After having claimed that the 2019 dramaHoney Boywas largely inspired by his own troubled childhood, particularly his strained relationship with his father, actorShia LaBeoufhas now admitted to taking major creative liberties on the project, which he also wrote. Speaking to hisFuryco-starJon Bernthalon hisReal Onespodcast, LaBeouf said that he had “wronged” his father by fictionalizing crucial details about their relationship.
Directed byAlma Har’el,Honey Boywas released in 2019 topositive reviewsfor LaBeouf’s performance, and his soul-baring screenplay. He wrote the film as a part of his rehabilitation program, and said after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival that it felt strange and selfish to “fetishize” his pain and “make a product out of it.” He also claimed, according toThe Hollywood Reporter, that prior to making the movie, he hadn’t spoken to his father in “six, seven years.” In the film, LaBeouf played a version of his own dad, while his younger self was played byNoah JupeandLucas Hedges.
He told Bernthal that the depiction of his dadJeffrey Craig LaBeoufinHoney Boywas “fucking nonsense.” He also revealed that his father had never raised his hand on him in real life. In his own words:
“Here’s a man who I’ve done vilified on a grand scale… I wrote this narrative, which was just fucking nonsense. My dad was so loving to me my whole life. Fractured, sure. Crooked, sure. Wonky, for sure. But never was not loving, never was not there. He was always there… and I’d done a world press tour about how fucked he was as a man.”
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LaBeouf said that his father was surprised by what he saw in the film, because none of the thorny material was in the script that his son had sent him. “I turned the knob up on certain shit that wasn’t real,” the actor said, adding that it was all a ploy to get his father’s permission to make the movie. LaBeouf continued, “My dad never hit me, never. He spanked me once, one time. And the story that gets painted inHoney Boyis, this dude is abusing his kid all the time.” He added that he “took accountability” for his actions in a phone call with his father, but acknowledged that his dad would have to live with a “certain narrative” about himself, “probably for the rest of his life.”
Essentially canceled after the abuse allegations leveled against him by his former partner (andHoney Boyco-star)FKA Twigs, LaBeouf — once earmarked as Hollywood’s next big leading man — recently reemerged in the public eye. Last week,he claimedthat directorOlivia Wildehad made inaccurate assertions about the circumstances leading to his departure from her upcoming filmDon’t Worry Darling, in which he was replaced byHarry Styles. Though Wilde had said that he was fired from the film, LaBeouf claimed that the decision was mutual.
LaBeouf was last seen in directorKornél Mundruczó’s Oscar-nominated dramaPieces of a Woman. He will next be seen in directorAbel Ferrara’sPadre Pio. Watch our interview with LaBeouf and the cast and director ofHoney Boyhere, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
