Orphans' Alec Baldwin Responds to Shia LaBeouf's Latest Twitter Tirade; Compares Stage-Bound Movie Stars to 'Celebrity Chefs'

Orphans star Alec Baldwin won two Emmys for playing 30 Rock's slick network executive Jack Donaghy, and it seems the character's affinity for backhanded compliments has rubbed off on the star...especially when it comes to his almost co-star Shia LaBeouf.

Vulture.com asked Baldwin his thoughts on LaBeouf's latest Twitter tirade, in which the actor wrote, "The theater belongs not to the great, but to the brash. Acting is not for gentlemen, or bureaucratic-academics. What they do is anti-art."

Baldwin's response? "I can tell you that, in all honesty, I don’t think he’s in a good position to be giving interpretations of what the theater is and what the theater isn’t. I mean, he was never in the theater," he said of the 26-year-old actor, who would have made his Broadway debut in Orphans.

Baldwin went on to note theater acting is very different from acting on film, and balancing both mediums doesn't always work for all actors. "Some of the greatest movie stars had really serious theater careers and still do. And many film actors who are purely film actors, they’re kind of like celebrity chefs... You hand them the ingredients, and they whip it up, and they cook it, and they put it on a plate, and they want a round of applause. In the theater, we don’t just cook the food and serve it. You go out in the garden and you plant the seeds and you grow it. It’s a really very, very long, slow, deliberate — it’s the opposite of film acting. It’s a much more intensive and kind of thoughtful process. And there are people who that’s just not their thing."

In true Donaghy fashion Baldwin ended his response by quipping, "So for those people who I think it’s not their thing, I’m not really interested in their opinion of it. But thanks."

Zing! In what's turning into quite the Twitter tennis match, this round definitely goes to Baldwin. With Ben Foster set to take over for LaBeouf, Orphans will begin previews March 26 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.