Shia LaBeouf has opened up about the “horrible” experience he had filming Holes as a kid — with actor Jon Voight being partly responsible.
In December at Steel City Con, LaBeouf was asked about what it was like to film the 2003 Walt Disney Pictures film Holes. That prompt led to the actor revealing a multitude of reasons the experience was less than ideal. One of the primary reasons was due to Jon Voight and his style of acting, and how he came into conflict with LaBeouf’s dad, Jeffrey.
“Jon Voight is walking around in character. I’d never been around somebody like that, who doesn’t break,” began LaBeouf. “He’s spitting these sunflower seeds around, and he’s like mean, and I’m like, ‘Nah, this isn’t going to work.’”
“My dad was my dad,” LaBeouf continued. "He didn’t know nothing about that, either. So he and my dad had to have a whole thing. Oh, boy. Then, because my dad’s not diplomatic — at this point, he’s only four years out of prison. And Jon Voight is playing these games… Jon had to check my dad, which was healthy for my family. A lot went on.”
After revealing that his father kept trying to flirt with Sigourney Weaver (“that didn’t work”), LaBeouf shared a shocking story about the intense heat at the filming site in Ridgecrest, California.
“There was this kid who used to have a toothpick in his mouth all the time. That kid, Jake,” explained LaBeouf. “We all had these half trailers, and I was in the half trailer with him. I’m sitting in the trailer with my dad one time, we’re playing gin rummy, and I hear this huge bang. The whole thing rocks.”
“I walk outside, and this dude has flown out of his side of the trailer, and the whole wall of the trailer has blown out,” LaBeouf continued. “He’s not just out there; the whole wall is blown out of the trailer. It’s because the refrigeration unit, it was so hot in Ridgecrest that the refrigerator — there was like an oxygen bomb that went off in the refrigerator and blew this kid across the desert.”
LaBeouf wrapped up his reveals by saying that something like Holes probably wouldn't be filmed today, based on how “intense” the shoot was.
LaBeouf isn’t the only actor to have a rough experience filming Holes. In December, Khleo Thomas revealed to People his experience with heat rash caused by the environment in which the movie was filmed.
“I remember it still today. I don't know what happened. We had been in the desert a month by that time, and all of a sudden, maybe they changed the material of the suit that I had on, I don't know, but inside my legs: heat rash," Thomas said. "I'm itching, scratching. My mom asked me what's going on. I end up showing her, and then she goes to the set medic, and they give her some lotion."
"But the lotion had something that made it burn so bad," he continued. "Somewhere on the internet is a photo of me just standing in my trailer, and my face is angry because I was on fire.”