Jackass 4 is coming later this year, featuring the usual gaggle of weirdos with an unusually high ability to tolerate pain. Returning are Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey, and Dave England. But one star who won’t be back is Bam Margera, who sadly doesn’t seem to be doing so well right now.
In February Margera released a video calling for fans to boycott Jackass 4 after he was fired. In the disturbing he cried, dry-heaved, and vomited on camera, saying:
“I’m not in ‘Jackass 4,’ and if anybody cares about me, don’t go see their movie because I will make mine way f–king radder if you just Venmo me a dollar. … I wrote them so many ideas, and if I’m not in the movie, and they use my ideas, how do you think that that’ll make me feel?”
Now things have gone a step further, as Jackass director Jeff Tremaine has been granted a restraining order against Margera. It comes in the wake of Margera reportedly threatening Tremaine’s wife and children, which the court appears to have taken seriously enough to grant Tremaine’s request.
This is just the latest development in Margera’s long-time battle with substance abuse, which has seen him hospitalized for alcoholism, faced stints in rehab and mental health facilities, and incidents of violent behavior.
Despite this, Tremaine and Knoxville apparently pushed for Margera to be in Jackass 4, though Paramount wouldn’t agree unless he submitted to random urine tests, further visits to rehab, and a course of antidepressants. But it all fell apart in early 2021 and Margera was officially fired. As the shoot took place in late 2020 it’s possible that some stunts were shot with Margera, though after all this drama any footage featuring him will be now left on the cutting room floor.
Knoxville commented on Margera’s firing in an interview with Digital Spy:
“We want Bam to be happy and healthy and get the help he needs. We tried to push that along. I think that’s all I really want to say about it. I don’t want to get into a public back-and-forth with Bam. I just want him to get better.”
As a longtime fan of Jackass and his own Viva La Bam show, I hope Margera can get clean as his current situation obviously isn’t great.
In the meantime Jackass 4 will hit theaters on October 22nd, 2021.