Strange (And Often Dark) Behind The Scenes Secrets From Even Stevens

Despite becoming rich and famous at a young age, Shia Labeouf’s childhood was far from easy. He grew up in a poor family and wasn’t from a showbiz background, nor did he have the stage school training you would associate with child actors. In fact, LaBeouf would often get in trouble as a kid and had trouble sticking around in one place for long. According to LaBeouf, he'd been kicked out of every school he ever attended. After stealing Pokemon games and Tamagotchis, LaBeouf was eventually arrested in grade school for stealing shoes – something he later acted out via his character in Holes.

When LaBeouf was plucked out of a life that could've gone down an even darker path, he knew the reason why. “They didn’t hire me because I was a good looking dude,” LaBeouf told the Hollywood Reporter in 2011. “They hired me because I had no fear, no respect for authority, and no respect for boundaries.” For the wise-cracking, troublemaking Louis Stevens, Shia LaBeouf was the perfect character actor. The real-life nuisance added an edge to Even Stevens that many highly-trained child actors couldn't pull off, and the series ended up being one of Disney Channel's biggest hits.

Emancipation is when a young person legally liberates themselves from their parents. It often only happens when the child can show that they are self-sufficient, or that their parents aren't capable guardians. For Shia LaBeouf, both were true. At just 15, LaBeouf made this drastic move and moved out on his own. And though LaBeouf's emancipation was due to a troubled childhood, he’s not the only young actor to have done this – more recently, Ariel Winter of Modern Family fame did the same thing.

For the other child stars on the set of Even Stevens, life on a Disney Channel show was a dream come true. The parties were everything you'd dream Disney tween-life parties were like in the early 2000s. According to Labeouf, "they would invite the Hilary Duffs and Miley Cyruses to go to the Jonas Brothers concert, and I'd be there with my friends. But we were outsiders." Despite looking like he got along so well with his cast when the cameras rolled, LaBeouf never felt like one of the Disney child star gang, going so far as to say that, "it felt distant."

We’ve already seen how Shia’s upbringing was troubled, but that trouble followed him on set in the form of his dad. His father was accused, among other things, of being a nuisance on set and distracting his son, as well as the rest of the cast and crew. In fact, Shia's dad, Jeffrey LaBeouf, had gone a lot further than simple distraction, as he'd been accused of sexual harassment on the set of Even Stevens. The incident happened during filming in 2000, and had happened to an unnamed actress. Jeffrey LaBeouf has since been in trouble with the law for multiple serious sex offenses, and had even been jailed for attempted rape before LaBeouf was born. 

Jeffrey LaBeouf had caused another scandal on the set of Even Stevens when he attacked a Disney executive. The man went to give Jeffrey a congratulatory hug and, according to Shia, his dad almost threw the man against a wall. Add to this the fact that Jeffrey was also accused of using anti-gay remarks on set, and you start to see why having him around the set of a children's show became a big issue. More reports of the attack on set claim that the Disney executive was himself gay, making Jeffrey LaBeouf's attack all the more appalling.