Shia LaBeouf took hallucinogenic drugs to understand his role in The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.

The 26-year-old actor portrays Charlie Countryman in the hard-hitting movie which sees his character get embroiled with criminal gang while trying to be with the girl of his dreams Gabi Banyai (Evan Rachel Wood). In one scene Charlie is high on acid - otherwise known as LSD - and he was so worried about being able to accurately portray the experience he experimented with the illegal high.

When asked by MTV News if he took acid to get in the right headspace for the movie, Shia replied, "Just 'cause I'm scared. I've never done acid before." Shia made the decision to take the drug after sending tapes of his attempts to convey his character while high to Evan and taking her criticisms on board.

"I remember sending Evan tapes ... trying to conjure this and sending tapes and Evan being like, 'Yeah, that's good, but that's not, but this is, but that ain't.' Not like she's the expert on set. I'm just saying you reach out to friends and you sort of gauge where you're at. So I was sending tapes around. I'd get 50 per cents from people, and that starts creeping me out, and I got really nervous," he explained.

"Towards the end, I was like OK... It's not because I'm wanting to be on drugs. I'm not trying to mess with the set or anything like that. It's really just fear that propels people ... You don't show up wasted. You don't show up completely tripping on acid. But you're rooting for something and you're pushing yourself toward it. Everyone's got their own way," LaBeouf continued.

Evan insists Shia got his recreation "spot on" in the end. The gritty movie - which also stars Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint and Til Schweiger - was shown at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and is creating a huge buzz among critics.