Christy Carlson Romano was fearful that her future Even Stevens co-star Shia LaBeouf would ruin their audition.
The actress, who released her debut memoir Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star earlier this month, recalled her audition process with LaBeouf in the Monday (Oct. 19) episode of podcast Cheers! With Avery. Around the 25-minute mark of the interview, Romano said LaBeouf was “improvising” throughout their audition, which made her think that he would be “tanking” their opportunity. The actors, however, would eventually be cast as brother-and-sister duo Louis and Ren Stevens in Even Stevens, which ran for three seasons from 2000 to 2003.
“‘He's horrible. I don't like him. He's a threat. He's dangerous. Like, I need this job,’” Romano remembered thinking at the time. “And I just immediately was struck by how chaotic he was. And the way he looked was like so unkempt. And I just had never seen anyone like that in my life.”
Romano added that she was “sheltered” from being exposed to children like LaBeouf, and shared that the actor’s father, Jeffery LaBeouf had a eyebrow-raising criminal history.
“He was in court-ordered community service which is why he was stationed as the chaperone like 24/7 on set with Shia,” she explained about LaBeouf’s father. “And what I found out later was that it was due to an assault that he had on a woman. And I to this day think that was really wrong that they had him around minors and females because he always gave me the creeps.”
LaBeouf has also had troubles with the law, including allegedly abusing his former girlfriend, singer and actress FKA Twigs, and a string of arrests, most recently being booked for assault in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
Romano has frequently spoken about there being a disconnect between her and LaBeouf early on, and claimed that the actor was paid twice as much as her, although both had equal screen time on Even Stevens.
