Parents: What they don’t know won’t hurt them. At least, that was Honey Boy star Shia LaBeouf’s approach to asking his own dad, Jeffrey LaBeouf, if he could not only make a movie about him, but also play him himself. (Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play 12- and 22-year-old Shia LaBeouf, respectively.) The writer and star of Honey Boy explained just how he got his dad to sign off on the film while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “My dad’s a pretty off-color character,” LaBeouf began. “He wasn’t too enthused about me playing him.” Honey Boy, which was originally written as a PTSD exercise while the actor was in court-mandated rehab, details the verbal and physical abuse he received from his father. The film’s director, Alma Har’el, told Business Insider that LaBeouf hadn’t spoken to his father “in seven years.” But he needed to make this movie. “So I lied to him and told him that Mel Gibson would be playing him,” LaBeouf laughed on Kimmel. “My dad was like ‘Mel Gibson? Alright, okay, alright.’ Had him sign the paperwork. And then I got home and I broke it to him. I sent him pictures. I said ‘Listen, man, it’s not like that.’”
