Jackass' only female member shares how she got cast as new movie sets unwanted box office record

For years, the reality slapstick comedy Jackass was predominantly pegged as a programme for blokes.

That was, until Rachel Wolfson joined the big-name cast in 2022, becoming the first woman ever to have landed a role alongside long-timers Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Preston Lacy and the rest of the gang.

Since then, she's appeared in several box office-busting productions, including the latest addition to the roster, Jackass: Best and Last, which was released just last week.

Speaking to Rolling Stone since the film hit cinemas, 39-year-old Wolfson revealed for the first time what she finds so thrilling about performing often life-threatening stunts for the amusement of others.

She also shed light on how she wound up joining the adrenaline junkie group in the first place.

Wolfson had been 13 when Jackass - originally a TV compilation series showing the regular line-up performing pain-inducing pranks - first landed on MTV. At the time, she had big ambitions in the comedy arena.

It wouldn't be until 2020, however, that she'd catch the attention of main man Knoxville, when she posted a video of herself on social media, joking that her mother was the judge that sent O.J. Simpson to prison - which, incidentally, is true.

"My mom was the judge who put O.J. in prison," Wolfson began at the time. "So basically, O.J. Simpson got sent to prison by the same woman who sent me to my room. But we both got out."

Wolfson revealed how she first met Knoxville (Amy Sussman/FilmMagic)

Days later, stuntman Knoxville, 55, contacted her to say, 'Hey, what’s your number? I want to ask you about something'.

Recalling the conversation, Wolfson told press this week: "He calls me, and it’s really him on the phone. I was like, this doesn’t seem real."

She claimed Knoxville then asked whether she'd be keen on appearing in a special 20th anniversary project, which later turned into Jackass Forever, in which she made her group debut.

"I went in for a meeting soon after, and the meeting was like five minutes," Wolfson continued. "Clearly we all have ADHD, because it was just like, 'Would you want to come play with us?'.

"I didn’t know I was auditioning, essentially - this is my first real Hollywood experience."

The latest flick unfortunately sank at the box office (Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)

She added: "So I came in for, like, a two-day test shoot, and then they kept contacting me to come back."

Sadly for Wolfson, however, her time on Jackass appears to be ending as quickly as it began, with the group's latest release, Best and Last, suffering the lowest opening weekend they'd experienced so far.

So much so that Knoxville and his fellow cast regulars have reportedly decided to call it quits.

The film raked in just $8.4 million domestically, as well as $1.9 million overseas - considerably less than the $23 million debut and $80.5 million worldwide amassed following the release of Jackass: Forever four years earlier.