You might assume that Jackass: Best and Last star Steve-O has done irreparable damage to his body over the 25+ years he has spent in the franchise, but you couldn't be more wrong.
“Oh, man, I live a double life, brother. I'm such a health and wellness nerd,” he told ClutchPoints while speaking from his Tennessee residence on a rainy day. “It just started raining outside, and I'm like, ‘Grr, there goes my bike ride and my hike.' But I've got an indoor gym, so I'm all good.”
His chiropractor even compared him to The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, who remains spry at 82 years old.
“I'm genuinely in better shape than anybody could ever imagine,” Steve-O said. “To that point, I've been to a chiropractor who took an X-ray of my spine, and he came back with the X-ray in absolute disbelief. He said, ‘Dude, you're Keith Richards! I don't get how you could not be in worse shape than you are.'”
How has his body held up?
Steve-O doesn't necessarily know how his body has been so lucky, but he has a theory. He remains active, as evidenced by his desire to go hiking or for a bike ride, and that has been the key to his longevity.
“Inactivity is far more destructive than what I've done,” he reasoned. “I'm grateful to have been super active, and I remain super active. I think that's what has given me some durability.”
Granted, the opposite of “inactivity” doesn't have to mean doing more Jackass movies. He seems adamant that Jackass: Best and Last really is the last movie.
In addition to his fitness ventures, his property in Tennessee doubles as an animal sanctuary. He acknowledged that “most” of his free time is dedicated to health and wellness, but he also spends a lot of time with his animals.
“I skydive a lot, I ride my bicycle a lot, I surf,” he said of his hobbies, which all sound straight out of Jackass. “All of my personal endeavors are geared towards activity, health, and wellness.”
Celebrating Jackass' 25th anniversary
As the iconic Jackass movie series turns 25, it will celebrate the anniversary with the final movie in the series, Best and Last, which is really it for Steve-O.
While speaking to ClutchPoints about the upcoming last Jackass movie, Steve-O conceded that speaking to Gen Z'ers, such as yours truly, “makes me feel old,” and “there's no way around it.” The franchise has spanned generations, and he's just happy to be healthy.
“There's nothing you can do. Father Time's gonna win,” he conceded. “If you get old, you should be grateful. And if you [are] healthy, then you should be happy.”
Did he ever think Jackass would last this long, spanning three seasons on TV and five main movies (not counting the extended cuts)?
“God no,” Steve-O shamelessly admitted, before morbidly acknowledging, “I didn't expect to make it to the age of 30, to be honest.”
Steve-O, 52, has spent exactly half of his life doing Jackass. In turn, his life achievements and milestones have been “marked” by the movies. Seeing the final movie, he was “overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude.”
“This new movie celebrates the whole franchise in such an impactful way,” he teased. “For me personally, there have been eras of my life that were marked by Jackass movies. And I'm looking at me in the film, and it's like, I don't even know who this kid is.
“One thing that stayed constant was the unmitigated joy of us just laughing so hard that we physically [could not] stand. It strikes me that you cannot pretend to be that full of joy. It just comes through the screen,” he added.
The unique making of Jackass: Best and Last
Jackass: Best and Last is a unique project. It interweaves old and new footage to celebrate the movie series' 25th anniversary. In turn, they didn't have to shoot as much new footage. That didn't make it any easier physically, though, saying, “[There] wasn't as much filming for this one, [but that] didn't make the filming any easier,” with a chuckle.
In addition to the already-seen archival footage, the vaults were fully opened by Jeff Tremaine and Co. Even Steve-O was shocked by some of the stuff franchise co-creator Johnny Knoxville and the others were willing to share.
“There's all this forbidden stuff that was never allowed to be shown that finally has a home,” Steve-O teased about the new footage from the vault. “I mean, like, gnarly stuff. I don't even know how they can show it now.”
He did warn viewers that some of the “gnarly” scenes would be censored with warnings “scrolling across” the screen. That is the only way that they allowed it to screen in movie theaters.
The worst Jackass stunts Steve-O has done
Jackass: Best and Last will feature some extreme stunts that were filmed for the movie. One of them is Steve-O receiving a prostate exam from a robot.
That sounds insane, and yet, Steve-O called that “minor,” at least in comparison to the “heavy-lifting that my b******e does” in the series.
Some of the most memorable stunts he has done include the porta-potty stunt. Fans will remember when he was launched in the air while in a porta-potty. Naturally, he was covered in the stuff left in the porta-potty while he was bounced up and down by a bungee cord.
The other ones he named were the famous fishhook stunt and one of his earliest sketches, which involved swallowing a goldfish and later regurgitating it.
He didn't find the goldfish stunt to be “that big of a deal. However, he still hears about it decades later. Steve-O also gave a shoutout to the wasabi shooters and the alligator tightrope walk stunts. Both of them are from older movies, proving Jackass' staying power. Steve-O also does extreme stunts as a “solo” act. He has “stapled his ball sack to his leg,” which fans may want to check out.
After 25 years and five movies, Steve-O is ready to let Jackass go. It sounds like Best and Last will be his last foray into this type of filmmaking. One thing is for sure: he'll keep being as healthy as possible and living his “double life.”
Jackass: Best and Last will be released on June 26.
