Shia LaBeouf rose to fame in Hollywood with his role in Transformers. Unlike his 2007 self, he’s not exactly marketable as a movie star right now after the abuse allegations brought forward by his former partner FKA Twigs in 2020. But he can surely write a movie as we saw in Honey Boy.
Back in 2019, Shia LaBeouf released the drama movie Honey Boy through Amazon Studios to critical acclaim. The movie is known to be loosely based on LaBeouf’s own life, depicting his childhood and the strained relationship that he and his father Jeffrey LaBeouf had. The plot in itself was interesting enough as it would give us an account of what the actor’s life was like as a kid, or did it?
Turns Out Honey Boy Is Not 100% True About Shia LaBeouf’s Childhood After All
Whenever a director adapts a real-life incident or event into a full-fledged story for a movie, their hands are tied in the sense that they are inclined to make some changes to the original story.
This problem only gets worse when the movie is based on a person’s life, which as we all would assume can’t possibly always be interesting 24/7. So dramatization is the need of the hour to make the movie a worthwhile watch.
At first, Shia LaBeouf‘s Honey Boy seems like an honest take on the dynamics of an abusive father and a son who suffers from his father’s deplorable behavior, ultimately resulting in a scarred childhood. But as the latest plot twist for the movie comes out, three years after the release of the movie, LaBeouf was lying all along.
Claiming to have written the script as a form of therapy while in rehab, LaBeouf reveals this in an appearance on Jon Bernthal’s podcast Real Ones. The 36-year-old star said-
“Here’s a man who I’ve done vilified on a grand scale. I wrote this narrative, which was just fucking 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 fucked he was as a man.”
Turns out his dad wasn’t as abusive either-
“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.”
Well, fans of the actor as well as Honey Boy must be feeling bamboozled right now. But it is surely an interesting plot twist that we got to know of later on!
Honey Boy Fans Aren’t Impressed With Shia LaBeouf’s Revelation
It can at least be universally agreed among people who watched Honey Boy that Shia LaBeouf’s big reveal came a bit too late, and it sucks even more if someone enjoyed the movie.
You can’t really blame anyone who would be furious at LaBeouf for having lied about the actual events that took place, but it’s important to note that the Maniac director could pretty much change his mind again about whether or not the story of Honey Boy is true to its source material.
Regardless, fans are understandably angry about LaBeouf’s statement, and here are their reactions-
Shia LaBeouf lied about his abuse from his father and the plot of Honey Boy. A film that was genuinely really powerful now feels like complete and total manipulation.
I hope everyone who praised and defended Shia LaBeouf the other day are embarrassed.
— Spookster Jerome🎃🎃👻 (@JeromeM94Movies) August 30, 2022
Shocking behavior-
I'm shocked. I know he's a revolting person anyway but I'm mortified
— My only happiness are friends, music and my work (@0325_jade) August 30, 2022
This user is not too fazed by LaBeouf’s dishonesty-
Welp not shocked but gross
— 👀☕️🦆C says abolish the filibuster (@Teafor2and2fort) August 30, 2022
Not a good look-
Shia LaBeouf lying about his father abusing him as a kid in real life as depicted in Honey Boy is disgusting and disturbing pic.twitter.com/ewHFyW8BpM
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) August 30, 2022
Retconning your own childhood experiences, that must be new! –
So he made a big pretentious self important movie about his childhood and now he's trying to retcon it? Lmao
— Not Really a Sexy Goth (@HelloH_22) August 30, 2022
This user questions LaBeouf’s integrity as an actor/director-
Why do people keep hiring him? He is not a big enough draw for the headache, so how tf does he keep getting hired, and what does that say about the people who keep hiring him?
— Just Bob (@JustBob41395021) August 30, 2022
Who knows what else LaBeouf could be lying about? There’s one thing that keeps LaBeouf from having a worse rep as of now, and it’s his honesty in admitting that he “hurt that woman” (FKA Twigs) in the very same appearance on Jon Bernthal’s Real Ones podcast.
Honey Boy is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Vanity Fair
