Porn Again on the Dukes Set
Johnny Knoxville sauntered into the room in Southern Rock chic, wearing Elvis-sized sunglasses, a George Jones t-shirt and pants that “haven’t been washed in quite a while,” held up with a Waylon Jennings belt buckle. On a break from shooting his role as Luke Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, the tall, lean former Jackass star apologized politely for being late, explaining that he had to run an errand at the liquor store on the way. He casually tosses his sunglasses and his liquor store purchase on the table in front of him: a porn magazine called Big Black Butts that features…well, paint your own picture (and if we ever meet, ask me to show you the page he tore out and autographed for me). And thus began our interview with Johnny Knoxville.
So what’s the best article in that magazine?
Knoxville: “Well, apparently Sexxy Redd has the largest ass and the smallest waist. She’s claiming a 23” waist, I’m calling bulls**t. I just stopped at the liquor store and they had this issue of Big Black Butts, and I couldn’t afford to not buy it.”
Did you hit a drive-thru liquor store?
Knoxville: “I think there are places here you can get daiquiris and they put a piece of tape on it and it’s not considered an open container. I love Louisiana!”
Have you had a chance to sample the moonshine around here?
Knoxville: “No, I’m having some shipped in from Tennessee this week though.”
So how did you get into this one? Was Seann [William Scott] actually the one who got you interested in the project?
Knoxville: “I didn’t know Seann before this. I was given a phone call and asked ‘What do you think about Dukes?’ I thought it could be good, so I wanted to see what they had in mind. I had never seen Super Troopers before I met [director] Jay [Chandrasekhar], and then I watched it and it’s such a great film. I don’t know how I didn’t see it. Then I sat down with Jay and we were like ‘What are you thinking?’ making sure we were on the same page. And they’ve really done everything they said they were going to do. They’re really open and easy to work with. It’s really collaborative. It’s very open working with everyone and incorporating ideas. We drive in the car most of the time, then bar fights.”
Any injuries in the bar fights yet?
Knoxville: “In the movie or real life?”
Either.
Knoxville: “Yeah, I was stabbed. But not in the movie [laughs].”
Who stabbed you?
Knoxville: “I don’t know–these three guys. This was right before Jackass. But in the movie, there weren’t any real injuries. The bar fight was so much fun. I spent about four weeks with this guy who worked on The Matrix. He was amazing. To get me to punch like I did was awesome. God, that guy’s strong. He was like, ‘I need you to go full speed today,’ and I was like ‘Shut up!'”
What about Jackass?
Knoxville: “Yeah, but that was for real!”
Have you been in fights here in Baton Rouge?
Knoxville: “A guy punched me in a bar in the back and I was like “Who the f**k was that?’ and he was with two girls. And he was like ‘What the f**k is Tennessee doing this weekend?’ So I just pushed him against a wall, and they threw him out, which was great. But no fights other than that.”
What’s the best way to throw a punch?
Knoxville: “Have a beer mug in your hand and punch with that.”
Seann wants one of the General Lees, which he said he’s afraid to take back to LA with the flag on top. Would that stop you from driving it around L.A.?
Knoxville: “If you had it on top of a Cadillac, that might raise some eyebrows, but it’s the General Lee. So everyone knows what it looks like. I wouldn’t have a problem driving the General Lee around … We just deal with it in a funny way and move on. There’s a car in the series, a very iconic car, one of the most iconic ever.”
Did you have your own little General Lee car or model as a kid?
Knoxville: “Oh, no, no.”
No Catherine Bach poster?
Knoxville: “Oh, Catherine Bach. My, my, my. Which leads me to Jessica. She looks amazing. She is so pretty, and looks so pretty and so good on film. And she’s so naturally comfortable. I didn’t realize until we shot the first day, when we did a scene, and she said, ‘That was my first take ever.’ I didn’t realize it was her first film because she’s so naturally good, and gorgeous. She did a lot of squats [laughs].”
Did you refer back to the original series for inspiration?
Knoxville: “We tried to capture the spirit of the original series. Not like we’re trying to do an imitation of Tom Wopat and John Schneider. We just want to get the spirit and do a lot of great stunts, and show Jessica in her Daisy Dukes and get into fights. It’s a big action picture.”
Do you think Tom Wopat is going to be pleased with your interpretation of Luke Duke?
Knoxville: “I hope he’s not mad. I hope they like it, and I think they will. We kept the spirit of the show.”
What’s the character relationship between the Duke cousins and Daisy? She’s hot, and this is the Deep South after all…
Knoxville: “I’m trying to argue that it doesn’t matter if you’re related [laughs]. But she’s not buying it. So I was at this bar the other day and the waiter was like, ‘So I know you guys are cousins, but are you guys going to get it on?’ [laughs] Well, I was like ‘Talk to [the director], not me. That might put it into an R [rating]. Incest might be a little too much for R.”
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Moonshine in the City
Eight months later, we reconvene with Knoxville in Manhattan’s Drake Hotel in the weeks preceding the film’s release. It’s not an entirely different Knoxville: he still takes only a few things seriously, he’s still quick with a smartass comeback and he’s still talking about moonshine. What he’s not talking about are the rumors of a much-speculated fling with his co-star Jessica Simpson, as has been breathlessly insinuated by the celebrity press for several months.
Days before the sit-down, Knoxville–who’s married, like Simpson, and has a daughter–made a public plea for the press to stop running with the story, which he says is completely false, because it’s embarrassing to his family. His other antics, however, like being bitten on the nipple by a baby alligator, is not a source of shame, apparently.
So, while we were subtly encouraged not to mention the rumors (but if you want to read about it, click here), the rest of the conversation, as you’ll see, was still anything goes.
Jessica talked about how making this film was a liberating experience for her, going from sheltered family girl to a more free-spirited person. Did you guys see that evolution in her, or contribute to her evolution, while you were making the film?
Knoxville: “Well, I saw the video! She seemed pretty free-spirited in the video. And there were some moments in the film where she seemed pretty free-spirited. So yeah, it’s not a tough gig. Most people would’ve wilted under the pressure. She did great. She was completely composed and hit her mark and knew all her lines, and I thought maybe I should take some tips from her.”
Is Willie Nelson as laid back as he seems?
Knoxville: [Laughs] “Boy, is he! I’m surprised he’s still standing!”
Did Willie invite you to join him in any of his off-set activities?
Knoxville: “Fortunately, and unfortunately. Willie smokes the strongest pot you would ever want to smoke. I do not know what he puts in that. The room was spinning for the next four hours.”
How about moonshine? Did you finally get to sample the real deal?
Knoxville: “I had some moonshine shipped down from Tennessee for the cast and crew. It was delicious. It’s made with corn-corn squeezin’s. It’s about 190-proof, highly flammable and you have to drink it out of a jar–preferably a Mason jar–because if you put it in a paper cup or something, it will burn the bottom right out. Which is basically what it does to you.”
Did you ever get hurt jumping in the window of the General Lee?
Knoxville: “A couple of shin-ers. I remember showing up on set and seeing it for the first time, and the windows are really narrow, and the stunt guys showed me how to do it.”
Will there be a Jackass 2?
Knoxville: “I always said ‘Never,’ but I don’t know. It’s awful fun going and shooting with the Wild Boyz and Bam. I don’t know. I find myself jotting stuff down every now and then. We’re doing a special with the guys from Murderball, some of the athletes, and it was definitely in the vein of Jackass. But it was just getting together with those guys. In the documentary they were very funny hanging together, doing the kinds of things we did and everyone does when you’ve got six guys in a room hanging out. So we thought it would be good to get together and do some of the things we had in mind. It’ll be on MTV.”
