Q&A with two ‘Jackass’ members

“Jackass” is back, and it’s now cashing in on the 3-D craze too. The crew is releasing “Jackass 3-D” Oct. 15, and WEEKENDers Brett Eppley and Corin Chellberg had the chance to participate in a conference call with lead man Johnny Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine to discuss the difficulties of 3-D and what this movie means to the crew.

WEEKEND: Do you have any rituals that you do prior to performing a stunt? And can you tell us what convincing it takes, if any, before you agree to film a potentially dangerous scene?
KNOXVILLE: Before I’m doing a big stunt, I’ll probably, just about 20 minutes before it’s on, go sit and listen to my cousin’s (Roger Alan Wade) music. And then when it’s on I’ll say, “Just come pat me on the shoulder,” and I’ll walk right in and do it because I want to just get it out of the way.
 
WEEKEND: What’s the process for shooting 3-D or using the Canon cameras compared to what you’re normally accustomed to?  
TREMAINE: The 3-D cameras were a lot bigger and bulkier, but man, once we got all the guys together, it just felt like we were shooting a normal “Jackass.” They took a little more prep time to get everything ready so when the guys show up, we can just shoot. But for the most part, it felt the same.  
KNOXVILLE: Yes, my request to Jeff was if we shoot 3-D, I don’t want to have to worry about the cameras one time during filming, because we just need to be able to do what we do. And Jeff had absolutely set it up where we filmed it just like a regular “Jackass.” We did not think about the cameras once.

WEEKEND: And what was the prep time?
TREMAINE: The call time for the crew was a little bit earlier, and the crew almost doubled in size to shoot it in 3-D. Each camera had three people assigned to that camera. And then what’s funny is we had these really expensive 3-D cameras, but I would put our half-ass cameraman to shoot it.

WEEKEND: What do you think the 3-D format will add to the movie experience?  
TREMAINE: It feels like you’re right in the middle of a stunt with us. It really elevated the movie to a whole other level. Like this bit, “The Beehive Tetherball,” we’re playing tetherball with a beehive, and it feels like 50,000 bees are swarming around the theater or around your head. It really works in 3-D.
KNOXVILLE: And it just makes a dumb idea even dumber.  

WEEKEND: Other than the 3-D, is there anything that takes this movie above and beyond the other two?
KNOXVILLE: We give each other hell, but you can really feel how close we are, and that just seems to be there. It was in there in the other films, but it was in this film bigger than ever. We think that naturally elevates the stunts and pranks in each film, not super consciously, but just it takes a little more to make us laugh.  
TREMAINE: There’s a competitiveness that goes on when we shoot those. There’s a real natural one-up-manship that happens with the guys, so everybody wants to get the best footage. And then once you start getting really good stuff, they realize how hard it’s going to be to get in the new movie, so everyone steps up.  

WEEKEND: At the end of “Jackass Number Two,” Bam Margera says that he hopes there’s not a “Jackass 3,” and lo and behold, there’s a “Jackass 3-D.” It reminded me of the old-man-balls skit you guys do. How long are you planning on doing “Jackass?” Are you hoping to get to a point where you don’t even have to wear a costume anymore?
KNOXVILLE: Yes, on the first movie it took like three hours to make me an old man. On this one, it took like 15 minutes. The Three Stooges did it until they were 60. I don’t know how long we’re going to do it because we shoot each movie like it’s our last, but we’re not going to make any predictions anymore. We just have a ball. And Bam did wish that this wasn’t going to happen back then, and now that it did, I’m sure he wished it didn’t happen.

WEEKEND: Is it hard coming up with ideas since you guys have done pretty much everything already?
TREMAINE: No, this movie seems like, man, we were just bursting with them. This one happened more naturally than any of the ones before.
KNOXVILLE: Yes, it was easier coming up with ideas for this movie than any of them. But we have a stockpile of ideas that we never even got to because we ran out of time.
TREMAINE: Even the 3-D lent itself to writing some jokes.

WEEKEND: Has there been any time in “Jackass” history when you had to turn down a stunt because it was just too crazy?
KNOXVILLE: The only time that we won’t do a stunt or I won’t do a stunt is if like there’s a negative vibe going around the set, and it just kind of puts a dark blanket over everything. Like we were filming this stunt up in Tahoe on this big ski slope, and someone on that ski slope died that day. Nothing associated with the production, but there was a death on that ski slope the day we were there, and then it was on the same mountain the Donner Party cannibalized themselves on. We’re getting ready to do a big stunt, and it just felt weird. Man, we were like, “let’s call it off.” But that is super, super rare.

WEEKEND: Can you share a story of the worst injury that happened?
TREMAINE: Our friend Loomis, he jumped off the trampoline — we had a fighter jet that we had parked on the end of a runway, and we were using the big thruster at the back, and we set a little mini-trampoline up, and he was jumping into the jet stream holding an umbrella. That dude only weighs probably 63 pounds soaking wet, and he hit the ground pretty hard. He broke his collarbone and got his hand tore up.
KNOXVILLE: He had to have surgery on his hand. I think he might have surgery on his shoulder, maybe not.
 
WEEKEND: What is your favorite stunt that you performed in the movie?
KNOXVILLE: Well, between Jeff and I it’s kind of a tie between the high five where we built the five-foot-tall hand and spring loaded it so whenever someone walked into the kitchen in the morning, they just got smoked by the palm coming around the corner. And between that and the port-a-potty bungee where we took a full port-a-potty and shot it 100 feet in the air with a bungee cord and a crane.