By David Nusair
November 14, 2004
When the opportunity presented itself for me to interview Kevin Smith, I jumped at the chance. In town working on his episodes of DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION, Smith was spending the day holed up in a hotel room meeting with the press. As is his reputation, Smith didnt balk at any questions posed to him spending twenty minutes discussing everything from CLERKS 2 to finally completing the SPIDER-MAN/BLACK CAT comics.
David Nusair: You look like youre a little under the weather.
Kevin Smith: Im just tired, man. Its been an early morning. Its been a long week of early mornings.
DN: So hows the shoot going?
KS: The shoots going phenomenally well, insanely well. Theyve got a well-put together outfit out there. Its amazing, their studio. I dont know if youve ever been out there?
DN: Nope.
KS: They took this old warehouse and kind of turned it into a multi-set studio, you know? Theres even a backlot, with fake houses and all that shit. So, theyve got a well-oiled machine, production wise theyve got it down to a science and for me, its just been fuckin awesome because I get to do fun stuff every day. I get to be myself but not myself; like Im playing Kevin Smith, but Im not Kevin Smith. Im not married and I dont have a kid, but Ive largely had the same career up to that. So theres some cool freedoms to it and whatnot. I got to make out with Caitlin Ryan the other day
DN: Really?
KS: for hours. It was pretty hot. Just take after take. I mean, thats the really weird thing, right? I mean, kind of the only on TV part. I essentially get to play kind of a leading man, you know which barely happens to me in the real world, let alone films. Usually I wind up kissing a fucking monkey or something. So its been great for me, man. The shoots been going really, really well. [Jason] Mewes is funny. He's doing some really great stuff.
DN: Oh, yeah?
KS: To say the least. You know things are going well when youre sitting there going like, wow, the fake movie thats in the TV show would make an awesome flick. We should really make JAY AND SILENT BOB GO CANADIAN.
DN: Whats it like spouting dialogue, as yourself, that someone else has written?
KS: I get to rewrite my dialogue, just so it sounds like something I would say. So, thats why its been really easy. Shelley [Scarrow, DEGRASSIs story editor and writer] wrote the first episode I was in, 420, and Aaron [Martin, executive producer and writer] wrote 421 and 422. They were really cool about like, go over your dialogue, make it yours. So it was pretty easy I sound like myself.
DN: In the press conference a few weeks ago, you said that you wanted to get Ben Affleck for a cameo
KS: Yeah.
DN: howd that go?
KS: I tried, and he turned me down.
DN: Okay.
KS: He was just like, "You know what, dude? I'm a little too high profile right now. I'm trying to scale back." And then, of course, he went to the World Series [laughs]. This is post-World Series. He was just feeling the burn. It's been a bad fuckin' year for him, and he keeps getting the shit kicked out of him. I'm not gonna add to this dude's misery right now, where you know the episode would air and people would be like, "Affleck winds up in Canadian teen soap opera." And they'd somehow tie it into Jennifer Lopez. So, you know, he's like, "look, I know it means a lot to you and if you really, really want me to do it, I'll go. I'm begging you, right now in life the last thing I need to do is to be out there in the world yet again, open to ridicule. I said, "I totally get it." So we got somebody else to do it, somebody that makes a lot more sense anyway.
DN: Can you say who it is, or is it a surprise?
KS: Its a surprise.
DN: Which characters from the original series are you acting opposite? Caitlin, obviously
KS: I have a scene with Caitlin, I have a scene with Joey, and I have a scene with Spike. There was a scene with Snake in an earlier draft, but it went by the wayside because the script got long. When I started doing dialogue polishes for my stuff and Mewes' stuff, the scripts got longer; I would add volumes of dialogue. So, unfortunately, some scenes did kind of hit the bricks. But, yeah - I get to act with those cats from the original show. And then, on the new end, I have scenes with Craig (Jake Epstein), Ellie (Stacey Farber), Manny Santos (Cassie Steele), Ashley (Melissa McIntyre), Spinner (Shane [Kippel]), and J.T. [Ryan Cooley]. Now that I think about it, I guess they wrote me into a scene with almost every kid.
DN: Im sure the kids made them
KS: I don't know. I doubt it. I imagine some of them are like, "who are you, dude?" you know? Because they're all pretty young. I felt old as hell hanging around these 14-year-old kids. Mewes? He didn't feel it at all. Mewes actually blended really well with the 14-year-olds. But me, I'll sit there talking to them sometimes and at the end of the conversation, and I'm like, "God, I'm 34. I feel so old. I'm 20 years older than these kids."
DN: So how do you think this show holds up in comparison to the original?
KS: I like it more than the original, actually.
DN: Really?
KS: Yeah, I think the writings better. And Lord knows, I love the old show, so that's saying a lot. They took my favorite elements from the old show the Joey and Caitlin storyline and brought in all new characters that, initially, I thought I might not like. But I do. In fact, theyre more interesting than the original kids. The ongoing Joey/Caitlin saga is always fuckin right up my alley. I could watch a whole season of that; they could get rid of the kids and Id just watch the Joey and Caitlin storyline. But the kids are so essential, you know? And the kids storylines are always well-done and interesting, too. Some of the kids are just phenomenal fuckin actors, and I just enjoy watching them act. So yeah, I go for this one more than the old one.
