An Evening with Kevin Smith (April 1, 2003) by
As refreshingly honest and warmly inviting as his movies, Kevin Smith entertained a sold out house following a screening of his 1999 film Dogma as part of Arclight Cinema’s ongoing series of Q&A’s entitled Master Storytellers.  The thought behind his upcoming film Jersey Girl, a comedy about fatherhood starring “Bennifer” (Affleck and Lopez), George Carlin and Jason Biggs was, much like Holden says in Chasing Amy, “I just had something more personal to say.” 
Smith prides himself on “having never been a guy to hide what I’m thinking.” This honesty shows not only in Dogma, his famously protested look at the idiosyncrasies of organized religion, but also in the attention to even the smallest detail given the Q&A session that followed.  The Master Storyteller title is well earned, and the hockey- jerseyed and trench-coated masses assembled were regaled with a frank look at Hollywood not often offered in panels of this nature.
While previous interviews posted on FILMRADAR were one-on-one sessions, the set-up for this event prohibited such an opportunity.  The first several questions were posed by host, Dennis Michael, formerly of Hollywood Minute, and the remainder were posed directly by the audience.  Special thanks again to Arclight Cinemas for putting together such a wonderful program in one of the nation’s finest modern cinema houses.  Theater 10, which seemed a surprising choice over the famed Cineramadome at first, is almost beautiful in its enormity and the quality of the film presented.  The entire Master Storytellers schedule, held every other Tuesday is just as impressive, and available at FILMRADAR.com. 
This film, Dogma, is very in your face.  Was that intentional?  What drew you to this film?  What struck you most about it?
Wow, that’s more like 19 questions.  Well, it was this or Boat Trip [alluding to the Cuba Gooding Jr. vehicle playing in the next theater].  I came in for the last half hour, and I really haven’t seen this movie in years, maybe once or twice since it was in theaters.  What struck me most, personally, is that was me fifty or sixty pounds ago.  That was in my fucking face.  At this rate, ten pounds a year, I’ll be five hundred pounds soon. 
Seriously though, what strikes me is that the movie stands up.  Despite how ridiculous it is, it really says something.  Kind of like the Catholic Church itself (laughs).  It was also theatrical and over the top, again kind of like the Catholic Church.  It also carries a message of hope like the Catholic Church.
You got a pretty strong reaction from this movie when it came out, tell us a bit about that.
To me, this is a movie for those who think….I want to believe [in religion] but ‘ahh, fuck it.’ However, when we premiered at the New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, what should have been one of the most profound experiences of my life, really turned pretty heinous.  I mean this is a movie with a rubber poopmonster in it, and you’ve got hundreds of protestors out there being vicious.
For example, most Catholics I know, when we do the Rosary, we kind of treat it like a chore, mumbling through.  Not so when you’re being protested.  I’ve never seen such passion.  You’ve gotta remember, this was right after The Catholic League had taken on the movie Priest, also by Miramax, which dared to say some Priests suck cock on the side.  Then they went after ABC for the show Nothing’s Sacred, so there was a lot of bad feeling towards Disney.  [Catholic League President] Bill Donahue showed up with a stuffed Simba on the end of a stick burning in effigy. 
How very Christian of him.
Yeah, I’m thinking, “my Brother in Christ.”  I mean this guy was loaded for bear before we ever even rolled a frame.  He had printed up these detailed five page color pamphlets.  They contained a bunch of passages from the script, and analyzed each one.  The amount of time and energy that went into it flattered me.  I saved one.  I’m just thinking though, maybe the money that was spent putting these together could have been used to help out a Soup Kitchen.  And of course there’s a donation card on the back, I think that’s great. 
This cast in Dogma is pretty amazing, how’d you come up with Alanis as God?
Well, I always thought Alanis would have been great in any role, and I toyed with giving her the lead.  I saw her in that video where she did four different personalities for the song “Ironic.”  That was great acting.  Aside from the not talking of course, and the fact that none of it was really ironic.  But no, she had this great, expressive face.  We had discussed her being the lead, but to her credit she didn’t feel comfortable shouldering that weight yet in her career and didn’t want to rush into anything. 
I think she did a great job.  She is funny too.  When we started talking about the part she said, “I can star as God because I always thought God was Canadian.”
And there’s the headstand.
