“Jackass Forever” made more than $80 million worldwide, but star Steve-O isn’t such a fan of the 2022 film. In fact, he was dismayed.
“This last ‘Jackass’ movie… it was kind of a bummer, man,” he told NME, reflecting on the fourth big-screen installment in the “Jackass” franchise.
In particular, Steve-O took issue with a “Jackass Forever” stunt that left star Johnny Knoxville with brain damage after a bull sent him flying into the air.
“It’s not fun to watch Knoxville get hit in the head any more,” he said. “I wrote this text to the whole cast that day, thanking Knoxville for the sacrifices he’s made for this team, and also begging that he stops with the brain trauma. It was one of my more serious and sincere messages.”
A 2021 GQ profile of Knoxville detailed the stunt-gone-wrong, reporting that the “Jackass” crew filmed the bit at the end of 2020 as production was coming to a close. And Steve-O told GQ he tried to talk Knoxville out of it.
“Before he even got in the bullring, I’m thinking, ‘Look, everything’s been going really well. We arguably have a great movie in the can. We don’t need to be doing this, and why the f–k are we doing this?'” Steve-O said.
Knoxville taunted the bull with a magic trick, and the bull charged him and flipped him one and a half times, with Knoxville landing on his head. He was hospitalized with a broken rib, a broken wrist, a concussion, and a brain hemorrhage. Knoxville told GQ it was “definitely the most intense bull hit I’ve ever taken,” and he suffered excruciating headaches afterward.
GQ also published the text Steve-O sent Knoxville and the rest of the “Jackass Forever” cast. It read: “Knox, while it’s actually happening, watching you play with bulls (and yaks) has always been my very least favorite part of this thing called Jackass. But watching the footage after the fact has always made me profoundly grateful. The ultimate risks you have always taken for this team truly set you apart, on your own, as the backbone of it. You’re not just a shockingly pretty face. You are the craziest f–king stuntman ever to live.”
