With just a matter of weeks until the release of Jackass Forever, Johnny Knoxville has spoken about a serious incident that happened on set that left him with brain damage.
While filming the four Jackass installment, Knoxville was charged by a bull and knocked unconscious. The incident left the stuntman with a broken wrist and broken ribs, plus a concussion that resulted in a brain hemorrhage.
“My cognitive abilities were in steep decline after that hit,” Knoxville told Howard Stern on Jan. 25. “The bull hit was the worst hit I’ve ever taken from a bull or maybe period. I remember taking some tests. The neurosurgeon said, ‘Do you have trouble paying attention right now?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why?’ He goes, ‘Because you scored a 17 on [your attention].’ That’s out of 100,” Knoxville told Howard Stern.
“I had to go under all these type of treatments, this transcranial magnetic stimulation, which they buzz your head with these magnets for about 30 minutes at a time for like, oh god, I would say 10 to 12 treatments over a series of two months and it’s supposed to help with depression and help with my cognitive skills. It was a tough one to come back from. I was trying to edit the movie at the time, but I couldn’t sit still.”
“I did slip into a little bit of a depression with this last concussion. That hasn’t happened before,” Knoxville continued. “My brain was just playing tricks on me. I got really depressed and over-focused on things. I did have to start medication for the first time in my life. It completely turned me around — that and doing therapy. It was a really hard recovery from this last injury, but I’m great now. I feel like I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been.”
Jackass will be released in theatres on February 4th.
Watch the trailer for Jackass Forever:
