A sickeningly hilarious conversation between FRIENDSHIP writer/director Andrew DeYoung and the great Johnny Knoxville.
Topics covered include: Jane Goodall as Isaiah’s lifelong Patron Saint, a very cheap edition of Tarzan of the Apes that changed a young Jane’s entire world, supportive mothers,The Legend of Ochi as a critique of anthropocentrism, stewardship versus dominion, using empathy in the scientific method, inventing a fictional primate for the Ochi, filmmaking’s parallels to science, the possibilities of nonverbal communication between man and animal, a quest to understand if adult male chimps like rock and roll music, Jane experiencing the effects of USAID defunding, a shared determination to heal the world by reaching hearts and enacting change, and the aquatic ape hypothesis.
Andrew DeYoung: Hi, I'm Andrew DeYoung.
Johnny Knoxville: And my name is Johnny Knoxville and this is The A24 Podcast.
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, where'd you come from today?
Johnny Knoxville: The fighting town of Toluca Lake.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, cool. Fighting town?
Johnny Knoxville: Yes, yes.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, nice.
Johnny Knoxville: No, it's not a fighting town. And yourself?
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, Pasadena.
Johnny Knoxville: All right.
Andrew DeYoung: Dude, it's so good to be here with you.
Johnny Knoxville: Nice to meet you. Nice to be here. I saw Friendship, your new film and it is fantastic. It is so fucking uncomfortable. I mean, I'm just-
Andrew DeYoung: Huge compliment.
Johnny Knoxville: But in a wonderful way!
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
Johnny Knoxville: The situations or you're just like, “Oh no, don't, please. Don't do that. He's doing it. Okay. He's doing it.” It's even worse than I thought, what he's doing.
Andrew DeYoung: That's so sweet.
Johnny Knoxville: It's one of those things you have to see in a theater. It would be fun to watch with a bunch of people. I just watched it with my friend and agent Ryan and we were just both yelling at the screen the whole time.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my God. In a theater or at home?
Johnny Knoxville: In a theater.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: So I can imagine what it's like with a packed theater. Have you watched it with a packed theater?
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: Were people yelling at the screen or was that just me?
Andrew DeYoung: We premiered at TIFF in a theater that was like 1000 people, and I think it gave me brain damage in terms of how can I ever not try to get back to this moment, which I'm sure you've experienced a bunch of times.
Johnny Knoxville: Because it was just, the experience was so good for you?
Andrew DeYoung: It's so like, so much laughter, big laughter. Things that people were laughing at that I didn't really think were necessarily funny.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, there was a lot of that with me too. I was probably laughing inappropriately.
Andrew DeYoung: Which is so thrilling for me when you, like my favorite kind of laughter is laughing, but not sure why.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: And something deep down is like, I don't know how to articulate it, but it's trying to do that.
Johnny Knoxville: Because you feel like you're not supposed to laugh at that.
Andrew DeYoung: Exactly.
Johnny Knoxville: Right? But it's like inside, you're like, oh God, you can't help it.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Like a catharsis. Well, I feel like so much of what you do, the brilliance of that too is like-
Johnny Knoxville: Brilliance.
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, I truly deep down, like we'll get right into it- So much of that laughter comes from how uncomfortable that is, how primal and how honest.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, one of the things we have going for us is Jackass is silly, but it's honest because everything's real.
Andrew DeYoung: Totally.
Johnny Knoxville: And I think yeah, a person walks, a person falls down. It's just like you said, primal. It's just you, it's a reflexive laugh.
Andrew DeYoung: It's ancient. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. But God, I was just, the Tim Robinson character feels like a cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Rupert Pupkin.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, great. Yeah, The King of Comedy was a huge influence on the movie.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my God.
Johnny Knoxville: “Hello? Moshi moshi.”
Andrew DeYoung: We're going to keep that in, Dave.
Johnny Knoxville: I spent a good portion of the movie trying to figure out his diagnosis.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. What'd you bounce between?
Johnny Knoxville: I can't figure it out. I mean, he seems to be a little on the spectrum, but there's also-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: A lot of rage.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't know. Do you know the diagnosis?
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, when you diagnose him, you're probably going to diagnose me by default.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, really?
Andrew DeYoung: Probably.
Johnny Knoxville: That's an extension of you?
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, don't you think when we write stuff, it's in, I feel like it's an extension of me.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, I don't know. There's many characters in the movie. You could have dedicated-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Any of the characters to yourself.
Andrew DeYoung: I relate to a lot- I'm pushing him in versions of me probably in this character to the extreme, but a lot of it is like me, my dad, and friends and things I've noticed.
Johnny Knoxville: You and your father had social anxiety?
Andrew DeYoung: Certain things of covering, like it's so funny watching people hide. Right? And Tim is like, I feel so brilliant at hiding. And so much of his comedy comes from him squirming to hide the truth.
Johnny Knoxville: Right.
Andrew DeYoung: And I feel like I do it, I've seen my dad do it, and so many men have to do it too. There's a lie and we're covering it up.
Johnny Knoxville: Right.
Andrew DeYoung: And I think it's so tragic and so funny.
Johnny Knoxville: Have you gotten better about being honest with your feelings?
Andrew DeYoung: I think so. I try to.
Johnny Knoxville: I mean, you're being pretty honest right now.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: But I mean, like social situations, interpersonal-
Andrew DeYoung: Over the years-
Johnny Knoxville: Relationships.
Andrew DeYoung: For sure. For sure. How are you with it?
Johnny Knoxville: Well, I finally reached a point in my life where I am honest and it's embarrassing. I mean, in my relationship, and that's embarrassing to admit as a 54-year-old man. I feel like I'm the healthiest I've been in my life. So the relationship is legitimate-
Andrew DeYoung: Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: Healthy, wonderful relationship.
Andrew DeYoung: Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: And that I don't have any secrets-
Andrew DeYoung: Huge.
Johnny Knoxville: From this person.
Andrew DeYoung: Huge.
Johnny Knoxville: Where in the past I always did. And it's also embarrassing to admit how wonderful it feels not to keep secrets.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: It eats you up. I can have a little anxiety anyway, and you're having to remember your lie.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure. It's a nightmare.
Johnny Knoxville: It's terrible.
Andrew DeYoung: It's a nightmare.
Johnny Knoxville: It's a nightmare.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: And it just feels wonderful to be like, okay, you know everything. I don't have to hide and-
Andrew DeYoung: It's so medicinal to just speak the truth.
Johnny Knoxville: Yes. It's so much easier.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so much easier even though it's hard and could be difficult and have some major consequences. Right? But I'm 42, so I've learned all the, and still learning, I'm still constantly practicing, like okay, how do I be honest? How do I let people have hard feelings?
Johnny Knoxville: Yes.
