Jackass veteran Johnny Knoxville suffered real-life injuries while filming his comedy Action Point. And of the eight serious injuries he suffered through on set, one resulted in one of his eyes popping out of its socket. The upcoming comedy Action Point returns Knoxville to familiar territory. The star and creator of MTV’s Jackass, its three feature-length spinoffs (Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, and Jackass 3D), and Bad Grandpa, Knoxville is no stranger to physical harm for the sake of entertainment.
Action Point, which Knoxville stars in and co-wrote, enters into the pantheon of similarly wince-inducing movies. Loosely inspired by New Jersey’s real-life Action Park, Action Point follows D.C. (played by Knoxville) as a daredevil who relaunches his theme park as a no-holds-barred experience that promises “minimum safety” with “maximum fun” in order to compete with a corporate-owned amusement park that opens nearby. So, channeling his Jackass roots, Knoxville performed the stunts himself, many of which resulted in several serious injuries.
According to EW, Knoxville and the movie’s director Tim Kirby revealed the scope of Knoxville’s injuries on set. In the scene in which an air canon-turned-water hose sprays a high-powered jet of water at Knoxville, it resulted in several stitches, though they didn’t specify where the stitches were applied. He also received a concussion (one of many on set) when a motorbike collided with him, had part of his head scalped after a catapult launched him through a barn door, and broke his hand/damaged his knee after falling off a shed. In one scene, Knoxville is hit in the head with a tennis ball launched out of an air canon (he said, “it felt like a baseball hitting you”), and in another scene, a chin-up bar fell onto his face, not only resulting in yet another concussion, but two missing teeth.
Perhaps the most serious injury Knoxville suffered happened on account an incident that literally knocked one of his eyes out. In a scene in which D.C. is running tests on a sled not equipped with any brakes, Knoxville was thrown “six feet in the air and traveled over 20 feet” before landing on his face. After suffering yet another concussion, Knoxville was promptly sent to the hospital. However, after blowing his nose, his left eyeball popped clean out of its socket. His treatment: Not being “allowed to sneeze for six weeks.”
Though Knoxville may be the reigning champ when it comes to actors performing their own stunts, Hollywood is not without its fair share of daring thespians. Tom Cruise broke his ankle during a stunt while filming the upcoming Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Keanu Reeves performed his own “gun-fu” in both John Wick movies, and Cameron Diaz (who has since retired from acting) performed her own stunt driving in the action-comedy Knight and Day.
More: Times Stunt Performers Were Seriously Injured (Or Died) On Set
Source: EW
