LOS ANGELES — Shia LaBeouf is a liar.

Don't believe it? Just ask him.

"Acting is a con," the 20-year-old says through a mouthful of chicken Caesar salad. "At the end of the day, you lie for a living. You're deceitful. That's my goal. To be the best possible liar."

If so, then LaBeouf is the hottest fraud in Hollywood.

Consider: for all the pirates and ogres and web-slingers invading theaters so far this year, LaBeouf, who turns 21 today, has anchored the only movie this year to hold the No. 1 spot at the box office for three straight weeks, "Disturbia."

And there's more to come.

He's the voice of Cody Maverick, a hot-shot surfing penguin in "Surf's Up" — a role that brought him to Honolulu last month for a "blue carpet" premiere. Next month he stars in Michael Bay's "Transformers."

And next year, he's snagged a key, though secret, role in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

Don't bother asking LaBeouf how he managed to become Hollywood's "It" boy. If anything, he's trying to avoid the title.

After "Indy," he says, "I'm taking a break from acting. I don't want to be the summer blockbuster guy. Or the teen horror guy. I don't want to be anything celebrity, really."

That includes discussing much about his personal life and dating.

"I don't go to clubs, and you won't see me out partying," he says over lunch at Musso & Frank's Grill, the renowned 80-year-old restaurant in the heart of Hollywood that has served customers including Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn.

There's a reason LaBeouf likes it there.

"I want a career like those guys, not like a Lindsay Lohan," he says. "She's a talented actress but has made some scary decisions. If I'm perceived as someone like that, I'm going to be screwed trying to give a Michael Caine performance. Being seen just as a celebrity can be as bad as having your movie tank. I want to have a career that's different from some of the people of my generation."

"Surf's Up" could qualify as a departure — even if it is about penguins.

The film, about a cocky bird competing for the world's surfing title, may be one of the slowest cartoons ever brought to the big screen. LaBeouf signed on when he was 15 and spent more than three years behind the mike.

While most animated movies require only a few months (sometimes weeks) of actors reading scripted dialogue, the "Surf's Up" filmmakers decided to have the stars ad-lib most of their lines to make the documentary-style comedy.

So LaBeouf and co-stars Jeff Bridges, Jon Heder and Zooey Deschanel spent as many as six hours a day in the recording studio, joking and improvising.

"I'd play a little guitar, and we'd just hang out for days" in the recording booth, Bridges says. "(LaBeouf) has a lot of composure and maturity for someone his age."

Much of that comes from LaBeouf's childhood in Echo Park, a tough East Los Angeles neighborhood. The son of a rodeo clown and a former ballerina, LaBeouf saw acting much the same way inner-city youths see pro sports: as a way out.

"It wasn't about art," LaBeouf says. "It was about making money to get somewhere and be somebody."