The thought of a new Jackass film likely comes with a lot of different expectations: exploding cars, nut punches and enough male nudity to make Magic Mike look like a kid's movie - just to name a few. One expectation that normally doesn't pop up: emotional investment in characters. However, that is exactly what Johnny Knoxville says the audience should expect in the newest Jackass movie, Bad Grandpa.
Filled with all of the typical stunts and insane pranks you'd expect in a Jackass movie, Bad Grandpa is tied together by the semi-scripted story of Irving Zisman, one of Knoxville's best-known characters from the Jackass series, driving his grandson Billy, played by Jackson Nicoll, across the United States to his father's house. While this is the first Jackass movie to use a script, it certainly is not Knoxville's first rodeo.
Knoxville, now 42 years old, has been a part of the Jackass family since its official start in 2000. The result of an article-pitch Knoxville made to now-Jackass producer Jeff Tremaine during the two's time at skateboarding interest magazine Big Brother Magazine, Jackass quickly gained popularity and landed its own television series with MTV. Despite its cancellation, the popularity of the series led to several movies and launched several careers - most notably Johnny Knoxville's.
While still beloved as the leader of the Jackass crew, Knoxville has been a part of many other successful projects. Over the course of his acting career, Knoxville has had starring roles in such films as the 2005 adaptation of Dukes of Hazard and The Ringer, as well as notable supporting roles in Men in Black II and Walking Tall.
While Knoxville's acting experience likely helped him prepare for his role as the curmudgeonly Irving Zisman in Bad Grandpa, coming up with the story was not an easy task.
"Jesus, it was over a year of writing and coming up with gags and coming up with story," Knoxville said in a conference call. "And even as we're shooting like we're still refining the story and writing more gags. It was a lot of work. I mean it's fun. We love what we do but we've really had to spend a lot of time on story and myself just creating – fleshing out the character even more."
That story, of course, still leaves time for Knoxville and his young partner-in-crime to prank their fair share of unsuspecting people, producing some amazing freak-outs. Surprisingly, some of the reactions they got even surprised the Bad Grandpa star and Jackass veteran himself.
"I don't want to drive Billy across [the] country at one point in the movie. I'm just going to ship him. So we put him in a cardboard box and try to ship him. But before the prank, I'm like 'OK. This one is way, way in [left field].' No one is going to fall for this..." Knoxville explained. "But we found two ladies in North Carolina who – I mean – I was pranking them for 30 minutes..." Pranking them so successfully, in fact, that the women even helped to shove Jackson Nicoll ("Billy") back into the cardboard box. Of course, there is no movie and certainly no children being shoved into boxes without a child to play "Billy," but Knoxville found the perfect fit for that role in 9-year-old Jackson Nicoll.
Described as "fearless" and "gifted," young Jackson Nicoll, who plays Zisman's grandson Billy, is sure to provide the laughs in Bad Grandpa with his own ruthless humor. In fact, Knoxville even said that he occasionally had to hold Nicoll back and tell him to give up because he was so relentless. Knoxville described a time in which, after failing to get someone to fall for a prank, Nicoll just started yelling at the attempted prank victim to try to get a rise out of him. A potential problem? Maybe. The sign of a Jackass superstar in the making? Definitely. However, despite Nicoll's clear talent and dedication to the film, Knoxville admits that pulling pranks with an 9-year-old did come with its challenges.
"...If I'm just doing pranks as Irving on someone, then there is not as much at stake as if I have an 8-year-old next to me. So when – before I go – if I walk up to prank someone or get the situation, I kind of size them up before I will – you go, you know, commit to it," Knoxville said. "And if we're talking to someone for couple of sentences and I think this guy is probably unsafe way, I just walk on... Like I'm the person for Jackson ("Billy") but we always have people already to jump in if anything went bad."
Fortunately for the cast, nothing "went bad" during shooting - well, at least nothing unintended. A project that took many months to make, and had been in the works for even longer (Knoxville said Paramount Pictures had been asking for a Zisman-centric film for nearly 10 years), Knoxville assured that Bad Grandpa was well worth the effort and should be one of the best Jackass movies released to date.
Bad Grandpa hits theaters on October 25th.