Shia LaBeouf Opens up About ‘Horrible’ Holes Filming Experience

Shia LaBeouf did not have a good time filming Holes.

Holes is the 2003 Disney movie directed by Andrew Davis. Based on the 1998 novel by Louis Sachar, it stars LaBeouf in his theatrical film debut. LaBeouf plays Stanley Yelnats in the movie, while the cast also includes Sigourney Weaver as Louise Walker, Jon Voight as Mr. Sir, and Tim Blake Nelson as Steve Pendanski.

What did Shia LaBeouf say about filming Holes?

Captured in a video shared on YouTube by @TreyEversman, LaBeouf was asked about his experience filming Holes last month at Steel City Con. LaBeouf recalled the production, which took place in Ridgecrest, California, being “horrible” and then went on to explain the multiple reasons why.

“Jon Voight is walking around in character. I’d never been around somebody like that, who doesn’t break. 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. 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, there.

“Also, my dad was hitting on Sigourney Weaver all the time. And, uh, that didn’t work.

“It was 150 degrees in the hole. So you could only be in the hole for five-minute windows, per the Screen Actors Guild. So they had a rep sitting out there with a stopwatch — you’d do these takes, and he’d be like, ‘five minutes,’ and we’d have to jump out of the hole even if we were in the middle of the take.

“There was this kid who used to have a toothpick in his mouth all the time. That kid, Jake. We all had like 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. 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 concluded, “It was a pretty intense shoot. I don’t know if you could shoot something like that on Netflix now. There’s stuff you could do then that you can’t do now.”