Interview with Kevin Smith
Director and Star of the movie Clerks
II.
Clerks
2 see's Kevin Smith
return to the Quick Stop
convenience store where it all began
Smith
feels the term
'Fuck Tard' isn't used enough
Kevin
bumbles into the room wearing his famous 'Silent Bob' jacket, smiley
face button pin included. He searches the room intently for an ash tray
before sitting down on the couch. He has been doing radio and print
interviews since 9am to promote his latest film Clerks
2 (the follow up to his cult 1994 hit which spawned a cult
phenomenon including the films Dogma and Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back), yet he seems to be lacking any
sign of fatigue.
He
is, after all, one of Hollywood's best self promotion machines - with
numerous Internet sites and two stores dedicated to selling memorabilia
and merchandise from his films. SEAN LYNCH caught up with the self made
millionaire while in Melbourne.
"Any time somebody's willing to
talk about the movie - that's a positive thing. You never want to bitch
about that" Smith says with a relaxed nonchalance as he takes a drag of
the first of many cigarettes.
"I remember going to Atlanta in the States
doing a city by city press tour for Jersey Girl
and we got to Atlanta and had an interview with a paper there and they
were like "Nah, we don't need to talk about it" and then they proceeded
to slam the movie. So it's always nice to come to some place where they
want to talk positively".
Do you think this movie would have
happened had your short lived Clerks: The Animated Series
actually been watched?
Probably. Let's say that the Clerks Cartoon
had a Simpsons-like
success. It still wouldn't preclude me from wanting to do a Dante and
Randal live action film. Just because they are two very separate
entities, right? The cartoon was very slapsticky and Simpsons-esque
and what not, whereas you can be a bit more grounded in live action. So
even if the cartoon had of taken off in a big, big way I'd probably
still want to go back and look at them as real life people.
Are there any storylines left over
from the cartoon that you've carried into this movie?
The cartoon stories were just left of centre. Like there was one we
were going to do where Kit, you know the car from Knight Rider,
had this single white female relationship going on with Dante. Knocked
him off. And wound up wearing his sweater behind the counter and Randal
didn't notice at first. You know, stories like that. So you know, with
the movie, we obviously stayed a bit more grounded.
I always
liked the Anime Pisstake episode which had Judge Reinhold pop up [as an
actual Judge]. But then they used that exact same joke in the final
series of Arrested Development...
[laughs] ...Yeah, Arrested
Development. I was proud of that! I was watching
that episode and going, like, "We were poached by a really talented
bunch of comedians".
The closure for these charactersat the end of the film is quite good.
Whether this film was made or not, in your own head, did you alwaysthink "Yeah, that's what happened to those
two"?
Yeah, totally. As far
back as '99 when we made Dogma we
teased Clerks 2 saying 'Jay and
Silent Bob will return in Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin'.
And I always knew
there would be certain aspects that would be involved in the flick, and
they actually carried over to years later when I finally made it with
this one:
1) It would open the way it did with the
store being on
fire, then we'd introduce colour.
2) They'd have to go off and find
some different work.
I knew that there's be that dance sequence,
you know, about falling in love set to "ABC" and I knew they'd end up
owning the store and we'd pull back to black and white and 'Misery'
would play, and those elements wound up being in there.
So
you had all of that in mind. Yet at some point you sat down with the
script and thought, "Alright, this movie is missing a
guy-fucking-a-donkey"...
[laughs]...Yeah. Well you know, it's about shading
in from one beat to the other beat to the other beat.
So
I'm like, "Alright, I've just gotta find shit to do in between - Mabye
it's time for me to do a donkey show". And not just a standard donkey
show! One where a dude in fuckin' thin leather comes walking out with a
marble bag. I really just wanted an excuse to have somebody to go
[hocks a loogie in hand] spit in to his hand and
lube up his cock. I
just thought that was really funny.
The Clerks
films are well known for the controversy surrounding the amount of
language used it them. In an attempt to get something TV and newspapers
can't print - what are some of your favourite swear words? Surely there
are some that missed out on being included but you wanted in there...
