Shia LaBeouf Says His Father's Portrayal in 'Honey Boy' Was 'Nonsense'
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Well, the Shia LaBeouf redemption train has reached another stop. Years after the release of his semi-autobiographical film Honey Boy, LaBeouf is opening up about portraying his father, Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, as abusive in the film. His confession, you ask? That the entire narrative was "fucking nonsense."
In a new interview on Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast, the two sat down to discuss hurting others, guilt, friendship, and more. In the episode, LaBeouf talked about his journey toward sobriety, his new movie, Padre Pio, and yes, Honey Boy. In the film, LaBeouf plays a cruel father figure, who is a former rodeo clown—just like his own father. The actor wrote the semi-autobiographical film in 2017 while receiving court-ordered treatment at a rehabilitation center. The film depicted his father as not only manic, but abusive towards his son. Now, LeBeouf admits to taking many more creative liberties than he had previously presented.
"I wrote this narrative which was just fucking nonsense," LaBeouf said. "My dad was so loving to me my whole life. Fractures? 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. Honey Boy is basically like a big 'woe is me' story about how fucked my father is and I wronged him."
As if that wasn't bad enough, LaBeouf also openly discussed how he knowingly deceived his father into giving his blessing for the film. He admits to "bullshitting" his dad into getting his permission. "I remember getting on the phone with him, and him being like, ‘I never read this stuff in the script you sent.’ Because I didn’t put that shit in there,” he said. “I turned the knob up on certain shit that wasn’t real. My dad never hit me, never. He spanked me once, one time. And the story that gets painted in Honey Boy is this dude is abusing his kid all the time.”
LaBeouf admitted that the reason he made this creative choice was because the truth of their relationship "didn’t position me as this wounded, fractured child that you could root for, which is what I was using him for." LaBeouf continued, "So, when I got on the phone with him, I took accountability for all of that and knew very clearly that I couldn’t take it back. My dad was gonna live with this certain narrative about him on a public scale for a very long time, probably the rest of his life."
The Fury actor had faced intense scrutiny in recent years for his legal troubles, which most notably include allegations of abuse from singer and ex-girlfriend FKA twigs, whom he met on the set of Honey Boy. The singer alleges that she suffered "relentless abuse" at the hands of LaBeouf. including sexual battery, assault, and emotional distress. In the wake of the allegations, rumors spread that LaBeouf was fired from the set of Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling–a claim he has since refuted.
Speaking about the allegations made by twigs, LaBeouf denied causing Twigs "any injury or loss," adding that she wasn't "entitled to any relief or damages whatsoever." He added that has remained 600 days sober since her allegations in 2020. The trial date for twigs’s case against him is slated for April 17, 2023.
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