Johnny Knoxville, star of Jackass Forever, has opened up more about the after-effects of one of the comedy movie‘s stunts. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he shares that he had a bout of depression brought on by a serious concussion he suffered while filming.
The injury happened during an encounter with a bull, where Knoxville gets hit by the animal. He suffered an aneurysm, and unlike past instances where he’d taken a bump to the head, this time it left some lingering side effects. “I did slip into a bit of a depression with this last concussion, that hasn’t happened before,” he says. “My brain was just playing tricks on me. I got really depressed and over-focused on things. I did have to start medication for the first time in my life.”
Knoxville reassures Stern that he didn’t become suicidal at all and that a combination of medication and therapy sorted him out. “It was a really hard recovery from this last injury,” he recalls. “I’m great now, I feel like I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been.
The stunt involves him trying to put a magician’s show for the bull. Some of the footage can be seen in previous trailers, where Knoxville gets bucked up and thrashed around when the ferocious creature doesn’t fancy trying to remember what card it drew.
The fourth Jackass movie, Jackass Forever brought back most of the crew for another rash of antics and pranks. Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Wee Man, Dave England, and more join Knoxville, with a couple of newcomers like Machine Gun Kelly and Eric Andre. While Knoxville is adamant he’s done with bigger stunts like this one, he’s left the door open for there to be more Jackass movies in the future.