Johnny Knoxville is 50 years old. Does that surprise you? He’s 50 years old, with a full head of grey-white hair, and he’s promoting the fourth and final Jackass movie. The Jackass franchise was an unlikely one, but it’s a franchise which made Knoxville and the stars rich. Knoxville seems like the only one out of his crew to be a truly functioning member of society though – he’s happily married, with two children at home and an adult daughter living in Texas. He has a pool. He worries about his kids’ safety and he worries about concussions and broken bones. GQ did a somewhat lovely profile of Knoxville to promote the film and he spoke at length about his 30-year-plus Jackass adventure. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
He’s still standing, but just barely: “You can only take so many chances before something irreversible happens. I feel like I’ve been extremely lucky to take the chances I’ve taken and still be walking around. I know what I signed up for. I wrote the stunts.”
He had dyed his hair brown for nearly 20 years: He kept up a faithful coloring regimen that lasted until the pandemic hit. When Knoxville asked his wife to give his hair a buzz, he wasn’t entirely surprised by what it revealed. “I knew that I was gray under there. But I didn’t know how gray.”
His body feels okay: “All things considered, I walked into this interview on my own and I’m eating like a big boy. I’m pretty happy.”
Stuntmen and long-term plans: “Half-ass stuntmen don’t really think long-term,” he said. Shattered bones, dented teeth, trashed ankles, and a litany of other medical setbacks were tolerated. In some way, they were sort of the point—trophies amassed in the pursuit of great footage. Knoxville’s longtime colleague Steve-O mentioned to me that he once heard that Knoxville “was struggling to make left turns in a car” after taking a bad fall during a skateboard stunt. In fact, Knoxville told me, this particular aftereffect traces back to the filming of the first Jackass movie, in 2002, when he was knocked out by the nearly 400-pound boxer Butterbean. “I got vertigo after that, along with the concussion. So when I’d drive around corners, I would just start to get the spins. No [I didn’t stop driving], I just drove slower. They gave me some medication to correct it eventually.”
He never thought he would do a fourth Jackass film: “I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel the need or the desire. It’s a real emotional thing.” There were physical concerns too. “I can’t afford to have any more concussions. I can’t put my family through that.”
When MTV’s Jackass became an overnight success: “It all happened so fast—I don’t know how. We were on the air, and ratings exploded, and I’m on the cover of Rolling Stone. It just happened in an instant.”
His second marriage: His first marriage ended. A new relationship with an old friend straightened him out. “I realized that I can’t live like I was and be with Naomi. I wanted to become a better man for her. At first. Then it was for myself too.” He started seeing a therapist.
Going to therapy: He told her he wasn’t interested in exploring the part of him that wanted to do stunts. “I know that needs looking at. But I didn’t want to break the machine.” It wasn’t just about jeopardizing his livelihood, he explained. Doing stunts “was exciting. It’s something that I did with my friends. And I was decent at it.” It wasn’t so much about the stunts themselves, which were terrifying, as about how completing them made him feel. He loved, he said, “the exhilaration and relief, once you get on the other side of the stunt. Or when you come to. You wake up, you’re like, ‘Oh, was that good?’ And they’re like, ‘That was great.’ You got a good bit when there’s seven people standing over you, snapping their fingers.” When we spoke, he still hadn’t broached the topic in therapy. “I’ll talk about it eventually. It’s not something I need to know this second.”
Towards the end of the profile, Knoxville speaks softly about the issues the other guys have had post-fame. Steve-O battled drug addiction, Bam Margera has battled addictions off-and-on for years. Ryan Dunn died in 2011 in a drunk-driving accident. Steve-O seems to have gotten his life together, but Bam has not. Knoxville talks in general terms about how “I think each of us was responsible for his own actions. And when someone’s struggling, everyone tries to help that person. And at the end of the day, that person has to want help. Sometimes they don’t. Yet.” Days after he said that to GQ, he fired Bam from Jackass 4 because Knoxville tried to contractually force him into rehab and Bam refused.
Throughout the piece, it’s clear that Knoxville never intended to become this half-assed stunt man, and I enjoyed reading the quotes from other people about why he was so good at it – because he had real reactions, he isn’t a natural athlete, and he couldn’t take a fall gracefully, which made it “funnier” somehow. Anyway, Jackass 4 apparently has footage of a bull knocking Johnny unconscious and giving him a brain hemorrhage. All for the footage.
Johnny Knoxville for the June/July issue of GQ. Photographed by Katy Grannan and styled by Jon Tietz. Read the full story by @samschube here: https://t.co/pFcERAnZ69 pic.twitter.com/WMB6edgQUY
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) May 25, 2021
Photos courtesy of GQ.