Andrew DeYoung: And I think deep down this movie is watching, the fun of it for me is watching someone not bury secrets and then squirm and watch secrets destroy their life essentially. And by the end, hopefully realize that truth is the only way forward, as messy as it is. Ideally that's what I'm scratching at.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Well, as a person who has kept secrets and hasn't always been truthful, it is, that comes across because you just, not as intensely as in your-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: I mean, your movie is an intense version of that.
Andrew DeYoung: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it's a catharsis for an audience to do the things that we repress.
Johnny Knoxville: Yes. And Paul Rudd's great in it.
Andrew DeYoung: The best. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: And his character slowly revealed, and that's how I took it. He comes across as this handsome-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Everything is going for him, a confident guy, but then he's like, he has so much pathos and self-doubt.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: And you knocked it out of the park kid.
Andrew DeYoung: Hey, thank you. I mean, well, it's funny. It's like I was rewatching Jackass Forever, which is truly one of my favorite movies of all time. Truly.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh my goodness. Well, thank you.
Andrew DeYoung: Truly I was- that whole year I was like, “This is the movie of the year. Why don't people understand it?” The ideas in this movie, but I bring it up right now because you're talking about the Paul character and his secret being revealed. Right? And it reminded me of Jackass Forever where you're on the ground and you're like, "Are you filming my bald spot?"
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, right, right, right.
Andrew DeYoung: And then Spike comes and fills it in.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Right. And that's what-
Johnny Knoxville: He's always got my back.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. And I'm like, I know what that's like, oh, you're kind of playing with vulnerability there. You're clearly comfortable with it. But I'm like, that's so funny.
Johnny Knoxville: Because it was in my head.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, because it's in your head and you're playing with it. Yeah. Yeah. And all men are dealing- like I take hair pills. Right? We're all like-
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: And we know that's like-
Johnny Knoxville: I do too. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: These insecurities and free to kind of call it out and it to be jokingly accepted and covered up by Spike, your longtime friend is so beautiful and so funny and so touching and watching it the other day, I was like, oh, that's kind of similar to what I'm trying to do with all my work is this. Or even in my friendships of like revealing and then they kind of, we could laugh about our insecurities together.
Johnny Knoxville: Get ahead of the joke.
Andrew DeYoung: You got to get ahead of it. That's the key. That is the key. Get ahead of the joke is so truth.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. It just takes a little self-awareness. Especially if you're on a brutal set like Jackass, that joke's coming.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Yeah. We got to get ahead of it. That's really funny. Do you feel like you're constant, over the years like, okay, I got to get ahead of it and be constantly hypervigilant, like they're going to look for my weak spots?
Johnny Knoxville: No. Naturally, there's a self-deprecating sense of humor in my family, so it just comes out.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: But I got to say, having the gray hair now has really helped that bald spot.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Well, oh, it's really, like, helped blend?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. You barely even notice because when you got the dark hair or when I had quote "dark hair" “dyed”, it sticks out.
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, your hair looks great.
Johnny Knoxville: The contrast. Oh, stop. Stop.
Andrew DeYoung: What are we doing? You want to share the secrets here?
Johnny Knoxville: Jesus Christ.
Andrew DeYoung: What kind of secrets? I'm doing the pills.
Johnny Knoxville: Secrets of-
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, what do you or we don't have to talk about that if it feels-
Johnny Knoxville: No, no, no. What is it? I take Finasteride or something.
Andrew DeYoung: Same.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't know what it is, but it's supposed to help your hair.
Andrew DeYoung: Same. It helps me for sure. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: And I, yeah. There's no secret.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, good. It's working. It's working for sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Because I always heard that your hair is dependent on your maternal-
Andrew DeYoung: Like genetics of the mom's side.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, your mom's dad.
Andrew DeYoung: Mom's dad. Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: And he was bald as hell. I was like, oh no.
Andrew DeYoung: Of course.
Johnny Knoxville: No. Oh, actually on both sides. Both men. Both my grandfathers went bald, but so far I'm holding up.
Andrew DeYoung: It's doing good.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: It's doing good. I have a couple of friends who've done the full transplant stuff.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh!
Andrew DeYoung: Which I'm like, okay, that's an option if I ever feel that insecure.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. I think you shouldn't have to do that. If we go bald, we'll just shave it or leave it be.
Andrew DeYoung: Just accept it.
Johnny Knoxville: But because, yeah, a guy came into my restaurant- I used to wait tables years ago and the guy, I guess he was mid-transplant?
Andrew DeYoung: Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: And he had all these dots from-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: The front of his scalp to the back of his head and talk about confidence.
Andrew DeYoung: He just raw went into the restaurant?
Johnny Knoxville: He just was sitting there eating his Chinese chicken salad. And I'm just trying not to stare at these dots in his head. He didn't give a shit.
Andrew DeYoung: You didn't ask.
Johnny Knoxville: Now that is reaching the shore. You fully-
Andrew DeYoung: Reaching of the shore. Yeah. The other side. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: You’ve fully mastered it.
Andrew DeYoung: Well, it's like if he has that kind of confidence, why isn't he okay bald?
Johnny Knoxville: Exactly. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: You know what I mean?
Johnny Knoxville: Well, it's complicated.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure. I know. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, of course.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. I always remember that guy. I'm like, he just-
Andrew DeYoung: I respect it.
Johnny Knoxville: He didn't seem to care, but he cared.
Andrew DeYoung: I respect him. I hope he's doing well right now.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: I hope he's listening to this eventually.
Johnny Knoxville: He's probably no longer with us.
Andrew DeYoung: I'm sure he's not.
Johnny Knoxville: This was like 30 years ago. He was pushing it then.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. I see.
Johnny Knoxville: I hope he is.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. I hope his family's doing well.
Johnny Knoxville: God forbid.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen those videos of those, that's like you go to Turkey and get really cheap ones done? Have you seen these videos of people at the airport?
Johnny Knoxville: I do like people traveling to other countries to get a cheap surgery done.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: I wouldn't recommend it. I understand why they do it, but yeah. But your point was?
Andrew DeYoung: But no, there's these incredible videos online of guys just coming from, because I guess it's so expensive here that you go to Turkey, you get a round-trip flight, meals, board, whatever, and the surgery done and it's really inexpensive.
Johnny Knoxville: The hair surgery?
Andrew DeYoung: The hair surgery.
Johnny Knoxville: Transplant.
Andrew DeYoung: And there's these videos of it in the airport of just a camera scanning and it's all these guys waiting for their flight home, just like their heads all wrapped up.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh wow.
Andrew DeYoung: And it's like such a thing.
Johnny Knoxville: Is it this one guy over there doing it?
Andrew DeYoung: It's like a whole little cottage industry that's happening. And because someone brought it up to me and I was like, oh my god, that's wild. Because it's like 30 grand here.
Johnny Knoxville: Hair transplants while you wait.
Andrew DeYoung: While you wait. It's crazy. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: I was in Tennessee. I was in high school and I was at a flea market and a sign advertised tattoos while you wait. And I was wondering how else are you supposed to get tattoos.
