Jackass 3-D has been setting records at the box office since its release last week. While critics had been giving Paramount Pictures much skepticism about the reception the film would receive once it hit theaters, the studio has become the last one laughing"¦all the way to the bank in fact. Shortly before its release we caught up with Stev-o at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas where he spilled a little bit about his film, the differences in filming the stunts sober and just how the guys took advantage of the new 3-D wave!
CollegeMovieReview.com: You are three years sober now. Did that change in your personal life have any effect on the making of this film?
Steve-o: I think [this film] was a quite different experience than the last two. This time I felt more calm. I think [it] allowed me to do more stuff. Before I was always kind of out of it when I did my stunts, but this time I think my sobriety made me funnier. [It} lead me to an overall better and happier time on set and hanging with the guys. I really had a lot of fun.
CMR: What are some things that long time Jackass can look forward to with this movie?
SO: Well, first off it's in 3D, so that's a whole new experience in itself I think. You're going to see a lot of objects, if you know what I mean, (laughing) coming at you, bodies, and fluids of that nature. No I think fans of the show will really like what we did here. Knoxville really came up with some crazy stuff and I can't believe I went along with some of it now [that] I look at it. I'll do pretty much anything as long as I don't die or get paralyzed. But I don't know about Knoxville, he is a crazy, funny dude!
CMR: What was the craziest stunt you did in Jackass 3D?
SO: I don't want to give away anything about the movie, but I will say that I did manage to vomit on the most expensive piece of equipment ever! (laughing) We got done with this one stunt and all I can remember was this intense feeling to vomit, and they had one of those new 3=D cameras right there close to my face"¦and it just came out. It is really funny now that I look back on that one. Good time man!
CMR: For people who don't know a lot about Steve O in real life, how did you get started with the whole Jackass project?
SO: Well, when I was 15 my dad won a video camera at a golf tournament. He left it in a closest and one day I just picked it up and just started filming myself doing crazy stuff. Back then I was really into skate boarding, but for me the camera was like a religious figure. You know, I spent a year down at the University of Miami, which I dropped after a year, and holding down a job was really not going so well so I really looked to my video camera. I was good at it and I had a lot fun with it. Then a skateboard magazine took a look at my videos, all the while these guys were doing the same thing I was. They put us together, took out the skateboarding and the idea kind of went from there.
CMR: How long will you continue to do "˜Jackass' projects?
SO: As long as my body can handle it. You know the fans still love our stuff and things are all going well. I mean some of the things we get away with, I mean there just has to be angles watching over us or something! Like Knoxville man, some of the stuff he does, there was this one stunt were he gets ran into and he gets up like it never phased him. It's like he knows there's someone watching over us. But I like doing the show. It's fun. I mean, the guys and I are like a big family and there's a lot of support there.
CMR: I heard that you have some Austin ties fromback in the day. Can you share?
SO: Well, after I left the University of Miami my buddy and I went out to southern California to look for a job and mess around out there. Turned out that neither for those ideas fell through (laughing) but we came to Austin because someone told us about a medical study that paid money. I was actually homeless here. I slept on top of an abandoned Chinese restaurant rooftop. What's funny is that now I'm here and I'm getting all these questions about Austin; it's kind of wild how life comes full circle like that. I tried to find that place yesterday, [the one] I use to stay at, but I [couldn't] find it. But yeah, those were crazy times.
CMR: What are some future things fans can look for from you?
SO: I'm actually in the process of writing my memoirs right now, which is really cool. VH1 came to me, asking if I wanted to do one of those reality-dating shows like "˜Rock of Love' or something like that. I told them no because the whole idea of finding thirty chicks that would do that stuff was somehow weird for me (laughing). But yeah, I'm working on some stuff so keep an eye out.
