Shia LaBeouf started writing “Honey Boy” after he entered rehab following his 2017 arrest. He was also having therapy sessions for PTSD and was asked by his therapist to write down the most impactful moments of his life. Shortly after, he started turning his writing into a script and sent this to a filmmaker friend, Alma Har’el, who became the director of 2019’s “Honey Boy.”
The movie was heralded as a critical triumph, but it took years of work behind the scenes and was an emotional experience for LaBeouf. He visited his father, Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, in Costa Rica (he fled there to avoid further prosecution for sex offenses in the U.S.), whom he’d not seen for seven years, to get his permission for the movie. The actor recalled his dad’s reaction to the movie, which is named after Jeffrey’s childhood nickname for Shia, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he agreed but “he didn’t believe that I could pull it off.” Shia felt that as he played the role of his father in the movie, he learned to empathize with him, implying that it led to something of a reconciliation. “He’s calmed. And I’ve calmed,” he said.
However, he also told the outlet, “Everything that’s in the film happened,” but later admitted that he had exaggerated many elements of it, including the physical abuse the main character experienced at the hands of his father. Surprisingly, Jeffrey wasn’t bothered by the inaccurate portrayal and proclaimed to GEN, “I’m proud of my son. He’s my honey boy.”