There's nothing that I didn't really put in there. I
mean, there was one point at the end of the Donkey Show sequence
[in Clerks 2] where Elias is running around
going 'I love pussy and
beer'. We had him jerking off earlier, but he's supposed to be jerking
off at that moment and fuckin' blasting a cumshot
right in the eye of
the cop who was like "Porch Monkey?".
That we left behind,
not because we thought 'Well that's tasteless', just because we thought
'...It seems a little involved...' [laughs]. It's
just like [groans]
'How can we do that cumshot?' and time issues.. [laughs]...so
we just
said 'Aw, Fuck it'...
In terms of my favourite curses, my
favourite curse
isn't even all that interesting. Most people wouldn't even consider it
a
curse. I mean, I love the word 'Whore'. I think it's awesome. Like when
I stub my toe, or when I'm playing a video game and I fuckin' can't get
over some hurdle - if there's something thats defeating me - I just
turn right to 'Fuckin Whore'. Which is interesting when your kid is
sitting near by and you have to explain 'Well, a whore is..well theres
two different ways of looking at it'.
It's such a lame, easy curse word.
I dig it, because it just covers everything. It's usually more turned
inward, it's more self reflective [talking to self]
"You fuckin' whore...Yeah, well I am kind of a whore aren't I?".
It's not
even a great curse. I wish it was something like 'Cum Nugget' [laughs].
I love 'Fuck-Tard' but I don't use that nearly as much as I should...
I'll try and get 'Cum Nugget' going
in Australia...
[laughs]...That's the headline "CUM NUGGET: AN
INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN SMITH" [laughs]...
You haven't been in Australia all
that long, but is there anything you know of Australian comedy at all?
...To me, Australian comedy is like - what - Muriel's Wedding?...yeah.
What else would there be? Cite me an example...
The Castle?
Yeah, that I've seen and I really liked it..
Priscilla?
..Priscilla
I saw and really liked. There was that whole period where there was,
like, alot of Australian films. Strictly Ballroom...right
around the
time we were making our stuff.
A
guy you spoke to on Radio this morning, Tony Martin, he and a group of
8 or so [Working Dog] are like Australian comedy royalty...
I've
never seen his flick [Bad Eggs] but I'm told it's
quite funny. Really good guy -
fun interview. Actually the only Australian film maker that I've met
and ever really spoke with was the guy who did 2:37. And he was
a
really nice guy...Not what I would call a comedian...
...Suicide is always funny...
[laughs]...Killer, Killer comedy. I'm like "This is
some funny shit", and he was all very serious and I'm like - "Right
On"...
Smith's latest film about his beloved
characters Dante and Randal (the original film cost a mere $27,000 to
make) is
all about guys who have reached their 30's and trying to get their
lives
together. But Smith has a habit of making most of his films have a
similar
character arc - one has to wonder if Clerks 2
could have simply been
made using other characters.
"I could have told it
with other
characters, and originally that's what I was going to do. Then I was
like, well Clerks was about what it was like to be
in my 20's, this is
a film about what it feels like to be in my 30's - why not use Dante
and Randal?"
"...So often you see that coming of age
story and the only
context you have for those characters is that movie - and I was like,
it would be kind of interesting to do a coming of age story with
characters you actually saw when they were dreaming
about coming of
age. So I thought it had this nice little bit of built in poiniency
having seen them then and seeing them now".
"I was really in
love with the idea that, like, everybody looked old. Certainly older -
but more to the point - old. So often you see a sequel to
something,
and first off they do it relatively quickly - most sequels jump right
in and try to earn right off the first one, we weren't that smart...And
there was something kinda cool in that I look older and fatter, Brian
O'Halloran looks older and fatter, Jeff looks older and paunchier - in
fact the only one that ends up looking better than he did is Mewes. He
actually had a Dorian Grey thing goin on..."
We have Clerks 2 now -
so when should we expect the Mallrats sequel in
cinemas?
If
I was ever to do that, I think it would be in comic book form. Because
we've always talked about doing this comic book called Mallrats
2: Die Hard In A Mall, which now in the era of Snakes on a Plane
is kind of common place. But I guess I'll eventually get around to
doing it because then that way everyone can remain the same age. It'd
be kind of weird for Jason Lee to kind of jump in there, you know, and
take that mustache off [as seen in My Name Is Earl],
I don't think he'd be willing to do it...to shave that is.
