working on a Broadway play together up until LaBeouf went crazy and quit (or got fired, depending on who you believe. I think he was fired.) He then proceeded to release a series of bizarre emails and tweets about the production. Last night, LaBeouf tweeted, “The theater belongs not to the great but to the brash.”

Alec Baldwin responded. From Vulture,

I can tell you that, in all honesty, I don’t think he’s in a good position to be giving interpretations of what the theater is and what the theater isn’t. I mean, he was never in the theater. He came into a rehearsal room for six or seven days and, uh — you know, sometimes film actors — I mean, there are people who are film actors who have a great legacy in the theater. Some of the greatest movie stars had really serious theater careers and still do. And many film actors, though, who are purely film actors, they’re kind of like celebrity chefs, you know what I mean? You hand them the ingredients, and they whip it up, and they cook it, and they put it on a plate, and they want a round of applause. In the theater, we don’t just cook the food and serve it. You go out in the garden and you plant the seeds and you grow it. You know, it’s a really very, very long, slow, deliberate — it’s the opposite of film acting. It’s a much more intensive and kind of thoughtful process. And there are people who that’s just not their thing. So for those people who I think it’s not their thing, I’m not really interested in their opinion of it. But thanks.

Boom. Although much debate about whether Mr. Baldwin is actually a theater actor versus a film actor could be had, he definitely knows more about being a theater actor than Shia LaBeouf, who is completely annoying. He also knows more about the fine craft of acting in a series of Capital One commercials.