CraveOnline: Now the toddler pageant, they were all unsuspecting, right?
Jeff Tremaine: Yes, I mean we had some insiders. We had the emcee of the event, those two ladies that host the Carolina Kiddies pageant. That’s a real pageant that we basically intercepted. They knew what was up but none of the guests and two of the judges didn’t know. One of the judges did know but two of them didn’t. The two good reactions did not know and none of the kids and parents knew.
Is that sort of the group that deserves pranking the most?
[Laughs] To me it’s just a very interesting, strange world. I wouldn’t say there was a lot of social commentary in what we did. I think it was just a funny world to put him in. In general, I don’t think what we do is really out there to make people look bad or stupid. What we tend to do is do stupid things in front of people and hope they act normal, the way people react to something ridiculous. It wasn’t made to make them look bad or stupid but it’s a weird world.
Is Spike Jonze’s character dead for all future Jackass movies now?
No, in fact he’s going to dominate when we put the DVD out because we shot some really funny stuff with him. The thing is, when we started editing it in, it just kind of took you away from what was working about the movie, which was the basic simple relationship between Irving and Billy. When we added Spike’s character, it sort of muddied it up and that’s why we took it out but we have some really fucked up, funny stuff with him.
Does he come back to life?
No, he wasn’t the wife. Catherine Keener was the wife. That body was molded from her face and we shot some flashback scenes with her, which also got cut out. We’ll show them in a DVD but Spike was the love interest, the one that got away and they reconnected.
Okay, so I should have asked is Catherine’s character, Irving’s wife, dead for any future projects?
I’m sure she hated working with us. [Laughs] She had to go through some awful makeup.
Is there a DVD version that’s like Bad Grandpa 1.5?
Yeah, I think we’re going to put something like that out for sure. You have to overshoot a movie like this. We shot double what made it into the movie, and the DVD itself has a lot of making of bits. It’s kind of per bit, like we show how we did the funeral, we show how we did the beauty pageant and a couple other interesting little things.
How hard was it to get Jackson’s mom to sign off on it?
Jackson has very cool parents. It wasn’t hard at all. Jackson is a character. We didn’t have to twist his arm to do anything. He loves it.
Was the kid who played the grandson in Jackass Number Two ever going to be involved at his current age?
No, he’s older now. He’s probably 17 years old so he sort of grew out of our demographic. He’s a great kid though. That kid was funny too.
In the vending machine, how many reactions did you have to cut out of that stunt?
Almost everyone signed. Because it’s a gas station and people are driving in and out, it was sort of complicated to get everybody, but it was such a busy place. We shot that in less than an hour, got every reaction.
Not that they wouldn’t sign, but just that you would have so many reactions.
Yeah, we cut out quite a few but for the most part that one went really fast.
I always had an idea that they should do an action movie with a gang of old folks who would be people in makeup like Johnny. Do you think that would work?
It could. In the early days of discussing what this idea was, we did throw around the idea that it’s actually Johnny who gets in makeup and out of makeup. We were throwing that idea around, sort of a Mrs. Doubtfire idea but couldn’t crack it.
In my version, the movie would be about real old people but the actors would be like The Rock and Vin Diesel playing old folks.
Yeah, that would be cool.
Are there thoughts on a fourth Jackass movie?
We are constantly writing stupid ideas. There isn’t a plan yet but I’ve learned to never say never. We made each and every one of the Jackass movies as if it was the last and they keep happening, so I wouldn’t doubt it. There’s not an official plan yet.
It tends to be every four years, right?
Yeah, so we’d have to do it next year to stay on our schedule.
Was it immediately next for you?
I’ve just got some TV stuff. I’m developing a script right now but it’s too early to talk about it.
A feature script?
Yeah.
Has that been something you’ve been trying to get into for a while?
No, I haven’t tried too hard. I’ve been very picky. Luckily we’ve had a lot of success doing what we’re doing so there’s not a lot of pressure for me to do something to do something that I’m not fully on board with. It’s definitely coming up with the right idea and then I’ll do it.
Are there any other subjects you’d want to do documentaries about?
We’re doing another “30 for 30” coming up about this guy named Nick Piantanida who tried to do what Felix Baumgartner did but in 1966. He rode up in a balloon and tried to parachute from space. It’s a pretty interesting story. He was a truck driver from New Jersey who did it, so that’s coming up. We’ll start that in January.
In success with Bad Grandpa, are there plans for any other Jackass spinoffs or more Bad Grandpa?
You know, the fact that we pulled this off opens a whole new realm to us. The idea of doing narratives but all hidden camera. We were reluctant to get into it at first and once we started, we got way into it and realized there’s endless possibilities with it. So we are thinking that way now that we’ve done this.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
