Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 10 december 2019

LaBeouf thought he was finished, then he wrote ‘Honey Boy’

By JAKE COYLE others. Few as raw and inti-
Associated Press mate as what he wrote.
NEW YORK (AP) — While It was intended as a thera-
in court-mandated rehab peutic exercise to trace
following his viral-videoed, the roots of LaBeouf’s al-
racist-ranting 2017 arrest coholism (which led to that
for public drunkenness and 2017 incident) and his di-
disorderly conduct, Shia agnosed post-traumatic
LaBeouf put his childhood stress disorder. He wrote
reflections into screenplay about himself and his fa-
format. That’s just what he ther. He hadn’t spoken
knew. An actor since he to him in seven years. His
was 10, LaBeouf’s life had dad, whose name is Jef-
been a series of screen- frey LaBeouf, had served in
plays. Some better than Vietnam and been a rodeo

This image released by Amazon Studious shows Shia LaBeouf in a scene from “Honey Boy.”
Associated Press

clown. While LaBeouf was tles and ultimately comes LaBeouf was starring on
a fast-rising child actor, he to peace with his father. the Disney Channel show
was his son’s paid chaper- LaBeouf considers it an act “Even Stevens.” To be clos-
one. He was aggressively of exorcism and liberation. er to set, he lived for a time
supportive, riddled with “There’s something freeing in a motel with his father.
jealousy and, according to about this experience and (LaBeouf’s parents are di-
the film, occasionally abu- also going a little bit crazy,” vorced.)
sive. says LaBeouf. “Going a lit- Then a drug addict in re-
LaBeouf sent his pages to tle bit crazy, I wish that on covery, LaBeouf’s father
his friend, Israeli-born di- everyone. There’s some- (portrayed in the film as a
rector Alma Har’el. She at thing very freeing about former sex offender) was
once responded that they going a little bit crazy. Cra- in many ways ill-suited as
had to turn it into a movie. zy is freedom.” a parent. LaBeouf’s per-
“I thought she was out of Har’el first met LaBeouf formance is a tender por-
her mind,” says LaBeouf. “I after the actor, while rum- trait of a damaged man
didn’t think we could get maging in the Bob Dylan who damaged his son, but
funding. I didn’t think any- section of Los Angeles’ who still gave him much.
body was trying to make Amoeba Records, came By placing himself in his fa-
movies with me anymore. across her dreamy quasi- ther’s shoes, LaBeouf could
I was going to join the documentary portrait of see their life together
Peace Corps.” three residents living in a through his dad’s perspec-
Instead, Har’el found the ghost town on the shores tive.
funding and they made of the Salton Sea, “Bom- “My dad is a fighter, a sur-
“Honey Boy” with an add- bay Beach.” LaBeouf ex- vivor. He’s some kind of
ed wrinkle, urged on by ecutive produced her next cockroach,” says LaBeouf.
Har’el: LaBeouf plays his film, 2016’s “LoveTrue.” In “It’s unbelievable how he’s
father. It’s the most criti- those and “Honey Boy,” able to stay afloat. I can’t
cally acclaimed film of Har’el has made a habit believe he’s still alive. He’s
LaBeouf’s career. of bending gender and a street poet. He’s cowboy
For even an actor known identity, capturing and de- culture. He’s Americana.
for performance-art stunts constructing what she calls He’s a soldier. He’s an art-
(remember the paper bag “the performance of self.” ist. He’s a comedian. He’s
over his head ) and public Har’el thought LaBeouf’s a lover. He’s a beautiful
displays of painful self-ex- first act, before they made man.”
amination (LaBeouf once the movie, should be to go Getting into character,
sat for a marathon of all talk to his father, who lives LaBeouf, says began with
his movies at New York’s in Costa Rica. He did, read finding his father’s voice
Angelika Film Center, an him the script and got his — a nasal sound, because
experience he compares blessing, “both legally and years of cocaine dam-
to flipping through your spiritually” says Har’el. aged his nose, but not a
high school yearbook with “We’re done fighting with nebbish one. LaBeouf also
strangers), “Honey Boy” is each other,” says LaBeouf. went to unusual lengths to
something else. “I missed him terribly. We depict his dad’s physical-
The film , which Amazon missed each other. Way ity.
Studios opens in theaters more than I want to be “My dad was very proud
this weekend, is radically right, I want my dad.” of his manhood,” he says.
autobiographical for such Their divisions, he says, “Throughout the course of
a well-known movie star. came in part from politics the movie I had this big dil-
As therapy writ large, it’s a but more deeply grew do in my pants. It changed
striking exercise in empa- out of the period depict- the way I moved and the
thy in which LaBeouf wres- ed in “Honey Boy,” when way I sat.”q