Johnny Knoxville may have been leading a hit franchise, but the actor was deemed “uninsurable” due to the intense stunts behind “Jackass.”
During a recent Vanity Fair lie detector test video, Knoxville was asked whether he is an insurance agent’s worst nightmare, to which he replied, “No, does that sound true?” Once the lie detector administer confirmed Knoxville had fibbed, he said, “OK, you got me, I am.”
Knoxville continued, “At the end of the ‘Jackass’ TV show, I think, we lost all our insurance. So that wasn’t great. I think we were uninsurable at that point.”
The “Reboot” actor has led the two-decade-long “Jackass” franchise since its MTV series beginnings, starring in the most recent film installment, “Jackass Forever,” last year.
Knoxville told IndieWire in 2022 that a dangerous stunt had to be cut from the Paramount film due to insurance issues. “We did have something on this film that we wanted to do that we weren’t allowed to do because it was going to be a $10 million deductible,” Knoxville said. “I really can’t tell you what it was. We may do it one day. But it was a surgery that no one needs.”
He added, “My pain tolerance is probably not that different from other people. It’s my give-a-damn tolerance that’s so low. I know we need footage and I’m not very in touch with my body, so it works very well together. The producer inside me always overrides the performer side.”