Andrew DeYoung: It was at a flea market?
Johnny Knoxville: You can't just leave your forearm and come back later.
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, what were they waiting at, like a flea market or something?
Johnny Knoxville: I had-
Andrew DeYoung: That's so funny.
Johnny Knoxville: It was a tattoo booth and, but you can-
Andrew DeYoung: It's a good angle.
Johnny Knoxville: Apparently get them while you wait.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Yeah. It's a good angle.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever it takes. But yeah, to go back to your original, like watching it in a room full of people for the first time was I'm sure, I don't know. How do you feel when something's final, you've seen it 1000 times? I'm assuming you're involved in the edit?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: I see it and I'm like, well this is crap. This means nothing. And then you see it in a theater and then all these people, it's alive for them for the first time and it's such a, it's like psychedelic.
Johnny Knoxville: And with comedy it's so beneficial to screen it with audiences because it's simple. They either laugh or they don't. And then we have a friends and family screening, a couple of, one or two of those and then we'll screen it two or three times before we release. And it's just so, it helps editing so much.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Are the changes being made kind of tiny or based off of the reactions, are you-
Johnny Knoxville: Well, it depends. Sometimes they're just a few re-edits here or whole bits will come out. You're like, well that didn't work.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow. Okay, interesting.
Johnny Knoxville: Like that didn't work like I thought it was going to.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, interesting.
Johnny Knoxville: Some bits you think this is going to kill, people are going to like this. Crickets.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: Crickets. And then some things you have no faith in that you didn't want to put in, they'll love. You can never, it's tough to figure that out.
Andrew DeYoung: That must feel, does that disorient you in your gut?
Johnny Knoxville: No, because we don't take it personally.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: So much of what we think works, works, and sometimes you don't know. Even when deciding to shoot the ideas, sometimes Jeff will come up with an idea. I'm like, "I don't think so." Or I'll come up with an idea and everyone will be like, "That's not going to work. Let's not..." But Jeff and I know enough to know that we're wrong a lot, and so we end up shooting it and it works most of the time. And so we give each other that grace. One of the few graces we give one another. It's like, "Okay, I don't think that's going to work, but let's shoot it." And with what we do you just take so many chances as far as let's just throw everything against the wall and be as open to the process as possible.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so much about surprise. Right? I could feel like maybe an idea you don't totally believe in could lead to once you shoot it, something incredible happens, right?
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, absolutely. We have rainy day ideas. We'll have all these ideas that we plan to shoot, but if something happens during the day or rains or something, vice versa, not vice versa, but if we have a list of ideas, pretty much nothing ideas, like get six tubes of crazy glue and see what happens. Literally it was the whole thing and we ended up getting a really good bit in Jackass 2 with that.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: So you never know.
Andrew DeYoung: Is that where you were with the helmets?
Johnny Knoxville: The helmets? No, no. We ended up supergluing Wee Man and Preston in a 69 together. Bam superglued his hand to his dad's hairy chest, and pulled his hand off and it was super hairy.
Andrew DeYoung: Incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: I tried one, which I felt like I really dodged a bullet while we were shooting this and kids, do not do this at home! I thought it would be funny to put the super glue around my mouth and chin and super glue my face to Phil's chest, so I'd have a goatee. But what happened was I was just doing nothing but inhaling the super glue.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, God.
Johnny Knoxville: And the room started spinning. I almost passed out and-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, God.
Johnny Knoxville: ...it was almost dark.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, God. And you couldn't even do the bid.
Johnny Knoxville: No, no. No, I had-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my God.
Johnny Knoxville: We had to, yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Terrifying.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, I don't know if I was terrified, but I did realize that I was almost in deep waters.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure.
Johnny Knoxville: But that was fun.
Andrew DeYoung: Sometimes you get surprises you don't want.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, there's lots of surprises.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. In my movie, Tim doesn't really like to improvise.
Johnny Knoxville: Really?
Andrew DeYoung: There's things that- he comes from the improv world, of course, brilliantly funny person in the moment, and he adds on to little things and stuff like that, but he's really anti, whole cloth improv. I haven't worked on, I Think You Should Leave, but just knowing, I did a pilot with him and just knowing him and Zach, his writing partner's process, they're really precise about writing, but it doesn't feel that way. It has its own aliveness and kind of spontaneity to it too. And he loves you and what you guys do.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, that's very kind.
Andrew DeYoung: He loves you.
Johnny Knoxville: I think he's super funny.
Andrew DeYoung: And it's interesting, these different pathways to get to a laugh. And I also come from improv and have such a desire to create surprise. I mean, what you guys do is something I can't do.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, we don't have any idea what's going to happen. So-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. But it's beautiful.
Johnny Knoxville: ...we're surprised with everyone else.
Andrew DeYoung: That's incredible. To create those conditions for surprise and then roll with it is something that's like, yeah, some days you might pass out and it's going to go a little dark, and sometimes you're going to get incredible, beautiful stuff that we see in the work. I don't know. I really like that. Setting up for surprise. I find it so rare and I do a lot of TV. I feel like people are constantly trying to kill surprise.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some directors I've worked with, they only like to stick to the script, and some will be like, "Okay, this take, do whatever. We got the script, so do whatever you want." That's always fun for me. I've worked with John Waters, who I absolutely adore.
Andrew DeYoung: Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: The greatest dinner guest of all time. People are like, "Boy, if you have five people you would like to have dinner with." John Waters is the first person I want at that dinner.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: You cannot bring up a subject that he doesn't have an articulate hilarious take on.
Andrew DeYoung: Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: He's so well-read, and when you go to his house, you can't even sit down because there's books stacked 10 high in every chair on every couch. He gets like 100 magazines a month. Magazines really don't exist anymore. It really sucks going to the airport. I used to love going to the airport. I would spend $75 on magazines, and now there's none to buy.
Andrew DeYoung: You load up. You'd never bring your stuff to the airport? You would just go and load up on magazines?
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, absolutely.
Andrew DeYoung: What were your magazines of choice?
Johnny Knoxville: Popular Science was one of my favorites.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Respect. Respect.
Johnny Knoxville: I'd come across some silly gadget. I'm like, "I can use that on one of the guys."
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, sure.
Johnny Knoxville: And I got a lot of ideas out of that, but the reason I brought up John Waters is he really wants to stick to the script. And he has a cadence in his head too.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. And he'll give line readings, and I have no problem at all receiving a line reading from a master like John Waters. I actually loved it because they're so specific.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow. Is he giving you readings from take one, or is he letting you get one in yourself?
Johnny Knoxville: He knows how he wants to have it. He'll get the script and read the whole script in each character's voice.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: And so you're kind of just doing your version of his take, which I, again, I think is wonderful. I love John. John, I will do whatever you want.
Andrew DeYoung: That's incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: And the other actors on set, did they have a similar positive response?
Johnny Knoxville: Some, were a little puzzled, but again, they ended up like, "It's John Waters. What do you need?"