DN: So, you said you were making out with Caitlin
KS: Yep.
DN: does that mean youre getting in between Joey and Caitlin?
KS: Yes, absolutely! Yeah, I do. How delicious is that? Their relationship is put to the test yet again - but this time, it's because of the fake Kevin Smith. So, it's kind of cool to be me this week.
After making sure its okay, we switch gears from DEGRASSI and begin tackling a variety of subjects.
DN: You just handed in your draft of GREEN HORNET
KS: 164 pages.
DN: Really?
KS: Yeah.
DN: Epic.
KS: A little long. I mean, I wouldnt even call it epic. It doesnt deserve 164 pages; I just put a lot of dialogue in there. The next step will be weeding out 44 pages, getting it down to 120.
DN: Are you happy with it, though?
KS: I am. I like it quite a bit. There's stuff in the script that I haven't yet seen done in the current crop of comic book movies, so that made me happy. This doesn't mean much, but I prefer this draft of GREEN HORNET to the script of the first SPIDER-MAN movie. Finished movie SPIDER-MAN? Whole different story - 'cause Sam Raimi's such an excellent director. But my script of GREEN HORNET I find more interesting than the script to that first SPIDER-MAN flick. But, of course, I'm fuckin' biased.
DN: So the plan is still for you not to direct it?
KS: Yeah. It's way too big for me. Investing that much time in a movie of that size, you've gotta really fuckin' be like, "this is a story I, myself, must tell." I feel like THE GREEN HORNET script is a story that somebody else must tell. I want to save my big-budget experience for something that I create from scratch. Like, it was fun to write THE GREEN HORNET, but at the end of the day, he's not my character. I didn't create him. So, if I'm going to do a big-budget movie, I want it to feature a character that I create.
DN: So, if it was up to you, who would you like to see direct it?
KS: I'd give it to Robert Rodriguez. Robert's a really great shooter, and boy, he knows how to cut. So, yeah, I'd give it to Robert. I doubt he'll do it, though. Too busy with finishing SIN CITY. Have you seen any of the SIN CITY stuff yet?
DN: No, just those posters theyve been releasing.
KS: I've seen some of the footage online. It looks really good.
DN: While were on the comics theme, youre doing WHAT IF with Brian Michael Bendis
KS: No, Im not. I didnt get to do it because I never got back to Bendis in time. As per usual, Im totally negligent in meeting my comic book responsibilities. So the bad news well, thats good news for some people is that I didnt get to be involved with the WHAT IF comic and Brian did the story by himself. The guy's a writing machine anyway; he needs no help - especially from the likes of me. Instead, though, I worked on SPIDER-MAN/BLACK CAT issues four and five, and wrote myself into a corner. So now I have to go to issue six. And now that Im done with the GREEN HORNET script, Im going to finish issue six.
DN: You think youll be doing any more comic work after that?
KS: Well, Ifve gotta finish the DAREDEVIL TARGET mini-series, which I'll do immediately after that. Then, following that, I don't know. It's tough. I mean, there's a part of me that wants to write the first six issues of BLACK CAT ongoing series that Marvel's been talking about doing, but it depends on what's going on movie-wise. That's what happens; like, a movie pops up and then suddenly all the focus shifts to that, because comics is just something I do more for fun than anything else. But then I was really remiss with SPIDER-MAN/BLACK CAT and DAREDEVIL, Because I was done with JERSEY GIRL and then other things would pop up. I don't want that to ever happen again, where, you know, I start something and then it's years before I finish it. So, I don't think I'd ever commit to another comic book project unless I had enough time to do it and do it right. Or if I wrote a bunch of scripts, and then turned them in; like finished my entire run in script form, before the publisher hired someone to draw the books or started soliciting them.
DN: You have CLERKS 2 coming up, obviously. Anything new about that you can reveal? Youve obviously talked a lot about that already.
KS: I've pretty much said everything I can say about it without ruining it before we even start shooting. All I can say is that I love the script; outside of DEGRASSI, it's the one thing Ifm really looking forward to making. It's a nice way to bookend the last ten years. It's a true companion piece to the first one. Sadly, we'll never be able to make it as cheaply as we made the first one. It's now impossible to get people to work for free and stuff, because everyone knows we work for a company that pays people and this is a property that will make money; there's a built-in audience. And that's fair. By virtue of that, it will never be a carbon copy of the original and I don't think anyone would want that anyway. But regardless, even though it'll cost us a few bucks more to tell a Dante and Randal story this time around, it's a real nice spiritual bookend to the first CLERKS; kind of a flowing continuation, if you removed ten years from the process. Like, what happened ten years later?
DN: Okay, and the plan is still black and white, and color?
KS: Black and white, and color.
DN: You just opened your comic shop in Los Angeles
KS: In Los Angeles, Jay and Silent Bobs Secret Stash absolutely.
DN: How did that go?
