Johnny Knoxville Opens Up About Fallout With ‘Jackass’ Co-Star Bam Margera
Written by SOURCE on October 20, 2022
Bam Margera filed a request in April to dismiss his wrongful termination lawsuit against Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, Paramount Pictures, and more, signaling a possible peace offering between the longtime friends and Jackass co-stars. At the center of the dispute are Margera and Knoxville, who haven’t been in touch for quite some time.
“I haven’t spoken to Bam in about a year and a half, give or take six months,” Knoxville told Variety. “[Jackass director] Jeff Tremaine, Steve-O, and I had a face-to-face meeting with Bam and his wife, trying to figure out how to get him help. Then we had a Zoom as a group not long after that, and that was the last time I talked to him.”
“It boils down to: I love Bam,” added the 51-year-old. “I know that a lot has happened. I just want him to get well for himself and his family. I love the guy, and I want him to get well and stay well.”
Margera, 43, claimed in his suit that in order to participate in 2022’s Jackass Forever, he was coerced into signing a “wellness agreement,” which involved him taking daily prescription drugs and submitting regular drug and alcohol tests, without reviewing the paperwork with his lawyer. He alleges he was removed from the production after testing positive for Adderall, even though the drug was allegedly prescribed by his doctor years ago.
Bam revamped his court-ordered rehab program last month, allowing him certain freedoms that come with being an outpatient while also adhering to the requirements of an in-patient. The alteration comes after Margera escaped a Florida facility on several occasions.
His Jackass co-star Steve-O, who continues to battle his own sobriety issues, reflected on SiriusXM’s Faction Talk earlier this month about speaking with Margera recently, adding he will “never give up on him.”
“I’ve been physically present at almost every stop on his years-long tour of rehabs and psych wards. … I’m careful never to try to push sobriety on anybody. I feel strongly that if you do that what you’re actually doing is pushing them away from sobriety,” said Steve-O, who had Bam on his podcast in August for a candid hour-long conversation.
Now co-starring on Hulu’s new meta-sitcom Reboot, Knoxville appears to be closing the door on participating in any more Jackass stunts. “You can only take so many chances before something irreversible happens,” he told GQ last year. “I feel like I’ve been extremely lucky to take the chances I’ve taken and still be walking around.”
One of these instances where he was “extremely lucky” was a stunt involving a bull in Jackass Forever that essentially brought the production to a screeching halt. “Yeah, I had three or four big stunts planned. I don’t want to say what they were, but they were on the same level as the bull,” Knoxville recalled to Variety. “Even if I had gotten through the bull, I wouldn’t have gotten out of the others. One of them would have taken me out.”
