PHILADELPHIA — After a year of substance-abuse treatment, Bam Margera has “never felt better,” the "Jackass" star and West Chester native said in his first interview appearance since starting his most recent journey to sobriety.
Margera recently appeared on an episode of fellow "Jackass" star Steve-O’s podcast, Steve-O’s Wild Ride, which was recorded in May. In the episode, the pair discuss Margera’s struggle with alcoholism, his axing from the most recent installment of the "Jackass" film franchise, and what has come to be known as the “Free Bam” movement on social media.
Margera’s struggle with sobriety has long made headlines, most recently when he fled a Florida rehab center and was later found at a hotel in June — about a month after his podcast appearance. In the episode, Steve-O said that Margera is now back in rehab.
“I actually have never felt better,” Margera said on the episode. “I actually didn’t realize I had such a problem.”
Margera was famously fired from "Jackass Forever" last year after allegedly breaking a “wellness agreement” in his contract that required him to undergo regular drug and alcohol tests and take prescribed medication, TMZ reports. He was axed from the film after a drug test found he had been taking Adderall, for which Margera said he has a prescription, according to the Hollywood Reporter. As a result, Margera appears briefly in just a single scene in the film.
But, now with the film long since released, and Margera back in treatment, he told Steve-O he is “happy to not be” in the movie.
“Everything is meant for a reason, and I’m much better off not being in it,” Margera said. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m much happier without it. ... Now that it’s done and over with, I didn’t want to do it in the first place.”
That may come as a surprise to fans who followed the saga. Following his firing, Margera filed a lawsuit against the production alleging that he was subjected to “inhumane, abusive, and discriminatory treatment” after director Jeff Tremaine, producer Spike Jonze, and star Johnny Knoxville “coerced him into signing” the wellness agreement. Margera withdrew the case in April after agreeing to a settlement for an undisclosed amount, according to a TMZ report.
In the podcast, however, Margera still seemed indignant over his firing, calling the situation “ridiculous.” He noted that during the filming of 2006′s "Jackass Number Two," he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, and “got high-fived for good press.” Now, with "Jackass Forever," he said, he got “kicked out for being a liability.”
“I hope that you can understand that at a certain point, specifically over the last few years, that it stopped being fun,” Steve-O said in response. “It stopped being funny. It stopped being cool. It stopped being something that we want to give you a high-five for, because we’d been watching you self-destruct.”
The pair also discussed the so-called Free Bam movement, which has grown online and takes issue, erroneously, with a perceived Britney Spears-style conservatorship that supporters believe Margera to be under. In the podcast, he says he is not under a conservatorship, his money is not being withheld from him, and he underwent substance-abuse treatment by choice.
“No one was forcing me to be there,” Margera said. The former pro skateboarder, however, is under a “temporary healthcare guardianship for reasons not shared with the public,” as Margera’s family said in a post to his Instagram in recent days. Supporters of that movement, they added, have “encouraged his exit from treatment, despite their lacking knowledge of the details, his health, and well-being.”
“The ‘Free Bam’ movement has caused confusion and threat to Bam and our families,” the message read. “Although we love sharing our lives with you, some things need to be handled privately, and treatment is one of them.”
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