LaBeouf opened up about the film, and making amends with people he's wronged, on Jon Bernthal's 'Real Ones' podcast.
Shia LaBeouf is setting some things straight about his 2019 film, Honey Boy. In a new appearance on Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast, LaBeouf said he felt like he "wronged" his father by depicting him as abusive in the film, which is loosely based on LaBeouf's childhood and the relationship between him and his father.
"Here's a man who I've done vilified on a grand scale," LaBeouf, who played a version of dad in the film, told Bernthal. "I wrote this narrative, which was just f***ing 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 f***ed he was as a man," he added.
LaBeouf, who wrote the screenplay for Honey Boy during a previous in-treatment program, said that the film was basically a "woe is me" story about his life. The 36-year-old actor revealed that he embellished elements of the story in order to create a narrative of a "wounded, fractured child" that audiences could root for.
"Honey Boy is basically a big 'woe is me' story about how f**ed my father is, and I wronged him. 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**t in there," LaBeouf explained.
Adding, "I turned the knob up on certain s**t that wasn't real."
LeBeouf, who told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that the film was a "tough" watch for his family, also admitted that his dad never hit him, telling Bernthal that outside getting spanked once as a kid for smoking, the portrayal of his father is in no way accurate.
"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," he admitted. "But that wasn't my narrative, because it didn't position me as this wounded, fractured child that you could root for, which is what I was using him for."
LaBeouf, who recently revealed that he's converted to Catholicism, said he took accountability for his part in creating that narrative, while also acknowledging that the story he painted, would likely follow his dad for the rest of his life.
"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, 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," he shared.
LaBeouf's correction about his father's depiction in the film comes just days after he attempted to correct Olivia Wilde's claim that he was fired from her film, Don't Worry Darling.
He told Variety in an email that he "quit the film due to lack of rehearsal time" on Aug. 17, 2020.
In an email he wrote to Wilde following her Variety interview and shared with the website, he told her, "I am a little confused about the narrative that I was fired, however. You and I both know the reasons for my exit. I quit your film because your actors & I couldn’t find time to rehearse."
LaBeouf added, "I know that you are beginning your press run for DWD and that the news of my firing is attractive clickbait, as I am still persona-non-grata and may remain as such for the rest of my life."
In the midst of his own personal troubles, including allegations from his ex-girlfriend, FKA twigs, of abuse, the actor and new dad pointed out that Wilde's claim could make matters worse for him. "This situation with your film and my 'firing' will never have a court date with which to deal with the facts," he wrote. "If lies are repeated enough in the public they become truth. And so, it makes it that much harder for me to crawl out of the hole I have dug with my behaviors, to be able to provide for my family."
As he concluded the email, "Firing me never took place, Olivia. And while I fully understand the attractiveness of pushing that story because of the current social landscape, the social currency that brings. It is not the truth. So I am humbly asking, as a person with an eye toward making things right, that you correct the narrative as best you can. I hope none of this negatively effects [sic] you, and that your film is successful in all the ways you want it to be."
ET has reached out to Wilde's rep for comment.
For more on their back-and-forth, check out the video below.
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