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure, sure. I mean, what a legend.
Johnny Knoxville: He does that with Tracey Ullman. He did that with everyone, and everyone just accepted it. You're on John Waters' ride.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. It's kind of amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: And it's a wonderful ride.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, for sure. I mean, to have a director with a vision that clear is rare, is really amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: He's fantastic.
Andrew DeYoung: That's so great to hear. He has this myth about him, like this hitchhiking myth. Right? I don't know if you know, people are like, "We just picked up John Waters on the side of it."
Johnny Knoxville: Who does that?
Andrew DeYoung: It's incredible. He's on another plane.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. He has reached the shore as well.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, clearly. A long time ago, for sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, my fiancé worked on Tim's show, the-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah. She had a lot of great things to say about him.
Andrew DeYoung: What did she do?
Johnny Knoxville: She was the costume designer.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: So she was going to work on the second season, but she took Jackass Forever instead.
Andrew DeYoung: This makes sense.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: This makes total sense. Tim's the best dude. You guys haven't met?
Johnny Knoxville: No, I don't think so.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. You guys should.
Johnny Knoxville: But I've had a few concussions, so we may have spent time together.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure, sure.
Johnny Knoxville: I wish I was joking.
Andrew DeYoung: He's the best. He's the best dude, we should connect y'all.
Johnny Knoxville: Is it a heightened version of himself that he's playing?
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, 100%. Yeah. 100%. I mean, all this, I think we're versions of what we make deep down, so I think he's just like, "I am the character," that he plays in a lot of ways. He's also a lot of his characters too, but the nicest guy in the world and so sweet and caring and loves his friends and stuff, and cares about comedy so much. He really is someone I get a lot of encouragement from when I waiver, maybe second guess my gut. Sometimes he's so confident in what he does, even if stuff doesn't work in the public. He's like, "I like it."
Johnny Knoxville: Right.
Andrew DeYoung: And there's something about that where I'm just like, "It's kind of amazing."
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. It's like that guy with the plugs in his head.
Andrew DeYoung: The guy with the plugs, he's like, "I'm getting Chinese food. I don't give a fuck. I look insane." He probably didn't even think about it. He's like, "Oh yeah, I got hair plugs. I'm getting Chinese food."
Johnny Knoxville: I wish I had that guy's confidence.
Andrew DeYoung: I know. How does one get that? I'm like, "Are you born with it? Are you just like..." Because I'm constantly with the confident stuff- It's wavering all the time.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. I don't know.
Andrew DeYoung: You seem like you have that.
Johnny Knoxville: There's a thing. You’ve got to have the right amount of confidence because too little confidence is a problem.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: But I think too much confidence is a worse problem.
Andrew DeYoung: I totally agree.
Johnny Knoxville: You've met those people.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. How do you navigate that? Especially as success came to you? Was that something you had to navigate?
Johnny Knoxville: No. No. Too much confidence. No. My problem wasn't too much confidence. I would err on the side of too little confidence.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, wow.
Johnny Knoxville: Especially early growing up. Part of me is like, "Well, I'm as funny as the next guy." And then part of me is like, "One day people are going to find out you're not funny."
Andrew DeYoung: Wow. That's always been there?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: But over the years, I'm like, "All right. I'm reasonably funny." It's kind of where I ended up. Everyone has their...
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Because you come across very confident, not in a toxic way, just you seem very sure of yourself.
Johnny Knoxville: Not overconfident.
Andrew DeYoung: Not over. Well, I know what you're talking about, and it's scary.
Johnny Knoxville: Not in a Steven Seagal type of way.
Andrew DeYoung: God bless Steven. This is a pro Steven Seagal podcast for sure. No, yeah, not like that. We know, we see it in culture constantly. Entertainment.
Johnny Knoxville: Especially now.
Andrew DeYoung: Especially now.
Johnny Knoxville: Without getting too far into that.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. You see it now in all the compensating people, especially men when they're feeling small. Right? And in our industry too. It's interesting. I could see how people get a little success and maybe some latent stuff all of a sudden blooms where it kind of takes control and maybe they lose sight of their career a little bit, or what made them do what they do in the first place.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: I'm careful of how I talk, but it's interesting. Because I see it a lot, people losing sight of what they did because it's like they get success and it's sparkly and whatever.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. No, it took a little getting used to, but mine wasn't like I'm overconfident in treating people I worked with like shit. It was just a lot of me spinning out and spinning my wheels and too much of this, too much of that.
Andrew DeYoung: Totally.
Johnny Knoxville: And then finally work your way around who you want to be.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Did you do that kind of privately, or was that with the other guys too? I assume they were probably dealing it with their own stuff.
Johnny Knoxville: No, I didn't do it so privately. I wish I was more private about it back in those days.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay, okay.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, it's just fast, faster and disaster.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure. Okay. Interesting. Or even just the vulnerability in sharing that. Sometimes we act out, right?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. And don't share that other side.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, part of changing is owning up to what you did. You got to be responsible for the things you did.
Andrew DeYoung: Totally.
Johnny Knoxville: I'm sorry, I got a little distracted. Has anyone ever told you you look like Matt Hoffman a little?
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, who's Matt Hoffman? I know the name.
Johnny Knoxville: Legendary BMX rider. He's like my generation's Evel Knievel. We did a documentary on him called The Birth of Big Air.
Andrew DeYoung: Did you just get distracted right now or has it been spinning?
Johnny Knoxville: No, throughout the-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, wow.
Johnny Knoxville: But I felt I got it out, and I feel a lot better about it because-
Andrew DeYoung: Do you think I was going to get offended or something?
Johnny Knoxville: No, no, no. He's a handsome young man. I don't know of anyone tougher than Matt Hoffman.
Andrew DeYoung: No one said that. I'll take it. Thank you. I'll do a deep dive. I don't feel tough at all. So to be aligned with someone that could be possibly tough and it sounds good. For sure. Thank you for getting it off your chest. I'm glad. Talk about truth. There you go. I know. I could tell something was blocking you.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, there we go.
Andrew DeYoung: You got the Steven Seagal stuff off and now this.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, man. Seagal. What a dick. And one of the things my fiancé and I like to do is just watch terrible movies. One of our favorite pastimes is terrible movies. And we had a long run of Seagal films.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: And it's very satisfying.
Andrew DeYoung: What? I haven't been keeping up with Seagal news. And he hasn't been top of mind either.
Johnny Knoxville: No, it's dark.
Andrew DeYoung: Is he dark? Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. A lot of the stories would suck the energy out of the room. There are stories. This producer told me once, it's a funny story. He walks into Seagal's office and Seagal is sitting at his desk, legs crossed, cowboy boots on the desk, his gun on the desk. Script open, and he's weeping. And the producer's like, "Hey, what's going on? You okay?" He goes, "I'm just reading the most beautiful script I ever read." And he's like, "Oh, really? Who wrote it?" He goes, "I did."
Andrew DeYoung: No, no, no.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: That's crazy.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: That's crazy.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: A gun on the desk.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, yeah. He had read too much of his press.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my god. That's incredible. Well, I would want nothing else from Seagal than to do exactly that.
Johnny Knoxville: Do you know the Gene LeBell story?
Andrew DeYoung: No.
Johnny Knoxville: So Gene LeBell is one of the toughest men who ever lived. His mom ran the Grand Olympic Auditorium. He grew up working with the wrestlers, the boxers. He trained in so many disciplines. I think he got a gold medal in Judo in the Olympics. He was the first man to go to Japan and train. He's a stunt man as well, and I've worked with him on films. The stunt guys revere him. On one film I was working on, all the stuntmen just lined up outside his door just so he would choke them out.
Andrew DeYoung: Get out of here.
Johnny Knoxville: He was legendary for choking people out, and after he would choke you out, he'd give you a patch that said, "I got choked out by Gene LeBell."
Andrew DeYoung: That's crazy.
Johnny Knoxville: He's working on a movie with Steven Seagal. Steven Seagal saw how all the stuntmen revered Gene and not him, and his ego couldn't take it. So Gene's a nice guy, but he's a little nuts. So Seagal goes up to him and he goes, "There's not a hole you can get me in that I can't get out of." Gene's like, "Yeah, you're probably right, son."
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, sure.
Johnny Knoxville: "It's fine. Go ahead, go on, go on." Seagal wouldn't let it go. Finally, Gene's half off, so he's like, "Okay. Turn around." He put his arm around Seagal's neck. He goes, "When I say go, try and get away." Gene goes, "Go," and then just choked him out. He can control how long he chokes you out for, and he choked Seagal out for an extended period of time, and kind of put him in the side of the soundstage to sleep it off.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my God.
Johnny Knoxville: Seagal had pissed himself while he was out, woke up, and tried to have LeBell fired. You can't beg someone to do it, and then just because it doesn't go your way.
Andrew DeYoung: That's incredible. That's incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: And the production said, "Fuck you. LeBell stays."
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, it feels like a Tim sketch. In a way, it's like, asking to get choked out, losing immediately, and then trying to still win by getting the guy fired. That's my favorite thing, just coming up with so much confidence and getting your ass beat immediately.
Johnny Knoxville: Immediately.
Andrew DeYoung: Immediately not a fight and on top of that-
Johnny Knoxville: Too much confidence.
Andrew DeYoung: Too much confidence. On top of that, pissing yourself and taking a nap.
Johnny Knoxville: He choked me out before. He choked out the whole cast-
Andrew DeYoung: No way!
Johnny Knoxville: ...of Jackass.
Andrew DeYoung: Jesus Christ.
Johnny Knoxville: We didn't put it in the first movie, just because we thought kids would see it and go, "Okay, well let's do it." And they don't know. They're going to cut off the wind as opposed to the blood.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Dear God.
Johnny Knoxville: So we didn't put it in because we didn't want any trouble, but-
Andrew DeYoung: A little dangerous, yeah. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: But it's a weird feeling to be choked out. You're sitting there, looking at your friends and next thing you know, you're in a deep sleep dreaming, and you wake up and everyone's looking at you.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh my God, and you're covered in piss?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. No one peed themselves, but we did put a bike lock around Ehren’s neck while he was out.
Andrew DeYoung: I feel like you guys especially torture him.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, he responds so well. His fear is funny.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, it's incredible. Well, it's just so real.
Johnny Knoxville: It's really satisfying to all of us, unfortunately for him.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so funny. Wait, so the difference between when you get choked out, the air, it's like there's the breathing passage versus blood?
Johnny Knoxville: Well, you don't want to cut off someone's air, because that will kill them.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. So how do you-
Johnny Knoxville: So you cut off the blood.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, okay. So, you put pressure on the side?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Great.
Johnny Knoxville: But please, no one should try it.
Andrew DeYoung: No one should try it. I'm just learning this, and it seems... I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I should know that."
Johnny Knoxville: Well, now you do.
Andrew DeYoung: Now I do.
Johnny Knoxville: Don't beat yourself up.
Andrew DeYoung: I'm a fucking idiot, Johnny. Jesus.
Johnny Knoxville: Now when does your movie come out?
Andrew DeYoung: May 9th in New York and LA, and then it'll start to expand and it'll go wide on Memorial Day Weekend.
Johnny Knoxville: Are you guys doing the audience reaction videos? Because we do that with Jackass, because it's such a fun movie to watch with your friends, and I think your guys' movie has the same vibe. They're different tones, but it's such a primal laugh and primal uncomfortableness watching Friendship.
Andrew DeYoung: I really appreciate that. I feel like you guys used those reaction videos, one of the first times I've ever seen it, in ads and stuff, right?
Johnny Knoxville: Mm-hmm.
Andrew DeYoung: And I know some horror movies do it and stuff, but no one's brought it up. We did one test screening when I was still editing the movie, and they filmed the audience. That was the first time. I would go back sometimes when I would edit and look, and I'm like, "How did people react to this?"
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah, it helps.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so interesting, for sure.
Johnny Knoxville: But were people being vocal and twisting and turning and scrunching their face?
Andrew DeYoung: You see it. You see it. The one we did was just people off the street who didn't know what they were getting into. So they were doing that, for sure. I think people were just surprised like, "What the hell am I watching?" You know?
Johnny Knoxville: I had that at first, because I was trying to figure out the tone at first, because I didn't go in knowing anything, so I didn't know what I was watching. But then you reach a point where you're completely on board, and you're just in for the ride, but it took a second, if you don't know what you're walking into.
Andrew DeYoung: No. I like to hear this.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, your movie will be marketed well, so people will know what they're walking into.
Andrew DeYoung: Totally.
Johnny Knoxville: I had no idea what I was walking into.
Andrew DeYoung: Totally, totally. But even stuff, you could truly say whatever. It's interesting to hear how people react, and it's like you were saying earlier, some stuff you're like, "This is going to kill." And then you get it in front of 100 people and they're like, "No, it doesn't kill. At all."
Johnny Knoxville: Right, right.
Andrew DeYoung: And it fucks with you a little bit. And it's so interesting, you're like, "Okay. I'm maybe 75% right about my gut, and there's 25% that's just me in there."
Johnny Knoxville: And that's fine.
Andrew DeYoung: And that's fine.
Johnny Knoxville: You just have to accept that it's fine.
Andrew DeYoung: Yes. Yes.
Johnny Knoxville: Because with comedy, you know a little, but you don't know everything.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so hard. Yeah. Tim's always like, "Laughing's an accident," which is so interesting. I feel like that's kind of a hardcore take. But in a way, it's true, where you're rolling the dice and you think, and then you don't know. I don't know, maybe now that you've brought it up, maybe A24 would want to do a cringe hidden camera thing.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh my God. If you would've had one on me that day, I just had my hand on my head, my hands over my eyes screaming like, "No, don't! Please!"
