Even Stevens Cast Reunites and Reacts To Shia LaBeouf’s Honey Boy

The cast and crew of “Even Stevens” reunited for the 20th anniversary of the Disney show this week — and while star Shia LaBeouf was MIA, both the actor and his movie “Honey Boy” came up during the 90-minute conversation.

Stars Christy Carlson Romano, Nick Spano, Steven Anthony Lawrence, A.J. Trauth, Tom Virtue, Jim Wise and Lauren Frost all showed up for the group Zoom call, as well as show creator Matt Dearborn and a number of other crew members.

Spano was the first to reference Shia’s absence, saying he was a “huge, huge, huge part of the show” and adding they all “owe a lot of its success to his raw talent.”

“Unfortunately, we could not get him to join the reunion today,” he added. “We reached out to everyone and we really made a solid effort to have them here with us. It’s kind of hard to reboot a show that’s as special as it is without Shia. He’s here with us in spirit.”

Throughout the lengthy conversation, fans kept asking about “Honey Boy,” LaBeouf’s semi-autobiographical movie about being a child actor and his volatile relationship with his father.

“A lot of fans obviously went and saw Honey Boy, and the takeaway from that [movie] was that it wasn’t as great a set as I think all of us fondly remember it to be,” said Spano.

“I think that it was a special time at Disney. It was a special time for all of us,” he continued, speaking to his experience on the show. “I want to leave people with a different impression, because we all go through difficult times in our lives, and we all experience moments very different than other people do, but I think that working in show business as long as I had  … there was nothing but a great sense of community and family on Even Stevens, and we actually all cared about each other.”

“Life is challenging. We’re going through some difficult times right now as a nation, but Even Stevens will definitely be one of those places that was a safe place and a home,” he continued. “And if anyone was going through a difficult time, we cared about each other and we were there for each other and you don’t find that on many sets.”

Lawrence, AKA “Beans,” agreed. “Honestly, yeah, I saw Honey Boy, and it’s not so much that everything else was so bad, it’s just our set really was such a solitude, and a home for so many people, cast and crew.”

He added, “We all took such a huge refuge in coming to work, because it wasn’t work, it was coming to see our family.”

Producer David Grace, who actually made a cameo in the movie and was on the call, added that all of them really were “family.”

“I adore all of you guys,” he added. “There was nothing but a great sense of community and family on Even Stevens.”