Shia LaBeouf has retracted the way he portrayed his father in his autobiographical film “Honey Boy,” calling it “f—ing nonsense” that “wronged” his father.
The 2019 film, written as a form of therapy when LaBeouf was in rehab a few years earlier, centers on a child actor and his difficult relationship with his abusive father, played by LaBeouf.
During his recent appearance on Jon Bernthal’s “Real Ones” podcast, the 36 year-old Emmy winner denounced that depiction, according to People.
“Here’s a man who I’ve done vilified on a grand scale,” he said.
“I wrote this narrative, which was just f—ing nonsense,” LaBoeuf said. “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,” LaBeouf said. “He was always there … and I’d done a world press tour about how f—ed he was as a man.”
“’Honey Boy’ is basically a big ‘woe is me’ story about how f—ed my father is, and I wronged him,” the actor continued. “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 s— in there.”
“Honey Boy” was directed by Alma Har’el. It stars Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges as Otis Lort, a young actor navigating early fame, childhood trauma and the weight of generations before him. The movie also stars Natasha Lyonne, Maika Monroe, Martin Starr, Clifton Collins Jr., Laura San Giacomo and Byron Bowers.
“My dad never hit me, never,” LaBeouf said. “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 also said the only time his dad spanked him was when he got caught smoking as a kid.The actor also mentioned how he asked his dad for his permission to get the film.
“I turned the knob up on certain s— that wasn’t real,” he said.
“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,” the actor added. “And 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.”
