Pure Evel: New docu-drama takes on Butte legend

Pure Evel: New docu-drama takes on Butte legend
23 July, 2004
Karl J. Paloucek
The Montana Standard

Ex-‘CSI' star Eads fleshes out an unforgettable '70s icon

It's no mean feat to play Evel Knievel, but as someone who's comfortable at the wheel of a lot of horsepower, George Eads felt he was a natural for the part of the thrill icon.

Eads, whose gutsy but failed bid for a raise recently got him fired from hit series ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), stars as the legendary daredevil in TNT's original film "Evel Knievel," premiering Friday, July 30. (It will play adjacent to Evel Knievel Days held in Butte that weekend). Co-starring are Jaime Pressly ("Torque") as Knievel's wife and Beau Bridges as his supportive father-in-law.

"I've always had sports cars," Eads says. "I mean, I have a Porsche 911 right now and two motorcycles. So the speed thing doesn't really bother me. And I don't mention that for any other reason than just to say that, yeah, you know, going 130 mph in a Porsche is fun, and riding motorcycles up Mulholland Drive's pretty fun, too, you know what I mean?"

At the zenith of the patriotic fervor surrounding the U.S. bicentennial, Knievel entered the public imagination in the 1970s as a sort of superhero, a guy who attempted the impossible and often succeeded - and when he didn't, his failures still were spectacular. The Butte, Mont., native, who put the "I can" in "American," made a career attempting wildly daring motorcycle jumps over buses, shark tanks and - most notoriously - a quarter-mile-wide stretch of the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.

During filming, Eads was confronted with questions from people who wanted to know how the stunts would be done. Eads wouldn't bite. "I don't know how much I can give away of what the B-unit is doing, but there is a totally separate movie being done, I think, parallel with the movie that we're doing." Eads would only affirm that, "They're going to lengths to make sure the stunts are great."

Knievel's jumps made him a national phenomenon, but they're only a part of his story. It's certain that anybody willing to attach himself to a half-ton of skyward-hurtling steel isn't your everyday man on the street. Odds are good that a few quirks might accompany someone with such a larger-than-life personality — like a larger-than-life temper. In one often-remembered infamous episode, Knievel caught up with an unflattering biographer of his, skillfully applying a baseball bat to the writer's arms. The scribe landed in the hospital, with both limbs broken. (Knievel landed in jail for six months.)

Such a dramatic episode couldn't be left out of the film, but one has to wonder how much of this "evil" side will be shown in "Evel Knievel."

"Quite a bit," Eads says. "That was one of the things that was really important to me. We portray that side of him."

Eads also is quick to point out that his characterization isn't entirely negative or positive, but aims to capture the complexities of a man with an unbelievable appetite for recklessness. "I didn't go into this role thinking, ‘Hey, do I want people to like Evel Knievel, or dislike Evel Knievel?' " he says. "I think it's relative. I think it's almost a Tony Soprano-type character. You know what I mean?"

At the same time, Eads confesses to a heavy respect for the two-wheeled terror. "There's a lot of things that only Evel knows, and that only Evel will ever know," the actor concedes. "He's been asked, point-blank, in the face, ‘Were you ever scared?' And he said, ‘I don't get scared, honey. I'm Evel Knievel.'

"If anything, I've tried to make an homage to honor Evel Knievel, and to show a side of him that wasn't seen, a side that's quite admirable, even with its faults," Eads insists.

Not having met his subject (contractual obligations to another production company's biopic of his life prevented Knievel from consulting for TNT's film), Eads is confident he's done his best to capture Knievel, the man and the legend, but admits he can't be absolutely certain his performance is pure Evel. "Maybe he wasn't the way that I portrayed my character; my daredevil; my Evel Knievel — but it was based on events that I had found and researched.

"I studied quite a bit on Evel Knievel. I truly have a sincere love for the character of Evel Knievel, you know."

Famous last words?

Is Eads at all nervous about the possibility of coming face to face with Evel, now almost 66 years old? Not at all. With Knievel-like confidence, he says sneeringly, "I've got my own baseball bat."