Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Brandon Vaat, the senior publishing director at Word on Fire.

Today we're excited to share with you the audio from Bishop Aaron's recent discussion with the actor Shaya Labuff.

Shaya is an actor famous for his roles and movies such as Transformers, Honeyboy and Peanut Butter Falcon among other films.

His most recent role is as the young Padre Pio and a new biopic on the Great Saint.

And it was a role which ended up changing his life as he explains in this discussion.

Shaya has found his way to the Catholic Church and his story of conversion is profound and I think you'll find it deeply moving.

So invite you to sit back and take in this Bishop Aaron presents discussion with Shaya Labuff. Enjoy.

Well, I'm delighted to be here with Shaya Labuff today and you and I met several months ago when you were up in my pastoral region working with the

captions to prepare for this extraordinary role you played of Padre Pio. So I ran into you up there one day and I just saw you a few weeks ago when you were

premiering the movie for some of the captions. So delighted you're here today to talk to us. I'm under the video. Good.

And so I mean, I can talk to you all day about a lot of things but maybe first a bit about acting. I mean, you're you're seeing one of the best actors in your generation.

When I watch your films, I'm reminded of people like you know, De Niro and Pacino and and Daniel Day Lewis and some of these people who are more identified with you know, the

method acting style, Stanislawski and all that. I'm just wondering I mean, do you agree with that? Would you say you're kind of a method actor and if so, what's involved in that?

I think people put that on me, but and I'm honored by the people you just mentioned to be included that way or be perceived that way. But one, I'm not at that level one, two, I'm not in that school of thought.

So Stanislawski is about sense memory and it's very intellectual. It's a whole lot of conceptual. It's a whole lot of cognitive. It's heady. It's very heady.

And I'm like a Whitman character. I'm like a very unintellectual feeler. And so I don't I don't identify with that school of thought really. I don't really know what I do or what where where it comes from or how it happens.

I know that I feel a whole lot. I got a big heart. I don't know if I'm a method guy. And I think some of that stuff's ridiculous.

So I kind of a staying in character that sort of the I like to be immersive. Yeah, I like all immersive experience. Not just acting is probably why like Catholicism is what I like all immersion. I like being fully I like adventure.

And that requires like full immersion. So I would consider myself an immersive actor. But method acting has like a bad smell to it.

Like too technical to intellectual and just kind of do she kind of like just like mean. You know, yeah, sometimes I feel like there's people on on film sets. Like they give some people and excuse to behave.

Yeah, you know, you hear some stories of guys just like sending people like rat carcasses and you know like ridiculous things have nothing to do with the moment on set.

The thing is Olivier story that he's with gust and hopper right and hop and stayed up all night and to you know get totally into this character and didn't Olivier say like trying acting.

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