by MATTHEW HAYS

The first thing that strikes you about Johnny Knoxville when you sit down to talk with him is just how damn sexy he is. Pumping up his latest project at the Toronto International Film Festival, he's wearing worn Levi's, a ripped shirt, tube socks with blue and yellow stripes and torn up runners. Then he smiles with that toothy, raunchy grin and starts talking about all those gay fans.

"Yeah, Jackass was real gay," he says, laughing. "Out magazine gave me the coolest straight guy of the year award a few years back, and The Advocate just put me on their cover - I'm wearing a white sailor's outfit. I guess I have become a gay icon. I wore rainbow flags on my helmet in the Jackass movie. How do you get away from it? Ten guys, mostly naked, touching each other, things going in and out of holes. How do you run away from it? You don't! You champion it!"

Knoxville is still remembered primarily as the creative force behind Jackass, the MTV series and feature film phenomenon, despite his having launched a successful film acting career. Now he's done what many fans might have considered inevitable: Knoxville is starring in the new John Waters film, A Dirty Shame. Knoxville and Waters, two of the most famous gross-out artists in pop culture history, joining forces? It's a marriage made in heaven - or hell, depending on who you're rooting for in the upcoming American election.

"When I was 13 I saw my first John Waters movie," Knoxville recalls. "It was Pink Flamingos. I was like, ‘Oh my god!' You don't get a lot of entertainment like that back home in Tennessee. I became an instant fan. To get to work with him is beyond any expectations I could have had growing up. He's one of my heroes. The fact that he really liked Jackass and called us sexual anarchists - that's like being knighted, when John Waters gives you a title."

The Jackass connection

Knoxville says there was little hesitation in saying yes to Waters. "John and I met for lunch in L.A. He told me about the idea and I said, ‘When do we start shooting?' And he was like, ‘Well I've got to write the screenplay first.' He showed me a bunch of fetish magazines, like American Grizzly, the bear mag, and Face the Nation. He'd really done his homework. There's a certain spirit to John Waters and Jackass that's the same. I can see where people would see a lot of Jackass in John Waters and vice versa. We're from the same school. Or, I should say we dropped out of the same school."

In A Dirty Shame, Waters has returned to form (after the disappointing Cecil B. DeMented). Harkening back to his 1981 entry Polyester, Waters casts Tracey Ullman as a Baltimore prudish housewife who, after getting hit on the head, becomes a reckless nymphomaniac. She soon learns of an underground society of sex addicts, led by Knoxville, who will stop at nothing to fulfill their various sexual fantasies and fetishes. This secret society can only be kept down for so long, however, and the sex enthusiasts ultimately end up in a stand-off with the "Neuters," a group of anti-sex crusaders. It's territory Waters has gone to before, but remains more pertinent then ever, given the recent firestorm of debate over Janet Jackson's breast exposure. Typically, Waters spices things up with his casting, adding Chris Isaak, Selma Blair and his regulars Patty Hearst and Mink Stole into the mix. (Waters vets Ricki Lake and Mary Vivian Pearce also have cameos.)

"This movie, its zaniness, is such a reflection of John's personality," Knoxville confirms. "What you see on the page is what you get in the movie. He breaks down lines with you and lets you know exactly what he wants. His films are so stylized that you need the input to make sure you're getting it right. He's not intimidating, though, he's an incredibly sweet guy.

"When you go over to his place you can see how he remains so knowledgeable. There are stacks of books everywhere and he reads five newspapers every morning. He's tremendously disciplined. Working with him just makes you want to be better at what you do. He was challenging in the best way."

A Dirty Shame opens Friday, Sept. 24

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