Shia LaBeouf Is On The Rise

(CBS)  Shia LaBeouf has become one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood. He's No. 2 on Entertainment Weekly's current list of stars we love right now and he is starring in one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer, "Transformers" — all just weeks after his 21st birthday.

"It's nuts, it's nuts," he told Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "It's overwhelming.

Growing up in the 1980s, LaBeouf was a self-described "Transformers geek," so he revisited his childhood while making this film.

"It's jarring when you've grown up with these things and your childhood — literally my childhood in the '80s was like this, Yogi Bear, Michael Jackson, that's what I grew up on," he said. "Eighties babies, this (Transformers) is the science fiction, the 'Star Wars' of our generation."

The Transformers are alien robots that are looking for an energy cube, or life force, so they can breed new armies. Their strength is declining because they have been warring against each other for billions of years on their own planet. LaBeouf plans a normal teenage boy who has just bought his own car, which happens to be a transformer. His one goal in life is to impress the pretty girl. A wrench is thrown into that plan when he figures out the truth about his car.

Last spring, LaBeouf starred in the box office success, "Disturbia" and hosted "Saturday Night Live." He's also working on "Indiana Jones 4" with Harrison Ford, a fact that was kept secret for a while upon the orders of director Steven Spielberg.

"There's something that happens to a person when Steven Spielberg looks you in the eye and says, 'I'm counting on you, kid.' That's the end of that," LaBeouf said.

Working with Harrison Ford, who LaBeouf calls "the most masculine man," was surreal for the young actor, who found his first agent in the Yellow Pages.

"He's a beast," he said. "He knows what he has to do and he's game. He's Indiana Jones. He is that guy."

For the kid who began as a standup comic at age 11, he said his recent success has been a huge blur.

"There's no time for reflection because you're in the midst of it. I haven't had time to like look back on it," he said. "I'm sure after Indy I'll have time to go 'wow.' Right now it's living in the wow, the dream of it."

But LaBeouf did make time to celebrate his birthday. He and his friends had what he called a "Humphrey Bogart" night. Four of five of his buddies dressed up in suits and went out on the town.

"They don't look good in suits, my friends; they look awkward," he said. "We went to a cigar lounge and drank scotch and smoked cigars. We didn't fit in at all. We didn't know how to hold the cigar, drink the scotch, felt grown up. It was great."