The Dukes of Hazzard
An Interview with Johnny Knoxville

Having already parlayed masochistic stunt videos into a ratings phenomenon for MTV, Johnny Knoxville is still attempting to match the success over in Hollywood. To date, the Jackass co-creator has beaten cinematic thugs with the Rock, played an ill-intentioned alien in Men in Black 2, and can even boast an upcoming role in the new Farrelly brothers film, The Ringer. This Friday, Knoxville, a Tennessee native, stays a little closer to home by playing a rebellious good ol' boy in The Dukes of Hazzard. Here he discusses why he just can't keep his pants on, the origins of his television show, and how a grown man in a kiddie pool still haunts his dreams.

So how many times did you flash Seann exactly?

Johnny Knoxville: As often as I could. These pants just kept falling off the whole film.

Supposedly you threw a salt and pepper shaker at his groin and he told you that it wasn’t going to keep happening?

Johnny Knoxville: Actually that was the last night he went out with me. That was one of the first nights of the film.

You made a name for yourself videotaping stunts. Were you not as interested in doing them for this movie because of that. Did you kind of want to steer away from it?

Johnny Knoxville: No, I mean the stunt guys are gnarly. They put it on the line everyday. I mean it’s such a different animal, the Jackass stunts and the movie stunts. In Jackass I just had to fail when I did the stunt. If I successfully did the stunt it’s like, “Oh, let’s do it again. Let’s do it until you don’t get it!” For this you had to train for the fighting. I trained for about a month, a couple of hours a day with Chad Stahelski who worked with Keanu Reeves on The Matrix. And Seann was working his ass off training with Bobby Ore, the best stunt driver in the world for all the stuff he did. Four hours a day and he’d just be drenched in sweat. He got damn good, too. He did a lot of the stuff in the film. Some of the one-eighties and ninety degree drifts and what not. There’s one moment when they come out of Cooter’s garage, we’re top speeding real quick because we’re ratcheted out, and he makes the right hand turn and the breaks go out. He still managed to pull it back in the road and slam it into park so we could stop. We would’ve been flipping over and over if I had been at the wheel.

You weren’t jealous that he got to do all the driving?

Johnny Knoxville: No no. He had the car. They gave me the girls. “Ooh, hey! You got a car!” (laughs)

There’s a moment in Jackass when you’re pacing right before they’re about to shoot a bean bag at you. Is that the kind of thing you draw on when you have to act afraid in a film scene?

Johnny Knoxville: What they didn’t show in the movie was the two shots before that. One hit me in the leg and one goes by my elbow. And if it had hit my elbow it would’ve broke it in all kinds of places. And the pacing back and forth was me angry and scared. But yeah, it’s pretty terrifying. No, I think...God, there’s ladies at the table I can’t-

[Several female journalists at the table encourage Mr. Knoxville to proceed.]

There’s horrible stuff that happened on Jackass that didn’t have to do with pain...physically. It’s like more emotional and mental damage. Let me try to put it in really nice terms. We were shooting Pontius. We were going to send those pictures into Playgirl. And so we did this photo shoot in one of our producer’s backyards. And we put him in little cowboy boots and toy guns and hats and little swimming pools. Making the pictures. Oiling him up. And, at the end of the shoot, he kind of did something that you really only do when you’re alone. But he did it in front of seven full grown men. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. And then he got up and chased everyone, and tried to hug them. Doesn’t get much more frightening than that.

And what do you have to think about when you have to become aroused for, say, the John Waters movie?

Johnny Knoxville: Same thing. I hate myself for it.

Were any of the actors in the film afraid that you might surprise them with certain...

Johnny Knoxville: No. They know that I may be a little off center but I do think of myself as a southern gentleman. You can’t do that in front of girls. Just fellas.

How much of a good ol’ boy are you?

Johnny Knoxville: Raised in Tennessee, you know? I have the southern attitude of being polite in front of the ladies. My cousin said tip your hat to the ladies and put the punch through the wall. So hopefully that’s accurate. But usually it’s me who’s getting put through the wall.

Were you a fan of Jay Chandrasekhar’s previous movies?

Johnny Knoxville: Super Troopers is...you know I hadn’t seen it until I was getting ready to meet him. And I went and rented it. I was just angry at myself for missing it the first time. It’s a classic, you know, American comedy. I thought it was great.

Any other projects coming up?

