Honey Boy - Noah Jupe Interview

Noah JUpe in, Honey Boy

Keep an eye out for up and coming actor Noah Jupe!! This rising star is definitely going places!

Noah Jupe is certainly having a good tear. The 14 year old British actor is currently starring opposite Christian Bale and Matt Damon in Ford v Ferrari and gives an emotionally charged performance opposite Shia LeBeouf in, Honey Boy.

Jupe , who has starred in a number of big films over the past five years, including “A Quiet Place” and “Wonder,” shot both projects in California last year.

In “Honey Boy” Jupe plays 12-year-old Otis, a fictionalized version of Shia LaBeouf, who wrote the screenplay based on his experiences as a young actor. Although Lucas Hedges stars as Otis at an older age, Jupe is the one who carries most of the difficult and emotional scenes.

Award-winning filmmaker Alma Har'el brings to life a young actor's stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father through cinema and dreams. Fictionalizing his childhood’s ascent to stardom, and subsequent adult crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har'el casts Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the daring and therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon. Artist and musician FKA twigs makes her feature-film debut, playing neighbor and kindred spirit to the younger Otis in their garden-court motel home. Har'el's feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as medicine and imagination as hope.

To prepare, the actors rehearsed for three months with director Alma Har’el. The actual filming took place in only two weeks, with lots of improvisation, particularly from LaBeouf, who plays Otis’ father. To decompress at the end of the long shooting days Jupe would go home and watch “Even Stevens,” LaBeouf’s Disney Channel series that aired from 2000 to 2003 (Jupe wasn’t familiar with any of LaBeouf’s work before filming “Honey Boy”). Har’el suggested he watch one episode as research, but Jupe ended up watching the entire series – plus the TV movie.

I spoke with Noah Jupe via satellite about working on Honey Boy and Ford V Ferrari. Check out our interview below: