Johnny Knoxville: he shot himself in the chest, set himself on fire and had run-ins with the police, now everyone's favorite jackass takes a shot at the big screen

Back in 1997, Johnny Knoxville, known to his folks and friends (full disclosure: I'm one) as PJ Clapp, shocked the typically uncaring skateboarding community by videotaping the testing of a number of self-defense weapons--ultimately shooting himself in the chest with a .38-caliber revolver to test the strength of a bulletproof vest--for one of Big Brother Skateboarding magazine's skate videos. It was the footage of these early stunts by Knoxville, combined with some other silly business by a crew of homegrown stuntmen, that would be packaged and shopped around Hollywood as the brainchild of Knoxville, director Spike Jonze and Jeff Trernaine (then Big Brother's art director), and would become Jackass, one of the highest-rated shows in MTV's history. After a few less-than-stellar film outings followed by a good one (Men In Black II), Knoxville is going back to what he knows best with this fall's release of Jackass: The Movie--making a fool of himself.

CHRIS NIERATKO: All your fame stems from the time you shot yourself in the chest on camera with a .38. How did you come up with that bright idea?

JOHNNY KNOXVILLE: I was watching the news one night, and it showed a guy getting pepper-sprayed. I thought it was pretty funny and I was like, "I should test the whole gamut of self-defense products on myself." I started by shooting myself. I was trying to get a 9 mm but I didn't know anyone who had one, so I had to borrow my neighbor's wife's gun, a .38. I didn't have much money at the time--actually, no money--but my mom gave me 300 bucks for Christmas, so I took that and bought the cheapest bulletproof vest I could find. I called the store and asked them, "Is this a good vest?" Oh, yeah," they said. "Top of the line." I'm like, "Here's what I'm going to do with it: I'm going to put it on and shoot myself with a .38." They said that they couldn't recommend my doing that--but I did. Once you commit, you've got to go and do it.

CN: Do you think that's still the scariest thing you've ever done?

JK: Any time I deal with bulls it's pretty hairy. With a gun it would be a quick death, but bulls will just camp out on you and not stop.

CN: Knowing how the editing process works with Jackass-from the censors to your perfectionism--there has to be tons of footage that didn't make the movie's final cut.

JK: Yeah. We really overshot. It's going to be a really good DVD--or really bad. Depends on how you look at it.

CN: How much trouble did you get into with the LAPD when you were pretending to be an escaped convict for the Jackass pilot?

JK: Wow. I think I've had guns drawn on me by cops three different times, but that was the first time. I dressed up in an L.A. County prison orange jumpsuit and I was handcuffed, and we went to a hardware store and asked the guys at the counter to help me saw them off. The owner freaked out and kicked everyone out of the store, including my [hidden] cameraman. So I was in there sawing off the cuffs for no one, and when I went outside the cops were coming. Four carloads of cops had their guns on me. The first cop on the scene didn't even put her car in park. She gets out and puts her gun on me, but her patrol car keeps going and hits a light pole, and I was like, "Oh man, we're in trouble now!" They thought I really was a convict, but we talked them down. Still, they wrote one of the girls working on the show a ticket and the owner of the store sued us for loss of business. We tried to use the footage in the movie, but the city of West Hollywood said that if we showed that footage anywhere they would prosecute the girl that got the ticket. I wish they'd written me the ticket-I would gladly take the hit for the footage. So that bit's just shown to friends now.

CN: One scene that made the movie and everyone will get the chance to see is the boxing match in which you get your ass knocked out by [professional boxer] Butterbean.

JK: Can you call it a match? I only got one punch in and Butterbean didn't even flinch. He knocked me right out, and I hit my head on the floor and it split like a watermelon.

CN: Then you got to work with Will Smith--a kick-ass Ali-in Men In Black II. How do you think you'd fare against Will in a boxing match?

JK: He would beat my ass. He's going to do any guy in the street. He trained for a year and a half, two years [for Ali J. I'm not a very good fighter, anyway. Never claimed to be.

CN: You're also not too good at picking acting roles. You've done a bunch of crappers in your film career.

JK: The first two or three out of the gate weren't very much, were they?

CN: Didn't you do The New Outsiders?

JK: Are you talking about Deuces Wild? That was a piece of cinematic history.

CN: How about Big Trouble?

JK: That was just a cursed movie, with all that happened with September 11. [Due to scenes dealing with an airplane hijacking] the movie got pushed back--it was just one of those things. It was the first big role I had in a big film, but there are things that are more important than a movie. You just do your work and go to the next job. The (more Knoxville page 240) next one will come out and you'll forget about the last one.