Stephen Glover, A.K.A Steve-O, always speaks very openly about his past addiction to drugs. He even has multiple videos dedicated to it on his YouTube channel. In March, Steve-O will be sober from drink and drugs for 14 years, which is an undeniably inspirational accomplishment. He doesn’t even take painkillers after performing ridiculously dangerous (yet hilarious) stunts on Jackass - something he laughs about during an interview we were lucky enough to conduct with the star.
Watch the full interview with Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O below:
I asked the duo what it was like to shoot a Jackass film as older guys. “It didn’t really change anything,” Knoxville answered instantly. “Yeah it didn’t change anything about shooting,” Steve-O added. “It just meant more trips to the hospital because it takes so much less to break our bones and knock us unconscious now.”
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Naively, I asked if there were just more painkillers taken. Knoxville replied: “No, no painkillers for this guy,” pointing to his co-star. “I didn’t take any painkillers either.” Which is unbelievable, as the Jackass frontman spent a few days in hospital after his worst bull-related injury ever.
Obviously, being completely sober from drink and drugs, Steve-O doesn’t take painkillers. “You know, I never took a painkiller for pain!” he jokes.
At this point they both fall into a bout of laughter, the type of laughter I’ve seen countless times in many Jackass scenes. The friendship that the Jackass guys have is one of the reasons why the movies and TV series are such a hit - it translates perfectly to the big screen as well as in interviews like this one. They genuinely care about each other and have in-jokes that the audience feels part of.
I ask them about 2007’s Jackass: The Game with an image in my mind of them just screaming into a microphone to feign being injured. “Oh my God,” recalled Steve-O. “One of the darkest days of my addiction was in the sound studio for that video game. I think in the video game I’m like ‘ughlurulu’ with my nitrous oxide, it didn’t even sound remotely like me. It was dark, man.”
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After a quick YouTube search, I’m taken back to memories of playing the game on my PSP, when I was definitely old enough to be playing a Jackass game. Definitely. Listening to the sound effects of each character screaming in pain after my chat with Steve-O puts a completely different spin on it though. He does sound like he’s got a mouth full of marbles (nitrous oxide) - listen for yourself below.
With Jackass Forever out on February 4th and potentially creating a whole new generation of Jackass fans, there’s certainly scope for a new Jackass game on consoles. Imagine perhaps a sandbox game where players could create their own Jackass-style stunts, spawning dozens of bulls for you to run away from. The possibilities would be endless. During our brief talk, Knoxville agreed with me that a virtual reality Jackass game would be a good idea, whereas Jackass’ very own Jason “Wee Man” Acuña wants a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style Jackass game. In the words of all the Jackass stars, that sounds gnarly.
Featured Image Credit: Paramount PicturesTopics: TV And Film