Shia LaBeouf says filming Holes was 'horrible' due to extreme conditions and dad's on-set behaviour

Shia LaBeouf has opened up about his 'horrible' experience on the set of a beloved family film - and revealed why he believes the movie wouldn't get made today.

The actor, 39, reflected on how 'intense' it was to film the 2003 Disney movie Holes while taking part in a Q&A panel at this year's Steel City Con in Pennsylvania.

He was just 16 and at the height of his Even Stevens fame when he bagged the leading role in the coming-of-age comedy, which also stars legends such as Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, and Tim Blake Nelson.

Based on the 1998 novel of the same name, written by Louis Sachar, the film follows the arduous journey of teenager Stanley Yelnats after he is sent to a juvenile detention camp in Texas after being wrongfully convicted of theft.

And things go from bad to worse as it soon transpires that 'Camp Green Lake' - where the unfortunate inmates are forced to dog holes for eternity - is run by the cruel Warden Walker (Weaver) and her sidekick, played by Jon Voigt.

Take a look at the trailer here:

Given the plot, LaBeouf and his young co-stars had to spend a lot of time in sweltering holes while shooting the film in the city of Ridgecrest in California. According to the Transformers star, temperatures reached up to '150 degrees' in the trenches, so the child actors were only allowed to be in it 'for five minute windows'.

"We'd have to jump out the hole, even if we were in the middle of the take," he said.

In footage from Steel City Con that was shared online by content creator Trey Eversman, better known online as TreyTV, LaBeouf opened up about why filming Holes took both a mental and physical toll on him.

When asked if he 'liked' shooting the film by a member of the audience, he responded: "No, Holes was horrible."

LaBeouf explained that as he had come fresh from Even Stevens, he didn't have a lot of knowledge about some of the processes his older co-stars put themselves through to craft their characters.

He explained that Hollywood legend Jon Voight - who starred in the film as the sunflower-seed-chewing, gun-toting camp counsellor Mr Sir - was one of the performers who routinely 'walked around in character'.

"I'd never been around somebody like that, who doesn't break," LaBeouf continued. "And he's spitting these sunflower seeds around and he's like, mean...and I'm going, 'Nah, this isn't going to work'."

Last year, LaBeouf revealed that he had nearly come to blows with Voight later in life after a disagreement about politics, despite the Anaconda actor being his 'mentor from a young age'. However, the pair, who went on to star alongside each other in 2007's Transformers and 2024's Megalopolis, later patched things up.

At Steel City Con, LaBeouf told how he was accompanied on the set of Holes by his father Jeffrey - who also 'didn't know' about the method-acting process and didn't appreciate Voight's alleged bad manners.

He went on to say that his dad 'had to have a whole thing' with Voight about this issue, which apparently didn't go too well as Jeffrey is not very 'diplomatic'.

Recalling some of the chaotic moments on set, LaBeouf said: "Jon Voight's playing these games, my dad don't care. So then 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. That didn't work."

Summing up his time on the set of Holes, LaBeouf added: "It was a pretty intense shoot. I don't know if you could shoot something like that on like Netflix now.

"They wouldn't let you put a kid...there's stuff you could do then that you can't do now."

After Eversman uploaded the footage of the Q&A on social media, LaBeouf's Holes co-star Khleo Thomas left a comment which appeared to verify his version of events.

The 36-year-old, who played Hector 'Zero' Zeroni in the film, simply wrote 'all facts' underneath the Instagram post.

Thomas previously told PEOPLE that he suffered from a painful 'heat rash' on the set of Holes, while sharing his own complaints about filming in the California desert.

"My legs were on fire and man, was that uncomfortable," the actor turned rapper said. "It was already hot.

"It's already dusty, but to have a heat rash on your legs and try to wrap your legs around this tall guy [Max Kasch] and choke them out. Oh man, I hated that day."

Thomas said he was 'very grateful' to star alongside LaBeouf in Holes, adding: "He was built for this and getting a chance for him to be my very first major scene partner in a major motion picture film.

"I picked up so much from him, from the very beginning on the first day."

LADbible has contacted Disney for comment.