KS: It went well. Opening day was the day that CLERKS X and JERSEY GIRL DVDs came out, and we combined our opening day with a signing party. It was me and Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes and Marilyn Ghigliotti, signing mostly CLERKS X of course. We had a great turnout 2000 people turned out and kind of jammed up a block of Westwood, where the store is located. We were supposed to sign from 5 oclock at night to 10 oclock at night, but so many people were there and we wanted to make sure everybody got taken care of, so we wound up staying until five in the morning. So we were there for like 12 hours signing; pretty hardcore. It was good. It was a great way to open the store. Now the stores been open since September 7th, and its going great. Its going really, really well. Were happy as hell. Its nice. Nice to have a comic store that I own nearby again, because I moved out to Los Angeles. You know, I dont get back to the other Stash as regularly as I did when I lived in Red Bank, so its nice to have one where I live now so I can get to it and hang out and whatnot. And also, we just had so many props from the movies that we couldnt fit in the other store, so having two stores, we get to spread it around.
DN: Youre going to be back here in a week
KS: Yeah, Im here. Im not even leaving until then for the Roy Thompson Hall gig.
DN: So its just that and the London one that are going to be on the next DVD?
KS: On EVENING WITH KEVIN SMITH 2: EVENING HARDER. Were calling it our international edition, and its Canada and England. Were doing two shows.
DN: And what can fans expect from those?
KS: More of the same bullshit: a fat dude standing in front of an audience, talking for four hours to a bunch of people who've apparently watched his movies way too closely. It's always fun. That Roy Thompson Hall gig that I did here back in March was the most fun I ever had doing a Q & A. So hopefully, you know, the one coming up next week will be a repeat. Wouldn't it suck if it was just terrible?
DN: SOUTHLAND TALES.
KS: Mm-hmm.
DN: Have you started that yet?
KS: No, but Richard [Kelly, the writer/director] just showed me some storyboards; he sent them to me by e-mail. I guess he's got his financing and his cast almost completely locked. I mean, he had the BUFFY chick cast in the movie and THE GRUDGE opened and it did really well so now he looks like a fuckin genius. He says we'll probably start March or April.
DN: You still planning to sing and dance in it?
KS: Im not one of the singers and dancers. After having read that script, I just dont understand why people keep saying its a musical. There is a musical number in it, definitely.
DN: But youre not in that?
KS: No, I don't think so, unless he recently rewrote it. He's a really sweet guy. Real talented dude. That movie is going to be great, it's a really great script.
DN: You did that commentary with him for the new Donnie Darko DVD
KS: For the DONNIE DARKO DVD.
DN: Are you a big fan of that movie?
KS: Yeah, I really enjoyed that movie because I thought it swung for the fences. Ive known him for almost a year now, and he called me up and said, you know, were supposed to be doing this commentary track for DARKO and I was wondering if you wanted to do it with me. Well sit there and talk about the movie. I said, yeah, itll be fun. So we did it; we kind of sat there and did the ongoing track. I guess its out there in England. I guess they released it there first. That movies huge in England. So I guess it comes out here when?
DN: Im not sure. In the next couple of months.< Is that the first time youve done a commentary track that wasnt for one of your own movies.
KS: I did a quick phone-in commentary track on ORGAZMO, which wasn't screen specific and didn't really have anything to do with the movie. A friend of mine was working on the ORGAZMO DVD and was asking a variety of people to talk about the movie or Trey [Parker] and Matt [Stone] for the commentary track. So I just told my only Trey and Matt story that I had at the time. Five or ten minutes, and that's all - over the phone. I literally phoned it in.
DN: Well, it looks like my time is up, but Ive got to ask you about Movie Poop Shoot.
KS: Right.
DN: Whats your favorite column on there?
KS: Favorite column on Movie Poop Shoot used to be the toy column, until the dude busted on my InAction Figures [laughs]. I really like One Hand Clapping. I think [Chris] Ryall's writing is really good, so I enjoy reading that on a regular basis. I liked [Jeffrey] Wells' column when we ran it, as well. And I like the Kentucky Fried Rasslin' column - which is saying a lot, because I don't watch wrestling. Trailer Park's good too. I'm a big fan of the comic strips, more than anything else. Brian Lynch's Monkey Man stuff, I'm a fan of. I also just kind of like how they take a news story and shrink it down into bite size; makes it easier. Because the whole idea behind Poop Shoot was always "Give me one website to go to for everything I want to know about movies, comics, tv, etc." Ryall was able to pull that off. He turned it into something really, really great.
DN: Do you ever get any flak from people about the name?
KS: In the beginning, we did. A lot of people were just like, "you've got to change the name." When Jeff Wells was writing for us, he used to hammer me about changing the name of the website. He was like, "it's tough to maintain any credibility with that name.
DN: Anything you want to reveal to your Movie Poop Shoot readers before I go?
KS: Yeah, were going to shutter Movie Poop Shoot next month, close it completely.
DN: Is that true?
KS: No [laughs].
David Nusair can also be found at ReelFilm.com.
Photos courtesy of View Askew.
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