With the final Jackass film newly in theaters, it only made sense that fans might hope for a reunion between Bam Margera and the rest of his reckless brethren. But according to Margera, a return is as likely to happen as a Jackass stunt called “Doing Taxes and Eating Healthy Fiber.”
“I’ll definitely check out the [new] movie, and I hope it’s good, but as far as a reunion, it’s not going to happen, not in 10 million years,” Margera recently told Rolling Stone. Margera then continued, “I don’t have any bad blood with the cast of Jackass. It’s just the decisions that Johnny Knoxville and [Jackass director] Jeff Tremaine decided to make. I never want to see them ever again in my life. Enough is enough.”
Margera’s issues date back to 2019-2020 during the production of Jackass Forever (released in 2022). In August 2019, Margera’s struggles with substance abuse reached concerning levels when he was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight. (Margera appeared on Dr. Phil around that time, claiming to have been sober, and that he’d only been prescribed Adderall for his ADHD.)
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To appease Jackass producers, Margera signed a wellness agreement, which included three daily breathalyzer tests, twice weekly urine tests, and regular follicle screenings. Of the experience, Margera told Rolling Stone, “They put me up at some shady hotel with a guy out front to make sure I didn’t leave to go get alcohol. I wound up on set once, and they’re just like, ‘Piss into this cup.’”
By August 2020, Margera had been fired by Paramount for allegedly taking unprescribed amphetamines, which led to a lawsuit against Paramount as well as Knoville and Tremaine. As part of the suit, Margera alleged “inhumane” and discriminatory” treatment over his firing, and that the producers “were setting me up to fail” with the wellness measures. Margera even tried to boycott the film with several extra public pleas to Jackass fans.
Said Margera, “To tell somebody that after doing all that, thinking that you’re going to get $5 million, then say you’re not in the movie, and you’re not getting $5 million — I mean, I watched Dateline, and people kill other people for a whole lot less. I was very fucking angry.” (The lawsuit was eventually settled.)
Around the time of Margera’s firing, several parties made comments about his health and wellbeing. Paramount indicated that it made real efforts to support his sobriety, until the “wheels fell off” and he began drinking again. Meanwhile, Steve-O posted on Instagram in 2021 that “everyone bent over backwards to get you in the movie, and all you had to do was not get loaded.” But Knoxville himself hasn’t much commented on the matters until just recently. Speaking with GQ back in June, Knoxville recognized why Margera might have felt abandoned by his castmates and friends.
“We did draw a hard line,” Knoxville said. “And we did it out of, ‘This is our chance to really help him’ … As long as he’s thriving and he’s healthy, that’s all I care about. Selfishly, I would love him to be in my life again. But that’s on his own time.”
Jackass: Best and Last is in theaters right now. In her review, our own Liz Shannon Miller said it “delivers one last extreme shopping cart ride and plenty of new and classic carnage.”
And be sure to read the remainder of Margera’s Rolling Stone profile, where he recounts his other trials and tribulations in getting sober. (That includes a handful of arrests/stints in jail and even a 5150 psychiatric hold in June 2023.) Among other insights, Margera credits a return to skateboarding for providing the focus and sense of purpose in order to keep off drugs and alcohol.
