Jackass and Wildboyz star Steve-O isn’t a big video game player, but he has appeared in a few games over the years. And according to the stunt performer and podcaster, he got paid pretty well to appear in NFL 2K5. Meanwhile, his role in a Tony Hawk game published by Activision wasn’t nearly as lucrative.
Steve-O became famous in 2000 after appearing in MTV’s hugely successful TV series Jackass. He would later appear in the nature-doc spin-off series Wildboyz alongside Chris Pontius as well as in numerous Jackass films, too. These days, he’s got a popular podcast and YouTube channel and has been sober for over a decade. But back at the height of Jackass-mania—the mid ‘00s—Steve-O was offered a few video game gigs.
In a new video interview with Gamespot, Steve-O confessed to long thinking games were a waste of time. However, he’s come around on them now, realizing that everyone has their own ways of having fun. In the interview, he also revealed that he doesn’t play many games (though he does enjoy Angry Birds) even though he’s appeared in three different video games.
First, he appeared in NFL 2K5 in 2005, a beloved PS2-era football game that was so good (and cheap) that it scared EA into exclusively locking up the NFL license for its Madden franchise to avoid competition. According to Steve-O, he was paid “exactly $100,000” to appear as one of five celebrity coaches you could challenge to a digital football match. The other celebs? Jamie Kennedy, David Arquette, Funkmaster Flex, and Carmen Electra.
Next, Steve-O was featured in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2. While he was basically just a voice and a photo in NFL 2K5, in THUG2 he was a secret skater that you could find and unlock, with his own in-game character model, exclusive tricks, and even a unique mechanical bull that he used instead of a skateboard. Funnily enough though, while he was a bigger part of THUG2, Steve-O says Activision only paid him $5,000 to appear in the game.
Finally, in 2007 Steve-O appeared as one of the main characters in Jackass: The Game. According to the stunt performer, he hadn’t played the game until Gamespot set up a PS2 and let him try it out during the interview. As for how much he got paid to appear in Jackass: The Game, Steve-O doesn’t say, but implied it was far less than NFL 2K5.
“Jackass was really good at not paying us that much,” explained Steve-O.
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