Known
for captivating (and often nauseating) audiences with his iconic TV
show, “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville has managed to
parlay his penchant for self-mutilation into a viable film career,
with starring roles in THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, DALTRY CALHOUN and
others. This week returns to his roots, serving up another helping
of outrageous pranks, stunts and various other obscenities with JACKASS:
NUMBER TWO.
Knoxville
and director Jeff
Tremaine recently stopped by the Roosevelt Hotel in
Hollywood
to talk about JACKASS: NUMBER TWO. Check it out.
| Johnny Knoxville | Jeff Tremaine |
Johnny,
all the other guys said that you’re the leader. How hard is it to
keep the reigns on these guys?
Knoxville
: Jeff keeps the
reigns. It’s a tough gig, too, trying to keep guys sober, trying
to convince people to do horrible things. That’s his job.
What
exactly does a director do in a film like this? What do you tell the
guys?
Tremaine:
“You – do that. You – shoot it.”
Knoxville
: Yeah. “You put
that in there…”
Tremaine:
“Sorry about that. I didn’t think that was gonna happen…”
Knoxville
: Poking,
prodding…
Tremaine:
Sometimes I gotta explain what we think is gonna happen, why he
should do it…
Knoxville
: And everyone
knows all of his moves and they don’t want to do it, but how can
you say no to those eyes?
Are
you the guy that has to deliver the bad news when the studio says
you can’t do a stunt?
Tremaine:
Yeah. We don’t take “No” well, though. If the studio tells us
no, we’re probably gonna go shoot it. [laughs]
Knoxville
: The studio left
us alone (on this film).
Paramount
left us alone. The MPAA left us alone. Thank you
Paramount
and the MPAA.
Tremaine:
It went really smooth. Unbelievably smooth. (The studio) never asked
us to do another film. They never once approached us. So we just
brought it to ‘em.
Knoxville
: They didn’t
want the liability.
What
about the bulls?
Knoxville
: They were very
cooperative when filming. They’ll get you good footage every time.
I just sit there and they do the rest.
Tremaine:
We built these giant…I call them “Bull Guns.” You get a
trailer and you back it right up to the target, and then you open
the door. And they’ll basically run right up to the target and
smoke ‘em. [laughs]
Knoxville
: We’re not
“targets.” We have feelings.
Johnny,
why are you still doing this?
Knoxville
: I love it. It’s
me and all my friends and we travel all over the world. It’s what
we do. This type of humor is what we do.
Tremaine:
A professional idiot. The best in the business.
How
did the sequel come together?
Tremaine:
After the first movie, that was it for Jackass. We felt that we left
it all out there and did what we wanted to do and ended that
chapter. And then I started a show called Wildboyz with Chris and
Steve-O. That was just so we could travel around and be idiots.
Knoxville
would periodically come with us on a few of the trips. The last trip
we ever went on for Wildboyz was
Russia
. And in
Russia
he was so willing to kill himself for like the dumbest idea, so I
pulled him aside and said, “If you really want to do this, let’s
back it off of cable TV and do it for a bigger audience.” And he
didn’t warm up to the idea right away, so told him that we don’t
have to one-up the last one; all we have to do is make a funny
movie. We don’t have to outdo the last one.
Knoxville
: That did it. When
he said that, I was like, “Hmmm…”
With
all the footage you have, how long does it take to put it together
in the editing room?
Tremaine:
It takes a long time. We start editing the day after we start
shooting. When I’m not on location I’m in the edit bay. And
we’ve been editing this since February. We really over-shot on
this one. But this idiot next to me would not let me stop shooting.
We’d say, “That’s a picture wrap,” and he would go, “No
it’s not. Promise me we’re still shooting.”
Are
you open to doing a Jackass 3?
Knoxville
: Well, we said
that we would never do a second one, so we’re the wrong people to
ask.
Tremaine:
Yeah, we feel stupid being here, because we really did close the
book after the first one and now we’re here talking about the
second one. We don’t intend to, but we do have 40 minutes of
really good stuff that’s gonna come out in one way or another. And
we’re shooting in November and I know Johnny’s not gonna want to
stop shooting, so something’s gonna happen. I’m not calling it
“Three,” but you’ll see what we shoot at some time.
Johnny,
aren’t you ever scared of killing yourself?
Knoxville
: Well, I don’t
want fear of death to influence me when I’m doing a stunt, you
know? So I block that out and say to myself, “Oh, this is gonna be
fun.”
During
the “Anaconda Ball Pit” scene, did you ever think of stopping
the shoot when you got bit?
Knoxville
: No. One time we
had to stop because I was out of breath from wrestling that thing,
but I was like, “I want to get footage.”
Tremaine:
Did you see the tape we put on their wrists? That was just to make
them do it. They were like, “What if it bites me on my wrists?”
“I don’t know. Let’s tape your wrists.” Those teeth will go
right through it.
Knoxville
: I love that
irrationality.
You
didn’t even think twice about it. The other guys seemed scared.
Knoxville
: I was just so
excited to be doing it again and getting footage. I’m sure it’s
gonna hurt, but just for a little bit.
What’s
the worst injury you’ve had?
Knoxville
: I’ve been
pretty lucky – just some breaks, sprains and concussions.
Tremaine:
That would be Gonorrhea in
Chile
, 1994.
Knoxville
: Syphilis in
Tibet
…
What
can we expect on the DVD?
Knoxville
: A lot.
Tremaine:
Like I said, we overshot this movie to the nth. We’re gonna do a
“making of.” We have tons of outtakes. We have so much footage.
Any
commentary?
Knoxville
: Oh yeah. Really
insightful, too. [laughs]
Tremaine:
You’ll wanna skip that one.
Are
you amazed at how far this has come since you began doing these
stunts?
Knoxville
: It’s insane.
Tremaine:
We were surprised that anyone was interested in it. And then it
became a TV and then the TV show became a hit. And we were just
like, “Whatever.” If you guys like it, great. If you don’t, oh
well.
Knoxville
: It’s surreal.
Half of our cast didn’t graduate high school, but we get the joke.
We’re very lucky.
How
did you guys meet each other?
Knoxville
: We met on a
friend’s video in 1994 and we went to a bar that night. We kept in
touch and a few years later I started contributing to Big Brother
(the magazine).
Tremaine:
He was writing articles for us. That was at the same time that we
started doing videos as a supplement to the magazine and he had the
idea to do the brilliant self defense test, where he pepper sprayed
himself in the eyes, stun gun in the ribs, tazed him over the heart
and then went out in the desert, got the most expensive bullet proof
vest – $49.95 – that he could afford at the time and shot himself
with his buddy’s .38, point blank in the chest. And I got him to
film it.
Knoxville
: I wasn’t even
going to film it. I was just going to write an article.
Tremaine:
I already had the other guys – Steve-O, Wee Man, Bam – but this
guy was actually talking to the camera. He could talk. So I figured
I could put this all together and make a show. You put music over
Chris and Steve-O’s bits and you let him talk, and you’ve got a
show.
Questions?
Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at thomasleupp@joblo.com.