Tiny Fugitives: Johnny Knoxville Shares Hilarious Advice On Lasting Friendships [Interview]

Tiny Fugitives is heading to the big screen this weekend. The film marks the third one of the year to feature Johnny Knoxville. He also starred in Jackass: Best and Last and appeared in I Want Your Sex. In this new comedy, Knoxville plays Bob, a camp counselor out stop a group of kids who plan to run away and live at camp forever. Knoxville shared the screen with a group of hilarious 12-year-olds.

That Hollywood Show recently had the chance to interview Knoxville. He was paired with his young co-stars: Benjamin Pajak, Isa Bernal Steiner, and Aaron Harris. One of the themes of the film is the importance of lasting friendships. Of course, Knoxville is known for his longtime friendships with the Jackass crew. During the interview, we asked him if he had any words of wisdom for the cast about maintaining friendships. Naturally, he had a hilarious answer.

“Well, apparently you can just treat them terribly, and they’ll still be your friend,” Knoxville joked. “But my old man always said … ‘The most important thing in life is friends.’ He was always a good friend to people.”

Knoxville’s Stunts

Tiny Fugitives is coming out only a few months after Jackass: Best and Last, which sees Knoxville announcing the end of the franchise. He spent over 25 years putting his body through the wringer for those films. Understandably, he needed to retire from doing major stunts at age 55. However, Tiny Fugitives was filmed two years ago, which means you will see Knoxville pull off some of his old tricks. We spoke to the film’s director and co-writer, Michael Lewen, about the joy of directing Knoxville in precarious situations.

“It was awesome, and he is the greatest at it,” Lewen shared. “It’s so amazing to learn from him and have him sort of, like, be my partner in figuring that stuff out… It couldn’t be better.”

We also asked Knoxville what it was about Tiny Fugitives that spoke to him.

“I really liked the script and … I’m still pretty much a kid at heart,” he explained. “And so I honestly identified more with their characters than the one I was playing. I guess you can see that through my performance, but it was a joy to do.”

First-Time Co-Stars

Knoxville has been in the business a while, but found himself acting alongside some newcomers. This was Steiner’s first film, so we asked her what she learned from the experience.

“I think I was really nervous about memorizing my lines when I first booked it,” Steiner shared. “I was 11 when I booked it, so I was very scared. I think I now know that if I know my stuff very well, which I think just comes along with reading the script multiple times … I kept a diary for her, for the months before camp. I was very prepared, but I think at the end of the day, it’s just your character, and now it’s just time to have fun. And we had so much fun. I feel like I learned even more about my character as we were filming … I guess I’d like to carry that with me.”

Tiny Fugitives is heading to theatres on September 18th. You can buy tickets here. The movie stars Johnny Knoxville, Benjamin Pajak, Isa Bernal Steiner, Aaron Harris, Jai Soundar, Alyssa Gervasi, Blake Anderson, Jay Baruchel, and more. You can watch our full Tiny Fugitive interviews below: