Johnny Knoxville Still Loves Bam Margera, Wants Him to Get Well

Johnny Knoxville still loves Bam Margera. He only wishes for the fellow Jackass alum to get better after Margera was fired from this year’s Jackass Forever for failing to abide by a contract forbidding drug use.

That’s what Knoxville expressed in a recent interview, the 51-year-old entertainer showing the world he still cares about his co-star.

Knoxville, of course, is the star and co-creator of the comedy TV series on which Jackass Forever, the fourth movie in the Jackass film series, is based. Over the last six months, Margera, 43, went missing from rehab before his family planned a crisis intervention. In an interview several weeks ago, Margera said he was “better off” for having not starred in Jackass Forever.

That was after Margera reportedly asked to dismiss a lawsuit he filed against Jackass Forever and Knoxville. In the suit, Margera claimed he was wrongfully terminated for testing positive for Adderall, which he said was unfair since he had a prescription for it.

Perhaps that’s all water under the bridge now. This week, Knoxville was asked if there was a chance for him and Margera to reconcile. In his reply, the stunt performer whose real name is Philip Clapp made clear he holds Margera dear, even if they haven’t talked in a while.

“I haven’t spoken to Bam in about a year and a half, give or take six months,” Knoxville told Variety on Oct. 19. “[Jackass director] Jeff Tremaine, Steve-O and I had a face-to-face meeting with Bam and his wife, trying to figure out how to get him help. Then we had a Zoom as a group not long after that, and that was the last time I talked to him.”

Knoxville continued, “It boils down to: I love Bam. I know that a lot has happened. I just want him to get well for himself and his family. I love the guy, and I want him to get well and stay well.”

When asked if Margera could ever return to the Jackass world, Knoxville said, “I think that would be a discussion. I only want him to get better. That’s the first step. He has to take that step and maintain that step, because everything else is just gravy. Jackass is not important when you’re talking about someone’s life.”

But will there even be more Jackass in the future? Knoxville leaves that unclear. “We never said whether it was or wasn’t [the final film],” he added. “If we did continue, we would lean on the younger cast more. … I would have to step back because my neurologist said I can’t have any more concussions.”

Margera, who first found fame as a skateboarder and made irreverent skate films such as 1999’s CKY, hit peak popularity in the early 2000s when he starred in the reality series Viva La Bam. Margera is also in 25 episodes of the original Jackass TV series; he appears in the first three Jackass films. Margera makes a brief cameo in Jackass Forever, filmed before his dismissal.

Jackass Forever Trailer