Shia LaBeouf's Biopic 'Honey Boy' Casts a Shadow Over 'Even Stevens'

Child actors are always fun to watch on the big and small screens, but you never quite know what's going on in their real lives. 

Shia LaBeouf's career took off with Disney Channel's beloved sitcom Even Stevens. LaBeouf went on to cement his status as a Hollywood star in the Transformers franchise as well as drama in his personal life, including several run-ins with the law.

After an arrest for public intoxication in 2017, he was sentenced to court-ordered rehab in Georgia. LaBeouf was diagnosed with PTSD and was forced to confront the complicated relationship he had with his abusive father. That's where the script for Honey Boybegan to take shape. 

LaBeouf plays James Lort, the helicopter dad of a child star named Otis. The character is based on LaBeouf's own childhood, so the actor is quite literally stepping into his father's shoes as James, as well as his wire-rimmed glasses and stringy widow's peak. 

We see bits of LaBeouf's career on Even Stevens play out, including that iconic pie-in-the-face scene. But while we were laughing at Louis Stevens' shenanigans, Otis was juggling the relationship between his divorced, emotionally abusive, parents. It's clear that his father, an ex-con, veteran, and retired rodeo clown, is where Otis gets his humor from—as well as darkness. 

As the faux-Even Stevens is airing, the two smoke cigarettes and practice lines in the run-down motel his father could afford. Sex workers strut across the shared courtyard. Otis also strikes up a relationship with an older girl that lives across the courtyard played by FKA Twigs, who LaBeouf was reportedly dating in real life at the time, which is seriously weird if you think about it too much.

James is desperate to give his son the success that alluded him, but he is flawed with a brittle ego and a jealous streak. The pressure to do better for his son proves to be too much, especially for a man who doesn't quite know what's best for himself. By playing his own father, LaBeouf tenderly reckons with the generational trauma passed down from James to Otis. The story is ultimately about how they found love—and laughter—in one another again. 

LaBeouf says the film helped heal his relationship with his dad, plainly laying the love they have for each other despite the hard times. Coming together around Honey Boy was the first time they'd spoken in seven years. "Now he knows how I feel about him, because ‘I love you’ didn’t mean anything to a person who doesn’t love themselves," he said, reports Chicago Tribune. "For me to say to my father, ‘I love you,’ it didn’t mean [anything.] My father doesn’t love my father, or didn’t then, so to hear your son say it to you didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t accept it. But as an artist, which my father is, to go and build this sculpture for a person and go, ‘Hey, man, I really love you.’ It’s like, ‘He can really feel it.’"

With Disney+ premiering this week, Even Stevens is now available to stream. Watching LaBeouf get into various hijinks feels eerie so soon after viewing Honey Boy; you can't help but wonder what demons are incubating underneath the laughter. The eyes are the window to the soul, but a pie to the face is a great mask. 

Honey Boy is playing in theaters now.