Andrew DeYoung: That's true. That's-
Johnny Knoxville: "Jesus fuck. He's doing it."
Andrew DeYoung: That's so nice. When you first played, when was the first large audience you played your stuff in front of? Was it the TV show? Was it the movie?
Johnny Knoxville: Probably... We did a friends and family. I can't remember if we did the friends and family screening first on Jackass: The Movie, or we screened it for Paramount the first time. But the Paramount screening was an absolute disaster.
Andrew DeYoung: This was a first cut?
Johnny Knoxville: First cut. We purposely put in things we knew would never make the movie, right?
Andrew DeYoung: Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: Even though we had the final cut, you want to give them something to bitch about.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: The same thing you do with the ratings board, you put in red herrings. Like, "We don't even want this in," but it gives them something to do. So after the first screening at Paramount, one of the heads of Paramount stood up and was like, "Paramount will never release that movie." He was furious and in his defense, the cut we turned in was gnarly.
Andrew DeYoung: You were trying to get that reaction, in a certain way?
Johnny Knoxville: No, no, no. We weren't trying to not get the movie released.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, sure. Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: But we put in a lot of things that wouldn't make the film. But luckily the head of the studio, Sherry Lansing, she came up and said, "We love it. We're so happy with it." And at the time, we had the opening with the shopping cart in it, and she-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, yeah. Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: ..."What we would like is if you guys would bookend it with an ending as well." Then she's like, "Here's X amount of dollars to go do that." And that's when we did the old man thing at the end, for Jackass: The Movie. It was even funny then, you know?
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure. Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: How angry this one guy got.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. He was a powerful guy at the studio.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Wow. So you had final cut, but just to give them something to do and feel like they were participating in it, you gave them these things to like-
Johnny Knoxville: Well, part of the reason. And part of the reason's like, we just wanted to try everything out.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: To see what happens. But some of the scenes lingered a little long.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure, sure.
Johnny Knoxville: We went a little... maybe-
Andrew DeYoung: God, I would love to see that.
Johnny Knoxville: You say that now, but I-
Andrew DeYoung: Truly, I mean-
Johnny Knoxville: ...it felt like you ran a marathon after sitting through a longer than usual cut of what we do. Tone and pacing is so much with any movie, but ours especially, certain bits work together, certain bits don't.
Andrew DeYoung: The music of one, how one feeds into the other one and stuff.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. You don't want too many gross things back to back-
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: ...or too many ...I would say too many cocks, but there were probably too many cocks in Jackass Forever.
Andrew DeYoung: There's a lot of cocks in it, yeah. Which I was like, I'm like, "This is incredible."
Johnny Knoxville: Jeff and I, about a third of the way through the movie, we're like, there's a lot of… and Spike as well. "There's a lot of cock in the movie, so let's kind of pull back on the cock." So we made a conscious effort, but then we'd be on the set filming something and we're like, "That is kind of funny if their cocks are out." So like-
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: ...we just threw up our hands.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. No. You got to go where the spirit takes you. Absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, no.
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, talking about vulnerability, that movie especially and the vulnerability in it, the nudity. There's so much cock and balls, just right there.
Johnny Knoxville: Too much.
Andrew DeYoung: No. It's a perfect amount. It's like right there. It's truly incredible. I was like, "Some of this belongs in a museum."
Johnny Knoxville: I was talking to this guy the other day, and he said that Jackass Forever was one of the reasons that he and his girlfriend broke up because she had a movie that she didn't want him to see. I don't know, it was a bone of contention in their relationship that he couldn't see it. And then she takes him to see Jackass Forever, and he's like, "There's just so much cock in it." And he had this built-up animosity from not being able to see the movie he wanted to see. He goes, "And then she makes me sit through this."
Andrew DeYoung: That's-
Johnny Knoxville: I said, "You are not wrong, sir."
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, she wanted to see Jackass Forever?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, yeah, and he didn't. And then he gets there and it's just wall-to-wall cocks, and they eventually just... That was the cock that broke the camel's back.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. Do you know what movie he was trying to see that she didn't want to?
Johnny Knoxville: Ah, I can't remember.
Andrew DeYoung: That's wild, that he didn't want to see it.
Johnny Knoxville: Well, obviously there were other things going on in their relationship, which-
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: ...culminated in this.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. That's wild.
Johnny Knoxville: I didn't take it as an insult. I just completely sympathized with him.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. That could be shocking. Yeah. I wonder how many over the years, break-ups, Jackass has led to.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't think a lot. I hear more stories of fathers seeing it with their sons or grandfathers seeing it with their sons as we get older.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. Sure, sure, sure. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'm just remembering, one of my first girlfriends, we went to Blockbuster and rented-
Johnny Knoxville: What's that?
Andrew DeYoung: Blockbuster?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. It's crazy.
Andrew DeYoung: I know. I'll send you a link.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't think my kids even... We went to a video store the other night, Vidiots showed Jackass: The Movie.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: And I intro-ed it. By the way, they have this theater, the video store in Eagle Rock, and a huge crowd. If you ever want to screen something there, reach out, because it's fun.
Andrew DeYoung: Well, Friendship screens there this Saturday.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, really?
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, if you want to-
Johnny Knoxville: This Saturday?
Andrew DeYoung: This Saturday, if you want to see it with the crowd.
Johnny Knoxville: Are you going to intro it?
Andrew DeYoung: I'm doing a Q&A. Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: It's fun.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, I'm excited. Fuck. I can't believe I missed that. They just showed it the other day?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. And-
Andrew DeYoung: Cannot believe I missed that.
Johnny Knoxville: ...it's a great experience, but why did I bring that up?
Andrew DeYoung: Video stores.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, yeah. But I took my daughter, and her and her friend had never been in a video store before. Which I get it.
Andrew DeYoung: How old are they?
Johnny Knoxville: 13.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
Johnny Knoxville: I was like, "Okay, Arlo, there's some things in this movie that I'm going to ask you to cover your eyes or cover your ears."
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, they've never seen it?
Johnny Knoxville: No. Because it's... you know?
Andrew DeYoung: Of course, of course. But yeah, I mean, you know? Yeah.
Johnny Knoxville: But then I thought about it and I was like, actually, they're not going to have to cover their eyes or ears, because there's not any cock. There's one shot where you can... It's sheer shorts. But it was really tame and innocent compared to the things that... what it became.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure.
Johnny Knoxville: It was almost refreshing.
Andrew DeYoung: The innocence. You saw the innocence, right?
Johnny Knoxville: I mean, they did cover their eyes and ears on their own.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: But not at my behest.
Andrew DeYoung: So what was that like, watching it with your daughter?
Johnny Knoxville: It was so fun because I spent most of the time watching her and her friend's reaction.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. It was fun.
Andrew DeYoung: What was the conversation afterwards?
