Shia LaBeouf is the latest actor to dish about how he prepares for his roles.

In his latest movie, “Lawless,” the actor plays Jack Bondurant, a member of a bootlegging gang during the Depression era. Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke play his brothers Forrest and Howard, respectively.

Since its clear that they don’t all look alike (LaBeouf admits to looking puny next to Hardy), so what’s an actor to do but gain 50 pounds?

It took him two months and countless hours at the gym, but he achieved his goal for the role. Don't worry, Hardy helped out by dropping a few pounds as LaBeouf bulked up.

He told ETonline.com, “There's a fabric of the family that needs to exist. So had I showed up in my fighting weight - which is 130 - next to Hardy I wouldn't have looked like I was related. So I shipped out at 180 and he dropped his weight. And Jason upped his weight and we all tried to level out."

That wasn’t enough for LaBeouf though – he also broke his self-imposed booze ban to get into character.

He quit drinking after a few bar fights and a DUI in 2008, but binged on moonshine to prepare for life as a bootlegger.

But of course old habits came back, leaving his co-star Mia Wasikowska terrified.

LaBeouf told Page Six, “My drinking on this movie was as undestructive [sic] as I could possibly make it, if that makes sense. I did it for the movie. I didn't drink off set for no reason. I did it because, when I showed up on set the next day, my f**king eyes looked like this and my face... had that drunk bloat that I needed, that I couldn't have if that wasn't going on. Moonshine is different than liquor. Moonshine is closer to heroin... [Wasikowska] was calling her attorney, like, 'Get me the f**k out of here.’”

Oh the irony… maybe prohibition was put into place for a reason.

J-Connection: Shia LaBeouf was raised in his mother’s Jewish religion. But in addition to being Bar Mitzvah, LaBeouf was baptized in the Angelus church.