“It’s comical how little I was paid for the first season of Jackass,” Steve-O, born Stephen Glover, told 'Playboy' in a June interview
Credit: Laura Partain for Playboy
NEED TO KNOW
- Steve-O revealed the amount he was paid for the first season of Jackass
- “It’s comical how little I was paid for the first season of Jackass,” Steve-O, born Stephen Glover, told Playboy in a June interview
- Jackass: Best and Last, releasing June 26, will mark the official end of the iconic stunt franchise
Before Jackass became a five-part movie franchise, it was a reality TV series. And before Steve-O became a breakout star in the series, he was an amateur stuntman on the brink of homelessness.
In a June interview with Playboy, Steve-O, born Stephen Glover, opened up about life before fame and how Jackass gave him a new life.
The Jackass daredevil, 52, began his career as a stuntman when he started making videos of himself performing skateboard tricks. In 1997, Steve-O burned his face while attempting a fire-breathing backflip for the cult skateboarding publication Big Brother, putting him on the map in the world of stunts. After the incident, he enrolled in Ringling Bros. Clown College.
Credit: Laura Partain for Playboy
“The only reason I even thought to go to Clown College was to further my goal of becoming a crazy-famous stuntman,” Steve-O explained. “I had been homeless for three years, got zero f—ing traction, and I thought, all right, if I can graduate from Ringling Bros. Clown College, then I'm a trained circus professional. People take me more seriously as a stuntman.”
“The only guy going to Clown College to seek legitimacy,” he adds.
His issue of Big Brother was published while he was in Clown College, and the trajectory of his life changed. “The fact that I was a clown endeared me to the f—ing people who started Jackass,” Steve-O said. “It was organic.”
Up until his first day of filming Jackass, Steve-O was a clown in nightclubs, cruise ships and at a flea-market circus. When the MTV reality series aired on Oct. 1, 2000, Steve-O said his life was “black-and-white, completely different overnight.”
However, it took some time before he acquired the fortune he has now.
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Despite its soaring popularity and increasing ratings for the network, the stuntman revealed his pay was “comical,” revealing he was paid per bit rather than per episode.
“After five days of filming, I was all banged up, hungover, had been bitten by a shark, and I pulled out a piece of paper to write down what I felt really needed to be on the show,” Steve-O said. “At the top I wrote ‘Goldfish,' and I thought, while I'm at it, I might as well put what I expect to be paid. Next to ‘Goldfish,' I literally wrote $200.”
After being bitten by the shark, he received a “little scar” on his finger and $500.
“When it was all said and done, after taxes, I was paid less than $1,500 for the entire first season of Jackass,” Steve-O revealed. “Before the show came out, my sister kicked me out of the house. I was broke, unemployed, and homeless, and a star on this big MTV show.”
“That's one of the first things I learned about fame: It comes a lot easier than fortune,” he added.
Credit: Laura Partain for Playboy
Now, 26 years after the first episode of Jackass aired on MTV, Steve-O and the rest of the crew — which includes Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius and Dave England — are saying goodbye to the franchise that brought stunt performers to the forefront of pop culture. The fifth and final installment of the franchise, Jackass: Best and Last, will hit theaters on June 26.
Steve-O confirms that Jackass: Best and Last is officially the end, “one-hundred percent.” After Knoxville's bull incident, featured in Jackass Forever, 2022, he explained “you can't really do Jackass.”
Jackass 5 is a compilation of footage that never made it to the final cuts of previous installments because they previously weren't allowed to be shown. “I genuinely don't know why it's allowed now, but it's in here,” he said.
“That's what this movie is: finding a home for such f—ed-up s— that never had a home, and one last hurrah of all of us getting together and doing whatever we have in us to do.”
“I had my own little private screening in the edit bay last week, and I was beyond moved,” Steve-O shared. “Like, wow. What I was a part of. What I am a part of. F—ing insane.”
Jackass: Best and Last will premiere in theaters on June 26.
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