Ben Foster Will Replace Shia LaBeouf in ‘Orphans’

The actor Ben Foster, who played a cold-blooded killer in the movie “3:10 to Yuma” and vulnerable young men in “The Messenger” and the HBO series “Six Feet Under,” will join the cast of the Broadway play “Orphans,” replacing Shia LaBeouf, the producers announced on Thursday. Mr. LaBeouf left the production a day earlier after backstage disagreements and an apparent lack of compatibility with the play’s star, Alec Baldwin.

Mr. Foster, who had previously auditioned for the role - the malevolent and emotionally unstable Treat - has never been in a play as a professional actor before, nor has he worked with Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Foster will start rehearsals on Friday.

He will be walking into a work environment that became fraught after “Orphans” rehearsals began on Feb. 11, as the divergent acting styles of Mr. Baldwin and Mr. LaBeouf becme clear to the play’s director, Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan, and its lead producers, Frederick Zollo and Robert Cole. Those three men decided on Tuesday to replace Mr. LaBeouf; a public announcement was made on Wednesday, simply citing “creative differences.” But soon after Mr. LaBeouf began publishing email exchanges on his Twitter account that shed more light on the situation.

In one e-mail from Mr. Sullivan to Mr. LaBeouf on Tuesday night, Mr. Sullivan wrote: “I’m too old for disagreeable situations. You’re one hell of a great actor. Alec is who he is. You are who you are. You two are incompatible. I should have known it.

“This one will haunt me,” Mr. Sullivan continued. “You tried to warn me. You said you were a different breed. I didn’t get it.”

Mr. Sullivan declined an interview request on Thursday. Mr. Baldwin, reached by telephone on Thursday, declined to discuss compatibility issues with Mr. LaBe! ouf, only saying: “You realize in the process, theater is not for everyone.”

One incident that occurred early in rehearsals involved Mr. LaBeouf, a film actor who had never been on Broadway before, punching his hand through a door to the surprise of his “Orphans” collaborators, according to two theater executives familiar with the moment. Mr. LaBeouf apologized by email to the “Orphans” playwright, Lyle Kessler, saying, ‘im a child” - a copy of which he published on Twitter. The two theater executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private rehearsal process, said Mr. LaBeouf punched the door while in character as Treat.

None of the email exchanges provides details about specific compatibility problems between Mr. LaBeouf and Mr. Baldwin, a theater veteran and an Emmy Award-winning actor on the NBC series “30 Rock.” Both men have been known for having hot temperaments: Mr. LaBeouf has made tabloid headlines in the past for bar fights and arrests, while Mr.Baldwin got into a shouting match outside his apartment this week with a New York Post photographer.

In Mr. Baldwin’s previous outing in New York theater, the 2006 Off Broadway production of “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” the actress Jan Maxwell quit the play after performances began because she and Mr. Baldwin did not get along.

In an e-mail exchange on Wednesday after Mr. LaBeouf’s departure, Mr. Baldwin told him, “I’ve been through this before” and counseled the younger actor that “what we all do now is critical. Perhaps especially for you.”

“When the change comes, how do we handle it, whether it be good or bad What do we learn I don’t have an unkind word to say about you. You have my word,” wrote Mr. Baldwin, who plays a rich businessman, Harold, who is kidnapped by Treat.

Mr. LaBeouf replied! : “same! . be well. good luck on the play. you’ll be great.”

Mr. Baldwin, speaking briefly by telephone on Thursday, said he and everyone involved with “Orphans” were “very disappointed” that Mr. LaBeouf was publishing email exchanges that they considered private. “Regarding of what people feel about the events that happened, you expect communications to be private, because everyone wants this process to be as collegial as possible. Everyone is very sad about what’s happened.”

In addition to Mr. Sullivan, the play’s two producers also declined an interview request on Thursday about Mr. LaBeouf and whether they have asked him to stop publishing private email. The actor’s spokeswoman, asked if anyone had asked the actor to stop tweeting the private email, did not immediately reply on Thursday.

Tom Sturridge remains in the role of Philip, Treat’s younger brother; he wrote Mr. LaBeouf an email on Wednesday, also published on Twitter, that complimented the actor and said, “I thnk you lifted the play to a place higher than maybe it even deserved to be.”

“Orphans” is still scheduled to begin previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on March 19 and open on April 7.