Johnny Knoxville: Just seeing what bits they liked, and it was a really good experience.
Andrew DeYoung: That's incredible. When was the last time you saw the movie?
Johnny Knoxville: Probably a year and a half ago, because I showed my son who had turned 14 the movie, because my oldest daughter saw it when... She saw Jackass Number Two when she was 14. Now in that movie, I made her cover her eyes, ears, or both, because Jackass Number Two was probably our most-
Andrew DeYoung: For sure.
Johnny Knoxville: ...raw of them all.
Andrew DeYoung: For sure. Is that the one where the shit pops out?
Johnny Knoxville: The poocano. Yeah. Yeah. That was in there.
Andrew DeYoung: There's certain goddamn images from the TV show and the movies that are lodged in my brain-
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Sorry about that.
Andrew DeYoung: ...that hits me in a way, which I think is successful. It hits the psyche in a way that it does something that it'll never leave, and it constantly is in my head.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Hopefully you have a therapist or someone you can talk to about it.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. I'll bring it up to Gail.
Johnny Knoxville: I went to the John Waters exhibit at the Academy Museum last year, and a part of the exhibit was this montage video of all his films. And I see this father and son walk in. The son's about 13 or 14. I'm sitting there talking to my fiancé and about three minutes later, this father and son come walking out and the son's like going, "No, no, I just don't want to do this today."
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, what?
Johnny Knoxville: He was disturbed by something he saw.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, my God.
Johnny Knoxville: And thought it was so funny.
Andrew DeYoung: I don't want to do this today.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't want to do this today!
Andrew DeYoung: What did the dad say?
Johnny Knoxville: He just was trying to be supportive.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: But it was a montage of all the hits of his films.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: I was in heaven. Everyone was, except for this-
Andrew DeYoung: Thirteen?
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, ish. He had a real visceral experience.
Andrew DeYoung: Good luck to that kid. Yeah. Dear God. And so do you plan to show your kids the rest of the films slowly?
Johnny Knoxville: Rocko has seen up to three. He hasn't seen Jackass Forever yet.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: I'm going to wait on Arlo seeing the rest of the, because she's only 13. I don't want to have her have the experience that you can't wash some things out of your mind.
Andrew DeYoung: It's not a bad thing, but there's certain images.
Johnny Knoxville: Plus I get not only the naughty content, just like me getting knocked out. There's a lot more of that in the rest of the film.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah. I'm sure that she doesn't want to see that or any-
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. No kid wants to see that.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. What do they want to do? Do they want to follow your footsteps in any way?
Johnny Knoxville: I let them know that that's not happening. I don't want my kids doing that. As far as them saying something inappropriate or, I was pretty easy on them about that. But as far as something happening to them physically, I was like a helicopter parent. I would be on the playground underneath whatever they were on to catch them.
Andrew DeYoung: Interesting.
Johnny Knoxville: So I wish I was a little more easy on that, but that's how I was.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure. I mean, that makes a lot of sense, for sure.
Johnny Knoxville: Plus they're smart. They're not going to want to do what I do.
Andrew DeYoung: Sure, sure. Or in some other content... It's interesting how we repeat what our parents did or-
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. It's called generational neglect.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely. In my case too, it's like my dad wanted to be a photographer, got a master's in it, but he was too scared to pursue it. And then I became a director and almost I took that over. And it's interesting how that pattern repeats all the time.
Johnny Knoxville: The same with my dad. He was hilarious. He should have been in show business, but he wasn't. He owned a tire company and everyone that worked for him were his marks. He just pranked them all the time. He was frustrated and he drank a lot because of his frustration. I think he was in a job that, first of all, it was incredibly hard work, but not something that he actually wanted to do. So just like your father, far as the standpoint of you taking over what your father wanted to do.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, kind of unconsciously, we finish something or complete something.
Johnny Knoxville: I heard Jerry Seinfeld talk about the fact that a lot of comedians are somewhat their mom or their father were amateur comedians that never pursued it and then it's their kids who took it up.
Andrew DeYoung: God, it's so fascinating. I see the pattern all the time in friends and other people I work with and it's so fascinating. So I ask it out of curiosity. I wonder when there's a certain success achieved what kids do or do they do something similar? You create conditions for surprise. I wonder from a kid's point of view, how does that translate? Or do they simply just go and become a professor or do they do something totally different?
Johnny Knoxville: Well, that's the dream.
Andrew DeYoung: That's the dream. You're pushing them to teach.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Just stay off a basic cable.
Andrew DeYoung: Did your dad see the stuff you did?
Johnny Knoxville: Yes. Yeah. And both my mom and dad absolutely loved it. They didn't like the stunts at all, but they were very proud and that made me feel good. But dad was overboard with it. Part of the fact, he was proud and people treated him differently.
Andrew DeYoung: Whoa. Yeah. Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: Pizza people would come to his house to deliver pizza and he'd open the door, "Home of Johnny Knoxville."
Andrew DeYoung: No.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, yeah. And he used to go to police auctions and buy cars and sell them. Just him and mom would have something to do, but he had cards printed up like father of Johnny Knoxville on his used cars business card.
Andrew DeYoung: This is incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, my God.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, he was out of control.
Andrew DeYoung: So did he ever say, okay, he loved the success, but the stunts, they didn't love-
Johnny Knoxville: No, they hated the stunts.
Andrew DeYoung: And did they try to talk you out of that, even though I know it was ingrained in...
Johnny Knoxville: Well, they would say, we hope you don't do stunts in this next film. They knew I was doing a film, just don't do any stunts. I didn't know what to tell them.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow. And so he milked the success.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, boy, did he.
Andrew DeYoung: There's something so endearing.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, it's sweet.
Andrew DeYoung: Amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: I thought it was sweet. It never bothered me that he-
Andrew DeYoung: Wow. That's amazing.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, he was always wearing some type of swag. Proud parent.
Andrew DeYoung: It's incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Did he ever try to get himself in on camera?
Johnny Knoxville: I'm trying to think. He would sometimes write an idea and a few we filmed. I think the department store boxing, he was like, "Ah, you should go in a department store and just get some boxing gloves off the shelf and go at it."
Andrew DeYoung: Brilliant idea.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. Good. I think he was in one or two things very quickly on the TV show.
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, great. He must have been thrilled.
Johnny Knoxville: I've seen him, the news interviewed him one time. He was at this golf thing with my sister, and he just... He had such intense natural charisma, but as soon as they turned the camera on him, he just went inside and just was super behaved and measured and something, two things he never was.
Andrew DeYoung: Wow.
Johnny Knoxville: But I get it. I was terrified of the camera when I started out trying to act.
Andrew DeYoung: And how did you get relaxed?
Johnny Knoxville: Just doing it.
Andrew DeYoung: Just exposure.
