'Transformers' star says he ended up directing Cudi's 'Maniac' and 'Marijuana' videos because of mutual friend Cage.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Shia LaBeouf
Photo: MTV News

From the outside looking in, the friendship and working partnership that actor Shia LaBeouf and rapper Kid Cudi have established recently seems only slightly unlikely. However, upon closer examination of Cudi's track record in working with Hollywood types, and LaBeouf's relationship with "Maniac" featured performer Cage, their collaborations on two of Cudi's videos, "Maniac" and "Marijuana," isn't that unexpected.

When MTV News caught up with LaBeouf recently as he promoted "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," we asked the aspiring director how the Cudi/Cage/LaBeouf magic began with music, and how it ended with a trip to Amsterdam's infamous Cannabis Cup.

"[Cage] is one of my good friends. Cage, Chris Palko, and I had been trying to make a movie about him for a while," LaBeouf explained. "Cudi hit [Cage] up and did a song with him. Cage sent me the song, called 'Maniac,' so initially, we started prepping this video, which is really like a short horror movie that I made that comes out on Halloween," he said. "In the interim, while we were finishing up the effects on it, [Cudi] told me he was going to Amsterdam for the Cannabis Cup."

LaBeouf jumped at the chance to continue working with Cudi, and joked that a trip to the legendary land where cannabis is legal was too good to pass up.

"It's as big as Spielberg," he said with a laugh. "It is for a 25-year-old male who has all these crazy fantasies about Amsterdam, which every male my age has, there's that college trip you always want to take," he admitted. "And to do that with Cudi when he's a judge, and I get to roll with him with my 8mm camera [like] an 'Easy Rider' documentarian, I felt like Cameron Crowe or something."

Despite all the references to the drug, that trip and the clip that came from it are Cudi's send-off to smoking weed.

"It was almost like an R.I.P. video to my whole smoking career," Cudi told MTV News of the "Marijuana" clip earlier this month.

What do you think of Shia teaming up with Kid Cudi? Let us know in the comments!

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