Christy Carlson Romano says she and Shia LaBeouf were 'like oil and water' on Even Stevens

Christy Carlson Romano says she and Shia LaBeouf were “like oil and water” on Even Stevens.

Romano made the comment on Tuesday to host Amanda Hirsch on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, in an interview reported by Variety. She was 14 when they started work together. He was 12.

Even Stevens ran from 2000 to 2003. The Disney Channel sitcom followed perfectionist Ren Stevens, played by Romano, and her trouble-prone younger brother Louis, played by LaBeouf.

Romano said she arrived trained to be type A, just like Ren. That meant knowing her lines, hitting her marks and drawing on pre-college Juilliard training. LaBeouf, she said, was “a Venice Beach kind of bum kid” whose upbringing she likened to the lifestyle shown in the 1995 film Kids.

She still credited him for drive. Romano said LaBeouf found his own manager at eight years old and made his dream happen for himself.

On the same day as the podcast, Romano posted an old photo on Instagram of herself with LaBeouf and his father on the Even Stevens set. She wrote that the pair spent three years in adjoining trailers while enduring painful childhoods.

The remarks add context to a tense history. Earlier in 2026, Romano posted and then deleted an X statement that “Shia doesn’t deserve to be on the Rushmore” after Raven-Symoné named LaBeouf to her Disney Mount Rushmore. In older interviews, Romano said she felt “salty” about LaBeouf’s post-show success and that the pair had been out of contact for nearly 20 years, according to People.

Romano said she will tell more of her side in her forthcoming memoir, Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star, available on 6 Oct. After Even Stevens, she went on to voice the lead role in Kim Possible, according to People.

For fans who grew up with the Stevenses, this fills in a gap. The friction was real. The respect, at least now, is stated too.