After a sobering conversation with a transgender person, Steve-O has decided not to go through with a planned stunt.
The Jackass alum admitted he “missed the mark” on his idea to temporarily get breast implants to perform a series of pranks for his upcoming Super Dummy Tour, following a chance encounter with a stranger on the day of his scheduled procedure.
“On the day that the scheduled surgery was supposed to happen, I was checking out at the supermarket,” he recalled to Consequence. “And the person ringing up my groceries was evidently transgender, and it struck me as a sign from the universe. So I asked the transgender person if I could run something by them, and I had a conversation with this person that had a profound impact on me.”
Steve-O noted, “I knew what my motivation was, I knew what my intention was, and it wasn’t to be hurtful to anybody. I was just trying to get laughs. I had done a bunch of workshop shows to test out material, and I had a number of trans people come to me after the shows to voice support for [the stunt]. And I think some people would’ve been okay with it, and some people wouldn’t have. It would’ve been a mixed bag.”
The comedian explained he “didn’t really have any dedicated meetings or conversations” while planning the stunt, “because I didn’t really feel that I had to. But I just feel like the universe put this encounter before me, and ultimately I decided that the universe had intervened.”
After revealing his plans to get implants back in July, Steve-O detailed one of his planned pranks, which involved going in disguise as a woman to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, where he would reveal his real identity and hopefully “get this crazy reaction, which, predictably, would be contentious.”
He explained “my feeling that it was the ultimate statement of body autonomy, me saying my body, my choice… That part was okay. But the part where I deliberately went out to trick people into thinking that I was a woman and then fooling them, and then kind of celebrating the idea of hate towards [trans people] — that was a thing.”
When the stranger opened Steve-O’s eyes to the oppression trans people face, he said, “I thought about it in a way that I hadn’t before, where you know, wow, maybe it’s not all fun and games. Especially the pranks. Like, I would’ve considered it to be better footage if I was to be beaten up at the motorcycle rally. And just having that mentality was very flawed, because ultimately it would be an exercise in celebrating violence against trans people. At least, it would be interpreted that way by some, and when it was put to me that way, I thought, wow, maybe I missed the mark on that one.”
Steve-O added, “I think it’s a very valuable trait to be able to admit when you’ve got things wrong.”
The Super Dummy Tour, which kicks off Oct. 4 in Tucson, will still feature footage from his doctor’s consultation visits and an explanation “that I felt the universe intervened on my behalf.”