Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk admits he hates watching himself – but he's up for the challenge. The actor reacts to his own career highlights—from his first ever "900" at the 1999 X-Games to crossing off a bucket list item, performing on Saturday Night Live — and lets us know his thoughts.
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00:00 When I started skating, kickflips weren't even invented.
00:02 None of us could figure out how he did it.
00:03 We called it magic flip.
00:04 And fast forward to 40 years later,
00:07 and it's a common trick that kids learn right away.
00:10 It's, that's, that's what blows me away.
00:12 It just speaks to the evolution of skateboarding.
00:14 Hi, I'm Tony Hawk, pro skater, and I hate watching myself.
00:18 But today, Esquire is asking me
00:20 to watch some career highlights
00:22 and to make comments on them
00:24 about what I was thinking in those moments.
00:25 So let's get it on with.
00:28 (upbeat music)
00:31 All I had to do to get employee of the month
00:35 was ollie over someone.
00:36 So easy.
00:37 I was, I was tasked with being a,
00:42 an intern for a day at Esquire.
00:44 I was trying to get them to pivot to video.
00:47 You're welcome, Esquire.
00:49 You know, I was a pioneer of the movement, I guess.
00:53 But I think that the funniest part to me
00:55 is in this video is me doing the mail call
00:59 and I'm skating through the office.
01:01 That is being memed so many times.
01:05 Thank you for that, for being a meme generator,
01:09 and also, you're welcome, for pivoting to video.
01:11 What I remember, I remember getting the request
01:17 to be in one of the Sharknado's.
01:20 You know, clearly it was jokey, campy, ridiculous.
01:24 And when they asked me, I was,
01:25 I was honored.
01:26 I was, I was blown away.
01:27 And so the thing I remember most vividly
01:30 about shooting that is that we had no permission.
01:33 We were on top of a building in San Diego,
01:35 in Serrano Valley.
01:36 But at some point they came up to the roof
01:38 and were like, "Get the hell out of here.
01:39 "Can't do that."
01:40 So all those shots of me on the opera house
01:42 is me on top of a random building in San Diego
01:47 where we were on borrow time.
01:49 That's, that speaks to the budget of Sharknado.
01:52 - Do a kick flip.
01:53 - I got my Jordans on though.
01:55 - That's all right.
01:56 Aren't Jordans for skating?
01:57 So I was part of the series of the barracks
02:02 and I drove around San Diego asking kids
02:04 to do kick flips.
02:06 And I think it was three or four kids
02:09 did kick flips all in a row.
02:10 And what was I thinking that moment?
02:12 I was blown away because when I started skating,
02:15 kick flips weren't even invented.
02:17 None of us could figure out how we did it.
02:18 We called it magic flip.
02:19 And fast forward to wherever we are 40 years later,
02:23 and it's a common trick that kids learn right away.
02:26 It's that's, that's what blows me away.
02:28 So to me, it just,
02:29 it just speaks to the evolution of skateboarding.
02:31 I love it.
02:32 I'm loved that I'm here for it.
02:33 I love that I get to participate
02:34 and I love that I get to harass kids on the street
02:37 and get them gear if they do a kick flip.
02:39 So that is my first 900 ever.
02:48 Something that I had been chasing
02:50 for over 10 years of my life.
02:53 So you're asking me, what was I thinking in that moment?
02:56 And in that moment, I was like,
02:58 I just want to get this over with.
02:59 It was just like, please just get this finished
03:01 so I can get it off of my, off of my mind.
03:04 And it worked.
03:06 It was definitely a huge highlight for my career
03:09 and also kind of my, my best end to competing.
03:14 So this jackass was called the gauntlet.
03:20 It was basically, you're, we were skating at a park in LA
03:24 and then they were just swinging various dangerous,
03:28 heavy obstacles at us.
03:30 This had come off the heels of me getting hurt
03:32 while shooting Wild Boys.
03:34 And so when the producers of Jackass asked me to do this,
03:38 they said, we don't want you to skate.
03:40 We just want you to sort of post it
03:43 because they were nervous to have me do anything active
03:45 because of what had happened.
03:47 So I did end up skating a little bit that day,
03:50 but there's one scene in this
03:53 and one of them skated through it in his underwear
03:55 and ended up hanging on to the actual gauntlet.
04:00 And people think that's me.
04:02 I mean, sometimes I hesitate to even correct them.
