Mario Licato, the advertising art director sucker-punched at a Lower East Side subway station over the weekend for looking like Shia LaBeouf, got some encouraging words from the Beouf himself.

Licato's story, first reported on Gothamist, has made its way to media outlets as wide-ranging as Vanity Fair, Breitbart, and Nigerian entertainment site Pulse.

In the process, word got to LaBeouf, and he apparently gave Licato a call.

Licato told Cosmopolitan that the actor, performance artist, and target left a comment on Licato's Instagram saying he should check his voicemail. "Feel better G," the comment concluded.

Licato says the voicemail turned out to be on his work phone, which he doesn't normally check.

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." And then he was like, "I don't know. I wish I was in New York. I'd come bring you soup." 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." And then he was like, "And once again, this is Shia LaBeouf, the guy you got hit for looking like. And yeah, man, I'm sorry. I'm just really sorry." And he was like "Keep your head up, G." And that was it.

In the message, LaBeouf purportedly "sounded bummed, and genuinely really bad."

We haven't been able to reach Licato, who is being inundated with calls, emails, and Instagram comments from reporters as we speak. But it seems that he and LaBeouf have connected since Licato talked to Cosmo.

Brb talking to the real Shia. 💅 A photo posted by Mario Licato (@mariolicato) on Apr 27, 2016 at 3:05pm PDT

Police have made no arrests in connection with the attack, which happened on Saturday night on the stairs of the northeastern Delancey-Essex subway station exit.