Noah Jupe and director Alma Har'el watched a lot of Even Stevens in preparation for Honey Boy
Though director Alma Har’el and Noah Jupe didn’t quite subject themselves to a Shia LaBeouf movie marathon in preparation for Honey Boy, the two did watch an awful lot of Even Stevens. In LaBeouf’s semi-fictionalized autobiographical film, Jupe plays Otis—a proxy for Shia during his Disney Channel days—so it was a crucial for him to have an understanding of the joyful mania the actor brought to the role of Louis Stevens. On the day of Honey Boy’s Los Angeles premiere, we spoke with Har’el and Jupe about their collaboration with LaBeouf and his largely hands-off approach on set, giving them freedom to interpret his story as they saw fit. We also made sure to ask Har’el about Lucas Hedges’ (who plays an older Otis) behind-the-scenes Lana Del Rey singalongs, and learned that LaBeouf made Jupe a very 90s playlist, including TLC, Kris Kross, and plenty of West Coast hip-hop.