Jackass star Steve-O has shared on why he changed his mind on getting breast implants, which he first announced in July was part of a series of planned pranks.
In an interview with Consequence, Steve-O reveals that the planned surgery faced setbacks: “I got within 10 hours of being in surgery for that,” he says.
“The surgery was supposed to happen at eight in the morning. And 10 pm the night before, I got a call that the anesthesiologist backed out of it, because he found out that it was me doing it as a stunt.”
“And that kind of set off a chain reaction where the doctor didn’t want to be associated with it anymore, and they were having trouble finding another surgery center to to make it happen.”
However, at the time, Steve-O was still determined to see through the ambitious and controversial stunt. It was a conversation he had with a transgender grocery worker that caused him to rethink it.
“On the day that the scheduled surgery was supposed to happen, I was checking out at the supermarket,” he tells Consequence. “And the person ringing up my groceries was evidently transgender, and it struck me as a sign from the universe. So I asked the transgender person if I could run something by them, and I had a conversation with this person that had a profound impact on me.”
“I knew what my motivation was, I knew what my intention was, and it wasn’t to be hurtful to anybody. I was just trying to get laughs,” he continues. “I had done a bunch of workshop shows to test out material, and I had a number of trans people come to me after the shows to voice support for [the stunt]. And I think some people would’ve been okay with it, and some people wouldn’t have. It would’ve been a mixed bag.”
Steve-O from ‘Jackass’. CREDIT: Amy Sussman/Getty Images for UTOPIA
He concludes: “I just feel like the universe put this encounter before me, and ultimately I decided that the universe had intervened.”
The stunt would have involved Steve-O getting his “whole body waxed”, with all his tattoos removed via airbrush, and losing weight to “get really slender and petite”. Steve-O would then attend a motorcycle rally attempting to capture “big gangs of motorcycle riders” checking him out before he reveals his real identity. “I would walk up to pull off my helmet and say, ‘Yeah, dude,’ and get this crazy reaction, which, predictably, would be contentious,” he shares.
It was this part of the plan that the person Steve-O spoke with found troubling – as the act of deliberately tricking men into thinking he’s a woman was planned so he could get footage of being “beaten up at the motorcycle rally”, which he previously explained in July is part of doing a “funny endurance” stunt.
“Just having that mentality was very flawed, because ultimately it would be an exercise in celebrating violence against trans people,” he reveals. “At least, it would be interpreted that way by some, and when it was put to me that way, I thought, wow, maybe I missed the mark on that one.”
He added that “looking back on it, I’m extremely grateful that it didn’t happen.”
“The show still has a bunch of really good comedy from that whole episode. And the extent to which I was prepared to go through with that is hilarious in its own right.”
In June, Steve-O announced that Post Malone would tattoo a penis on his face at Bonnaroo 2024, a day after his 50th birthday. And he followed through that one.
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