Shia LaBeouf apologises to man who got sucker-punched for looking like him and offers to chat, giggle about it

Most people who resemble celebrities have it lucky. They get mistaken for famous people and are approached by fans for autographs and photos and some take it further and imitate their more popular look-alikes in order to get better treatment.

But Mario Licato wasn't one of those lucky people. The 26-year-old, who has an uncanny resemblance to Transformers actor Shia LaBeouf, got punched while in a New York subway by a man who seemed to have had a problem either with the star himself or with people who look exactly like him. After the news got around about the incident, which left Licato with a black eye and some stitches, the art director at a digital advertising firm received a voice message from LaBeouf himself.

Licato informed Cosmopolitan magazine that the actor left a message on his work phone, which he hadn't checked in a while, and later posted a comment on Instagram informing him of the recording.

"It was a pretty long voicemail. He was like, 'Hey, this is Shia LaBeouf... I just read an article that you were punched in the face because you look like me?' And he was like, "Aw, man. That sucks. I'm so sorry. But I get it. It's happened to me before,'" the bruised up man recalled.

It seems LaBeouf then said that he would have liked to bring the man some soup but was unable to since he was not in New York. "He was just like, 'This sucks. I don't even know what to say. I'm sorry. People are just crazy. Just because you look like me?' I was obviously laughing the whole time. And then he was like, "Here's my phone number. Don't give it to anybody. Please, please, call me back. Call me back if you want to. We could chat. Let's giggle over this. Maybe there's a silver lining in all this. But call me back.'" Licato said, adding that the performance artiste continued to apologise in the message and that he had already listened to the message five times before speaking to the publication.