Robert Pattinson has been known for getting immersed in his roles, and a lot of people are excited about his collaboration with Parasite director Bong Joon-ho for Mickey 17 where he plays multiple clones of one person.
What’s interesting is that when coming up with the character of Mickey, Pattinson got the inspiration from a very unlikely place—Jackass, specifically one of the main stars of the franchise, Steve-O.
Robert Pattinson Reveals Steve-O's Influence in Development of Mickey 17 Character
In a recent interview with Elle, Pattinson talks about how he took inspiration from Jackass when it came to the development of his character Mickey, who also puts his life in danger for a living. Pattinson explains:
“I used to love, and I still do love, Jackass. I remember listening to an interview with Steve-O years ago and he was talking about how much they got paid for these dangerous stunts on the first season, and he said a hundred bucks. Like, you can die from doing this, and he was like, ‘Nah, I’ll just do it for a hundred. It’s fine.’ And there was something about that—actually being really brave and not ever acknowledging that it’s bravery. I thought there was an element of that to Mickey. So I spent a long time kind of figuring out an impression of Steve-O’s voice.”
For context, Jackass was a series (that turned into movies) about a group of friends that would put themselves in ridiculously dangerous stunts for laughs. Steve-O was one of the main cast members, and he usually ended up doing the more gross-out stunts like getting locked into a port-a-potty slingshot ride or drinking a shot of someone’s sweat. Here’s one of his tamer stunts:
The interesting thing about Steve-O’s voice is that it’s actually a result of a vocal disorder where he uses his throat muscles to talk rather than his vocal cords. Once Pattinson said that he was using Steve-O for inspiration from Mickey, the influence becomes very clear. Pattinson said, “… If they ever make the Steve-O biopic, I’m ready.”
Modern Auteur
Though Pattinson was the face of the Twilight franchise at one time, he’s since reinvented himself to be one of the more daring actors in the industry, usually teaming up with auteur directors like the Safdie Brothers (Good Time) and Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse).
He’s even managed to work on some projects for mainstream auteurs like Christopher Nolan (Tenet) and his casting for The Batman is definitely what makes Matt Reeves' Dark Knight stand out on its own. Now he’s teaming up with Bong Joon-ho for a kooky science fiction movie; fans are just counting down the days before he gets to team up with Denis Villeneuve on something.
Pattinson definitely feels like someone who would love to play a human/worm hybrid like Leto Atreides II, the son of Paul and Chani who ends up taking over the Imperium in the Dune lore.
As for Steve-O, there doesn’t look to be any Jackass biopic anytime soon, but it does seem like an interesting story to tell down the line maybe if Jeff Tremaine has nothing better to do.
Watch out for Mickey 17 when it comes to cinemas on March 7.