Johnny Knoxville: Exposure.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this was traditional acting, not-
Johnny Knoxville: It was so bad. I knew that I wanted to be an actor in high school and that people knew I wanted to be an actor. And I remember it was a silly thing. This company came to interview some students about the lunch menu on camera. I don't know what it was for, some industrial thing. And it was like me and six people, I was the only one who wanted to be in show business. Everyone was great. They asked them questions, they were present and insightful, and they got to me, and I did exactly the same thing as my dad did. I couldn't even think of words to say. Mr. Saturday Night. I couldn't even-
Andrew DeYoung: Wait, how old were you?
Johnny Knoxville: I was like 16.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay. And you were supposed to talk about how good the lunch was?
Johnny Knoxville: Well, you didn’t even have to brag about the lunch. You just had to give them ideas for different lunch items. You could actually complain if you want. You could say anything you want. And I had nothing. I had fucking nothing.
Andrew DeYoung: And did you have something you were going to say and then you got camera froze-
Johnny Knoxville: No, I said I'll wing it. I'm headed to Hollywood. I'll wing it and then I'm like, "Oh, no. Oh, no."
Andrew DeYoung: Do you remember at all-
Johnny Knoxville: Did you ever see that video, “Boom Goes the Dynamite”?
Andrew DeYoung: Yes. Wait.
Johnny Knoxville: Where the kid was doing the news for his college and he starts out doing okay, and then at one point something goes wrong. I don't know what happened, but he just went blank and went, "Oh no." I've had so many moments like that in my life where I was like, "Here we go."
Andrew DeYoung: It's the television.
Johnny Knoxville: Here comes that dragon again.
Andrew DeYoung: You're getting choked up.
Johnny Knoxville: Have you had moments like that where you-
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, no.
Andrew DeYoung: Absolutely.
Johnny Knoxville: It's so honest of an emotion.
Andrew DeYoung: It's so relatable. I talk about primal again, what you're explaining is you're on camera talking about lunch.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah.
Andrew DeYoung: Stakes couldn't be lower. Right?
Johnny Knoxville: No pressure.
Andrew DeYoung: No pressure at all. And you fucking whiff. To me, that is my ideal kind of comedy. It's so funny.
Johnny Knoxville: And with all your friends watching is even better.
Andrew DeYoung: Yeah, yeah. And you think you're a big shot, like the stuff you got-
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, yeah, I got this. Well, I'll go last. Let me, I got this.
Andrew DeYoung: And eating shit.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, God. It was awful.
Andrew DeYoung: It’s so funny.
Johnny Knoxville: I still sweat just thinking about it.
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, it's something that I'm not a performer. I did improv for a number of years, but out of-
Johnny Knoxville: Which is very brave.
Andrew DeYoung: That's nice to hear. But I didn't-
Johnny Knoxville: I would be terrified. I would be scared.
Andrew DeYoung: I mean, it's terrifying, but there's a game element to it where I'm like a challenge where it does feel, and then it's not like stand-up. Truly, that idea terrifies me.
Johnny Knoxville: I did that once.
Andrew DeYoung: You did it once.
Johnny Knoxville: Once.
Andrew DeYoung: How did it go?
Johnny Knoxville: The audience, actually, I was 15 and the audience reacted well. I got laughs, but my sweat pits almost... I had a problem sweating in high school, but that night my sweat pits almost met between my tits. I was like, "That's fun. Let's never do that again." And I never did.
Andrew DeYoung: That's crazy.
Johnny Knoxville: So to do improv, to me, it's even more frightening than stand-up because stand-up you have an idea of knowing what you're going to say. But in improv, you're just winging it. Like me talking about the lunch that day, I was just winging it and I had nothing.
Andrew DeYoung: You're winging it and it could be really terrifying. You're on there with a-
Johnny Knoxville: Were you frightened doing improv?
Andrew DeYoung: Oh, always. And especially someone who doesn't like to be... Even doing Q&As for this movie drives me... I'm already dreading Saturday when I have to do one, and so many people that love me and support me are there and that makes it even worse.
Johnny Knoxville: What's the worst-case scenario in your head?
Andrew DeYoung: I'm just going to say something insane or look insane or look dumb. Even the fear of having to do this podcast with you, I was like, "I'm going to say something so dumb."
Johnny Knoxville: Well, I mean, I've said a number of things that are really stupid.
Andrew DeYoung: Here? Not at all. Even actually excellent.
Johnny Knoxville: I've just given up.
Andrew DeYoung: You got to give up. You got to let go.
Johnny Knoxville: But you've been wonderful.
Andrew DeYoung: You've been absolutely incredible.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, stop. Now we're back to j-ing each other off again.
Andrew DeYoung: No, but it's true. But the spinning out is, as someone who doesn't put themselves in front of the camera a lot, it's very accessible to me. And there's certain times, improv especially, it happened where I'm on stage and all of a sudden it goes like, woof, the vision starts to blur.
Johnny Knoxville: Because you're no longer present.
Andrew DeYoung: No longer present.
Johnny Knoxville : When you went from being present and in the moment to you're just in a fear spiral.
Andrew DeYoung: Complete fear spiral.
Johnny Knoxville: And you can't be creative in a fear spiral. To have anxiety and do improv, that's fucking brave.
Andrew DeYoung: Is that something you still contend with from time to time, or is that a thing of the past?
Johnny Knoxville: I was very frightened of crowds growing up, and I still get anxiety in certain social situations and talking on a mic in front of people in a large room used to be very frightening but I've gotten to where I feel okay about it now.
Andrew DeYoung: Okay.
Johnny Knoxville: I don't sit and wonder, oh, if I do this, if I do that, they don't laugh. I finally reached the point where like, well, fuck 'em. If they don't laugh or they don't- it's okay. It's fine. Ending on fuck 'em I think really works for me.
Andrew DeYoung: Ending. I mean, me too. I mean truly.
Johnny Knoxville: I learned that from A24. They said, "Fuck 'em."
Andrew DeYoung: Fuck 'em.
Johnny Knoxville: Yeah. They don't come to our movie, fuck 'em. Thank you A24. But please, please come to Friendship. You will be happy that you did. You'll be extremely uncomfortable throughout a lot of the movie, but in the best way possible. And just some loud reflects of laughter. It is a masterpiece. I loved it.
Andrew DeYoung: That is truly so nice to hear, Johnny.
Johnny Knoxville: Thank you for sitting down and confabulating chats and bants.
Andrew DeYoung: Thanks for your bants.
Johnny Knoxville: As the English would say.
Andrew DeYoung: Thanks for your bants. Thanks for your Seagal stories. Thanks for your shots fired at Seagal. I wasn't expecting that, but I love it.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh, man.
Andrew DeYoung: Johnny, it means the world that you're here and that you watched the movie, and I really, really appreciate your kind thoughts.
Johnny Knoxville: Oh no, it was great. Truly, I loved it.
Andrew DeYoung: You're a big inspiration for me, so I really appreciate you taking the time.
Johnny Knoxville: Well thank you.