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Johnny Knoxville dressed as Irving Zisman of "Bad Grandpa," about a senior citizen who tries to get strangers to help him bury his wife.
Don’t expect Johnny Knoxville to behave any more mature when he’s playing an 86-year-old man.
He’s more off-the-wall than ever as the title character in “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa,” in theaters Friday.
“What I learned is that you can get away with murder playing an older man,” Knoxville tells The News. “If I acted like he does when I’m a real grandfather, I would be arrested.”
Knoxville and the “Bad Grandpa” crew had the cops called on them multiple times by townsfolk who didn’t realize the drunk old man asking them to help dispose a body was just an actor in disguise, that the body wasn’t real, and that there were hidden cameras everywhere.
Yet four people actually agreed to help “Grandpa,” named Irving Zisman, bury what he told them was his deceased wife. Irving fibbed that he had a “misunderstanding” with the funeral home, and was taking the burial into his own hands.
At first, nobody was willing to help Knoxville bury a body. But once Jackson Nicoll, the 9-year-old actor who plays his grandson Billy in the film, joined the gag, some people were more sympathetic. Knoxville also tried acting nicer when he asked for help.
“If you’re a positive person, they’ll help you a bury a dead body,” he says.
Knoxville, 42, isknown for his self-abusing antics on MTV’s “Jackass” and the three films it spawned. The fourth, “Bad Grandpa,” has a different format from the random pranks of earlier flicks. It follows the fictional story line of recurring “Jackass” character Irving Zisman, a hard-drinking senior whose wife has recently died — leaving him on a mission to bed as many women as possible. This goal is interrupted when he has to drive his grandson Billy across the county.
Irving and Billy soon discover they are kindred spirits in mischief, and prank their way across America. All the pranks are unscripted and take place with real people in the real world, according to Knoxville. Only afterward did the pranked learn they were on camera, when they were asked to sign a release.
One guy who helped him bury the “dead body” signed a release, but then called the next day in a panic, saying he didn’t want to be in a movie doing that after all. He got his wish.
Most of the shooting was done in North Carolina and Ohio.
“What you want with a prank is for people to get involved,” Knoxville says. “Where I’m from in the South people will really get involved. We got so much great stuff in North Carolina because people there really give a s—.”
Trying to shoot in L.A., where Knoxville now lives, was more difficult because people quickly guessed they were on camera and asked the film’s producers to contact their agents.
One of the most hysterical pranks in “Bad Grandpa” takes place during a kids’ beauty pageant in North Carolina. Nicoll dresses up as a little girl and enters the pageant. He first does an adorable sailor routine to the Scottish folk song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.” Then, without warning, he rips off the sailor clothes to reveal a slutty stripper outfit. The music changes to Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” and Nicoll pole dances and gets down on all fours. Knoxville jumps on stage to shower him with dollar bills.
The audience is absolutely mortified.
“Jackson spent two months learning that routine, and there were so many ways it could have gone wrong,” says Knoxville. “But it came out unbelievable. That’s one of the best things we’ve ever pulled off. We’re really proud of it.”
jsilverman@nydailynews.com
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