NEWSCristy Carlson Romano Reveals Why She Didn't Click With Shia LaBeouf on 'Even Stevens': 'Like Oil and Water'
Christy Carlson Romano said her and Shia LaBeouf's different upbringings led to clashes during their time on 'Even Stevens.'
Oct. 2 2026, Published 8:28 a.m. ET
Cristy Carlson Romano said her sharply different upbringing from Shia LaBeouf helped explain why they struggled to connect while working together on Even Stevens.
"It was oil and water," the former Disney Channel star recalled during a September 29 episode of the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast.
Their Childhoods Shaped Their Dynamic
Cristy Carlson Romano said she'd been raised with structure, while LaBeouf's childhood was chaotic and vagrant.
The 42-year-old connected her difficult relationship with LaBeouf to the contrasting environments in which they grew up. She described LaBeouf's childhood as "vagrant, fun, but also very chaotic and very scary."
Romano, by contrast, grew up in a more structured and disciplined environment.
Despite the differences she described, Romano praised LaBeouf's initiative early in his career. She called him "a legend" for finding his own manager by contacting people listed in a phone book.
She Was Raised Like Ren Stevens
Cristy Carlson Romano compared her strict, 'type A' upbringing directly to Ren, the meticulous character she played.
The Kim Possible voice actor stated that her upbringing prepared her to approach the set with a very different mindset.
"You know your lines, you hit your marks, you don't mess up, you're a New York kid," she remarked.
She described that mentality as "type A" and "exactly like" Ren Stevens, the meticulous older sister she portrayed on the series.
The contrast between her and LaBeouf's personalities became part of the show's appeal
Romano played the highly organized older sister, while LaBeouf portrayed her younger brother Louis during the show's 2000–2003 run.
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She Wished They'd Been There for Each Other
Romano expressed regret that individual childhood battles kept her and Shia LaBeouf from supporting each other.
Romano recently revisited her years working with LaBeouf on Even Stevens on Instagram by sharing a throwback photograph of herself with LaBeouf and his father, Jeffrey LaBeouf.
"Shia and I spent 3 years of our lives right next to each other in adjoining trailers, both of us enduring painful childhoods," she wrote. "If only we could have been there for each other, but we were each going through our own battles and could barely take care of ourselves."
He Snubbed Her on Stage
Shia LaBeouf's failure to thank Romano at the 2003 Emmy podium left her feeling deeply hurt and stung.
The actress previously discussed the relationship in a 2021 YouTube video, where she offered a less flattering assessment of their time together.
"Every set has some people that don't get along," Cristy said at the time. "On my set, from time to time it was like, me and Shia, but I think there was other people that didn't gel well as well."
She also recalled feeling hurt after Shia won a Daytime Emmy in 2003 and did not acknowledge her during his acceptance speech.
"He was on the podium. I was sitting there with the rest of our team, and he thanked like everybody at the table. But he didn't thank me," the former child star recalled.
At the time, she said she viewed the series as something they had built together and felt particularly stung by the moment.
Cristy's memoir, Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star, is scheduled for release October 6 and revisits her years as a child performer.