04:05 So Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, 2003,
04:13 they asked if I would do a stunt
04:15 and everything was slime back then.
04:18 If you were going on a Nickelodeon show
04:20 that wasn't animated, chances are you'd get in the slime.
04:22 And they said, okay, we're gonna have you jump
04:24 as if you do your usual jump of 30 feet,
04:27 but into a pool of slime.
04:30 The funny part about that was my son, Spencer,
04:34 was about, I think he was about four at the time.
04:37 He was there when I landed and he was reaching for me.
04:40 So I grabbed him, thinking this would be fun for him
04:43 to be submerged in the slime a little bit.
04:45 And then I think probably went and caught chest high
04:48 and he was not happy.
04:49 I haven't quit skating.
04:51 That's just some dumb rumor that starts up
04:52 every time I decide to take a break.
04:53 So Rocket Power was a popular show
04:58 and they featured skateboarding and surfing
05:00 and a bunch of other action sports.
05:02 So I had hoped that I would be called
05:05 to be in an episode at some point.
05:07 And then little did I know they were gonna base
05:09 this whole episode around me and my skate facility.
05:13 I think the funny part about all of that
05:15 is that kids were very impressionable back then.
05:18 Well, they still are, obviously,
05:19 but at that age, they were watching this.
05:21 They were convinced that that was my house,
05:23 that my house truly looked like this giant warehouse
05:26 full of ramps and loops and rails
05:29 and skateboards that pop out onto the ground.
05:31 It's not quite that technologically advanced.
05:34 It's more like we have a concrete skate park
05:37 and yes, there are plenty of skateboards around.
05:39 Okay, I guess it is like that.
05:42 (upbeat music)
05:45 This was the second Cribs I ever did.
05:48 And it was, it's the house I still live in.
05:51 So I'm going on 20 plus years of this house.
05:53 And the big feature on it was, is a skate park,
05:56 which we still have.
05:57 In hindsight, it was weird wanting your homestead
06:02 and your belongings.
06:03 And I mean, you say I hate watching myself on video.
06:06 I hate watching myself show off my stuff on video.
06:10 It just feels too braggadocious and strange
06:14 and disconnected.
06:16 Well, firstly, being on The Simpsons
06:21 was one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me.
06:24 And I would say so.
06:26 Bart is emancipated.
06:27 He moves into a building, takes the elevator up,
06:29 and it opens to my place with ramps and music
06:34 and Blink-182 playing.
06:36 And he thinks it's the coolest thing ever.
06:37 And probably my favorite line of the whole thing
06:40 is me recognizing him and just saying,
06:42 "Hey, it's an emancipated lighter."
06:44 (laughs)
06:46 Just this whole thing with "Lords of Dogtown,"
06:52 like my cameo in it.
06:54 They were finished filming that movie,
06:58 but then they said,
07:00 "Hey, we have to do some pickup shots for the movie.
07:03 Would you be willing to do a cameo for the movie?"
07:06 And I was, "Yeah, absolutely."
07:07 They go, "Yeah, we imagine you're some sort of celebrity
07:10 other than a skateboarder, and you try to skateboard."
07:13 And so they came up with "Astronaut."
07:15 I think my proudest moment is the fall I took
07:17 because I was trying to make it look genuine,
07:19 and it was pretty legit.
07:21 - Tony Hawk!
07:22 - I got to be on "Starry Night Live,"
07:27 which was a huge bucket list item,
07:31 not just for the massive fans.
07:32 So when I got the call from Sarah Hall Productions,
07:37 I was in LA doing some podcast stuff and other things,
07:40 said, "Hey, can you get on a flight tomorrow to New York
07:44 to be on 'Starry Night Live' the next day?"
07:47 I said, "Yep."
07:49 Then they said, "We're gonna send you a script."
07:51 I'm like, "Okay."
07:52 And I saw the script,
07:53 and the script is literally me saying one word.
07:56 So the next morning, drove to LAX, left my car there,
08:02 flew to New York, got to New York, got changed,
08:04 went to rehearsals, read it through.
08:08 They liked the way that I said France
08:10 and gave me two more lines.
08:13 My day.
08:13 So I hate watching myself,
08:20 but I do enjoy telling the backstories
08:22 of the videos I'm watching.
08:23 So there's a silver lining.
08:25 So thank you, Esquire, for making me watch myself.
08:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]