Johnny Knoxville: I have a film coming out in October. It’s a Miramax film that Quentin Tarantino executive-produced. Katrina Holden Bronson wrote and directed a really beautiful script that we film in my home state of Tennessee. It’s called Daltry Calhoun. And I saw the movie and I’m very excited about it. The girl I had the baby with fourteen years ago kind of took the baby and went. Brings the baby girl, she’s now fourteen, the mother’s now dying and I’m going to bond with my child for the first time. So having a nine year old, it meant a lot. And being able to shoot in my home state.

What age do you think you'll be able to show your daughter your Jackass work?

Johnny Knoxville: She's seen some of the stuff where daddy doesn't get hurt or where it's not naughty. So, after showing her that two minute tape...(laughs) I don't know. She's a very, very, very smart girl but maybe wait a couple of years. A couple or ten.

You got to hear a lot of Willie Nelson's jokes on the set I take it?

Johnny Knoxville: They're great. He tells them with such conviction. It's all day long he tells those jokes. I'm his biggest fan. Roger Miller taught him a lot of those jokes. He just, one right after another. Man, I love that guy so much. You hear Willie do There was a man from Nantucket. (Johnny kisses the tips of his fingers to convy the exquisiteness) He did There was a man from Boston. Who knew there was a guy from Boston? I didn't know.

Steve-O has said that people come up to him in bars and just hit him over the head with a bottle. Do things like that happen to you? How do you respond?

Johnny Knoxville: It depends on whether it's a girl or a guy. If a guy comes up and hits me...going to hit him back as much as possible. But girl, after she takes a lighter and puts it out on your arm or a cigarette, you're like, "O-kay. Thank you." I've had girls come up, "Oh, I love your show," and bam, hit me right in the chin!

You've gotten very far because of the show. Do you ever regret taking that direction?

Johnny Knoxville: Absolutely not. As weird as it is to say, I'm proud of Jackass. It got me here and doing what I'm doing. And me and all my friends going around the world being screwups. We got paid. Turning something you're good at and making it into a profession. Well, I'm really good at failing so we made a show and a movie about it.

How did it start?

Johnny Knoxville: My involvement in Jackass, I was writing for magazines and one of the magazines I was writing for was Big Brother. It's a skateboarding mag and they were doing skate videos. You know skating and then people doing really stupid stuff. That's where I came in. I was going to write an article. I sent it to a number of magazines where I was going to test self-defense equipment on myself. Everyone said, "Yeah, we'd love to have it but we can't really support it until after you're done." Because I was going to shoot myself with a bulletproof vest and all that. Big Brother said, "We'll do it." And Jeff goes, "Why don't you film it?" I was like, "Okay, I was just going to write an article." And we did and put that in video number two. And did some more. Meanwhile Bam was doing his CKY videos on the east coast. We just kind of joined up and did Jackass.

What do you think of Viva la Bam and Wildboyz?

Johnny Knoxville: I mean the guys are doing great. I went and shot with Bam and I shoot with Steve-O and Pontius a lot. I love their shows. I just went to Russia with the Wilboyz for a couple of weeks shooting over there. Boy can they act ugly! And before that I went to Argentina with them. It's such a good luxury. "Where you guys going? Can you get me a ticket and I'll come with you and..." It's so good.

How far do you want to push the envelope in the films you're making?

Johnny Knoxville: Well I got Jackass under my belt and John Waters' film under my belt. And then the Farrelly Brothers comedy. Play me and trade me, man. I want to take some chances.

Was backstory for your character ever discussed? Luke Duke is an interesting choice to name your child?

Johnny Knoxville: I've heard more odd names. A guy that used to work for my father was named Woodrow Wilson Boxcar Johnson Jr. And his father wasn't even a senior. So back home we heard some pretty crazy names.

Ever encounter any interesting lawbreakers like the Dukes growing up?

Johnny Knoxville: Oh, hell yeah. In my father's tire store, they're everywhere. Boxcar, sweetheart of a guy. I'd go over there, and he was a groover for my father. I'd be like four years old, and he would work with me and kind of play with me. Wasn't the greatest thief. He got picked up once for something. And they brought him in and said, "Mr. Wilson, we know you robbed that store. We got your fingerprints." He said, "You don't got my fingerprints, I was wearing gloves!" Yeah, that's a true story.

The Dukes of Hazzard Opens August 5th