Cannes: How Shia LaBeouf relates to his next role as John McEnroe

Cannes: How Shia LaBeouf relates to his next role as John McEnroeShia LaBeouf as John McEnroe. You cannot be serious. It's the casting that was meant to be.

The famously temperamental actor LaBeouf discussed how he relates to the famed, hot-headed tennis player McEnroe at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.

LaBeouf made the statements while discussing his role as Jake, the dirt-poor leader of an itinerant “magazine crew” in the Cannes selection American Honey.

"Jake is me. So is McEnroe. That’s it man," said LaBeouf, speaking at a press conference. "I understand these people, I empathize with them. I get it. You turn things up and turn things down. It’s me."

LaBeouf did say he does not play tennis, but added that his backhand "is getting there."

Clearly so is the young-McEnroe hair which is sprouting out on LaBeouf.

Swedish star Sverrir Gudnason will play McEnroe's nemesis Bjorn Borg in Borg/McEnroe, the upcoming biopic about the great tennis rivalry which was announced at Cannes.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stellan Skarsgard will play Borg's coach Lennart Bergelin and shooting is set to begin this fall for a 2017 release.

LaBeouf showed off the temperamental side just a tad on Sunday before the press conference began as photographers stood in front of him, as they traditionally do in Cannes, and took his picture along with American Honey director Andrea Arnold and other cast-members present.

"How long are we going to do this?" LaBeouf snapped.

LaBeouf also discussed dancing wildly to the Rihanna song We've Found Love in a K-Mart while shooting American Honey, which premiered at Cannes on Sunday.