Omg I feel so old seeing Johnny with great hair. He’s only 5 years older than me. I used to think he was so hot. I don’t like how they styled him.
SO MANY COLOURS!!! That was my thought on that first picture. I still think Johnny is a good-looking man. I love the grey hair.
I like the colors! He’s somehow looking frail though. Makes me feel elderly.
I thought the front photo was Jamie Lee Curtis.
same here!
I thought it was a picture of Anthony Bourdain.
I thought it was David Foster!
Me too!!
Ha ha. Me too!
I was never a Jackass fan, just not my thing – but lordy hearing that he’s 50 does make me feel old lol.
These pictures kind of look like the way a comedic sitcom would age one of the actors for some kind of flash-forward scene, and somehow this suits him very well, in my opinion. When “Jackass” came out, those guys seemed so old to me (way back then- hah!). I just found out today Johnny Knoxville is barely ten years older than me. Huh.
I will always have a love for Johnny Knoxville. Jackass was and still is hysterically funny, and reminds me of all the dumbass things my friends and family have done over the years.
I remember an interview with him on Graham Norton years ago and he seems so likable and just delightful.
I thought that pic was David Foster! 😂
As someone who survived crazy stunts like bouldering alone and topping 40pmh on my road bike I know what’s on the other side. I did the therapy and got sober. There is definitely a reason why some of us disregard our own safety and it goes all the way back to childhood neglect. I loved Jackass at first and then it made me feel icky, now I know why.
Reading this interview and your response gives me hope for the future. So many things that we just didn’t look at below the surface 20 years ago are really coming into sharp focus now (Police brutality and the killing of unarmed POC, the abuse of young women in the media and beyond, “me too” and the rampant sexual abuse, discrimination, and dysfunction women have been subject to, the reasons why these guys got blasted and tried to kill themselves on film, to name a few) are really getting sharp focus now. We’re realizing that it is all very NOT “okay” and that being a bystander, laughing at the pain of another or shrugging and walking away isn’t the right response. There is a lot wrong with our world, no doubt, but the relatively new insight into how we treat each other and why we do the things we do in a positive. I hope Johnny addresses the elephant in the room with his therapist when he feels safe to do so.
He looks hella old. You don’t notice age as much in stars you see all the time but I don’t know when the last time I saw a picture of Johnny, so it kinda shocked me.
Yeah it shocked me too
My forever crush, and the silver fox look is workin’ for me
Same. He still looks good and he always was the anchor of that show, very real and authentic in his way, and it’s nice that that’s still there.
Yes me too! Always looked great shirtless, which was my cellphone wallpaper for a while and i remember even my mom asking when she saw it ‘who is that?’ Lol
Who needs Jackass #4?! It’s ridiculous. yes, I’m old
I’m kind of surprised Jackass managed to survive the youtube era, which is full of people doing that sort of stuff for free. I can’t imagine the aches and pains.
After reading about him and Jessica Simpson’s relationship in her book, I’ve found him interesting and he sounds like a good person. I remember watching Bam and the Jackass crew in high school and college. The guys did not seem like they were gonna be around long with all the partying and stunts. I’m glad Johnny seems like he is sane and has his life together.
Why did they style him like a 90 year old man? He’s 50, not geriatric
God I remember my boys (and my 4th boy, the husband) laughing their asses off to this crap. Trust me, I was never in the room lol.
JK is my one star f**/one night stand story I’m ashamed to retell since he was married at the time (unbeknownst to a 24-year old me). Circa 2004, ahhhh those were the days.
omg veruca — dish
Haha, it was at a Hollywood bar, not a celeb hotspot but you did run into enough there. My girlfriend and I were sitting at the bar and there was a rowdy group of guys next to us that were just OBNOXIOUSLY loud and kept bumping into the back of me (this is a very dark bar). At one point my drink got knocked over and when I turned to face then to give them a piece of my mind, we saw it was the entire Jackass crew and JK was seated next to me the whole time. He/they apologized profusely and paid for our tab and our drinks for the rest of the night. They invited us to an after party to someone’s house up in the Hollywood hills and of course we went! Somehow I was the one chatting w/ JK all night and then……. in the morning he graciously called a car for me (my friend took off, she was engaged and not messing around lol) and gave me his number. I never called it because I kind of knew what the deal was. The end!
Oh I am IN to this (other than the married part, but it’s not a surprise, they all cheat!). Care to spill SFW deets?
Do tell! I’m in lockdown in Sydney and could really use some cheering up
I hope Bam will get it together. It’s just sad.
Worked on the first Jackass movie with these dudes. Genuinely funny and great guys all around.
Wow, I feel so old now. I used to think he was soooooo sexy, he was legit one of those responsible for my gay sexual awakening, LOL! I wish him all the best.