Being that this film explores the complex relationship between art and therapy, do you think it would be too bold to say that all art is therapeutic for both the creator and the audience that interprets it?
Nothing’s too bold, but that really depends on the artists, many times. At its best, art has saved my life, personally. I know that everything I have in my life today that is healthy and that is functional comes from the fact that I have learned how to express myself, found my voice, got a sense of self, and found value in myself as somebody that can create art. I would say that, prior to that, I was literally a leaf in the wind that everything can take away or destroy. I can’t speak enough to the therapeutic value that art has given me, and I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for art. I don’t ever question the fact that the only reason that I am making films and making art is because I had to. And I know that there are so many people out there like me that create art [who] had to do it.
Shia mentioned that your approach to filmmaking reflects qualities of Gestalt therapy, which involves roleplaying.
Roleplaying, and also working through your dreams, and roleplaying parts in your dreams. It was the first form of therapy that I’ve done when I was 22. It came from therapy I’ve done in Tel Aviv, dealing with a lot of issues of my own addiction, a lot of self-harm that I was inflicting on myself at the time, and eating disorders; all sorts of issues that I was running up against, and Gestalt therapy was the first therapy that I was treated with.
Why was it important to you for Shia to play his father instead of the older Otis?
Shia sent me the script from rehab. There’s obviously exceptional work that was done, but I’m, personally, less interested in straightforward biopics. I’m much more interested in bending genres and playing with expectations of cinema, and you can see that in all of my work. Him playing his father [would] give this film the meta-layer that he’s very interested in in all of his performance art, but also that I’m interested in in my work. Also, before we were even discussing it as a script, because he just wrote it as an exercise, [it] was just James and young Otis in a room. Older Otis was something that we worked through later on that I really thought could give perspective on the whole film and show what happened as a result of all of those years and the effects of PTSD, childhood trauma, and addiction.
[Shia]’s done either very comedic work that was brilliant, from “Even Stevens,” one of the best child-acting performances I’ve ever, ever seen, to his more dramatic roles that have been really impressive. But I haven’t really seen him married to it so much, and I thought that playing his father would be the perfect role for him to explore both. And when you see the film, there is such, such heavy moments with his character, but also so many funny characterizations and subtle humor in it. People laugh so much, and that’s what people find elevating in this film. They experience immense pain and introspective thoughts about their own childhood, and then they really laugh. And that’s just my favorite shit.
There’s a simultaneous levity to the heaviness. How were you able to set up those intimate shots in the confined spaces in the motel with DP Natasha Braier, allowing for the spontaneity of the performances between LaBeouf and Jupe?
That’s all Natasha Braier. I fought . I thought she was the only cinematographer that could do it. She has the ability to be extremely stylized but also personal in her work, and I wanted to find a way to go between the two things. She set up in those rooms lighting setups that were very different from how people usually would handle that. Usually, people would light it 360. But she lit many setups, controlling them from iPads. It’s kind of like DJ’ing them live while the operators were in the room. I sometimes operated one of the cameras, and we just managed to shoot it almost like a documentary. She could change the lights as we went along, so that created that really dramatic look, but also a very fluid way of shooting the scenes.
Shia seems like a new person. How have you noticed him change, grow, or mature over the course of the production, either creatively or personally?
Man, Shia really does seem like a new person these days. It’s not when I saw it in the production itself. It was actually when I saw almost an emphasis on everything that was painful, everything that was hard, and everything that was triggering to him, so it was almost actually like pushing away the worst version of that pain out and being able to create safe space for that. But once we finished those films and he had some time to process it, he started his theater, which is Slauson Rec, which is in Los Angeles and works with young people from South Central LA and young actors. They work twice a week over there, and he’s extremely dedicated to it.
Creating new opportunities for himself to be creative and connecting with other people not only on sets and press junkets and cinema but actually bringing his creativity outside of it and not being dependent on the system anymore in Hollywood – that freedom and those connections have been really healing to him. He’s been sober over a year and a half now for the first time in his life. So, we’re seeing him changing in front of our eyes and learning new tools on how to deal with the trauma and the anger that it generated.
“Honey Boy” screened last month at the MVFF, and will arrive in theaters on November 8.