Yeah, she was wearing this billowing dress, and told me she wanted to do a headstand, so I’m not stupid, I said sure.  Then she said, “I should probably put on boxers,” which I told her was probably unnecessary, but she insisted.  We grabbed a pair of boxers that were lying around, because I guess God wouldn’t wear panties.
It’s at this stage that Smith’s sharp eye for even the smallest detail becomes abundantly apparent.  He walks the audience through step by-step details of how the cast for this film came together.  Ben Affleck coming to him to arrange a meeting with Weinstein which in today’s Hollywood seems absurd.  Kevin booking him a train back to Boston, forcing him to read the 30 pages of Chasing Amy he had and the Dogma script.  Not bowled over by Amy, he “liked Dogma from the jump.”
The mutual admiration society that’s developed between Affleck and Smith seems to rival that of only Kevin’s admiration for Jason Lee. The fate of Kevin’s future project Fletch Won, the prequel to the classic, hinges on his insistence that Lee play the lead.  In Smith’s refreshingly honest style, he notes that Miramax head Harvey Weinstein doesn’t feel Lee is right for the part commercially, so they are basically awaiting the receipts on this summer’s Jersey Girl before making a decision. 
And the rest of the cast?
Well, Jason was originally supposed to play Loki, but he had signed on to another film, and had to take on the role of Azrael.  Ben offered up his friend Matt [Damon], who had one scene in Mallrats and had just finished Good Will Hunting, and it worked out quite well.
As for Bethany, that role was originally written for [Joey Lauren] Adams, my girlfriend at the time.  When Miramax agreed to give us $30 million for the film at Sundance, they had two rules. We couldn’t use all of our friends, and we needed a star in the role of Bethany.  Harvey [Weinstein] told us we were going to have to use Bob Yeoman as DP, as a bigger cast requires a bigger DP.  Coming back from that meeting, which was one of the worst hours of my life, was a nightmare.  Dave and Joey were staying with us in our cottage, so we were going to need to tell them right away.  I think [producer and longtime Smith collaborator Scott] Mosier was having a hard enough time knowing he was going to have to tell [Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy DP David] Klein he wasn’t going to be able to shoot Dogma, but, as far as I know, they weren’t sleeping together, so my situation was worse.
But Linda Fiorentino was a pretty good second choice, no?
I had loved her in Last Seduction and she is a total lapsed Catholic, so right from the jump I knew she would be great, and she was.  It required us to age Bethany a bit, though, so we had to do some work.
Chris Rock seemed an interesting choice for Rufus, how did that come about?
I’d been listening in my car to the tape of his HBO Show Bring the Pain.  The man is a brilliant satirist.  At the time we were casting he was just beginning to get some heat surrounding him, and I was very excited to have the chance to work with him.  The thing is, when you’re working with someone like that, the most difficult part is telling him up front that there will be no ad-libbing.  Chris didn’t really want to buy into that at first, and kept feeling me out.  He’d say, “no ad-libbing at all?”  And I let him know that the rhythm is critical to how the words work in my films; so really, it was going to have to be read exactly as it is on the page.
He went out soon after to see Chasing Amy, though, and that changed everything.  He understood how important the dialogue is to our films.  He called me up and said, “You can put anything you want in my mouth.  Within reason, of course.”
What do you listen to in your car now?
Now pretty much all I get to listen to is Spongebob SquarePants.  I don’t know if any of you have four year olds but my little girl is just obsessed with repetition.
Anything about the film that strikes you in a negative light?
Well, there were points, when I was sitting here in the audience, that I felt the script was a bit overwrought, as if I were trying too hard to be impressive.  I tend not to write that way anymore.
But that’s fine, I mean there was a real learning curve from Chasing Amy to Dogma, and following Dogma, I’ve learned so much more.  It was a total growth experience, going from working with my friends to getting a letter from Emma Thompson on her own stationery.
Tell us a bit about that.
Well, for a star she is just a really amazingly nice person.  She was originally cast as God, but then became pregnant, and that’s when we decided on using Alanis for that part.  She also recommended Alan Rickman, who was just incredible.  She was so apologetic about not being able to fulfill her obligation, but all I remember from the letter was stationery with Emma Thompson’s name on it.  And, of course, a bit of controversy that I unknowingly kicked up.
Before the rumor mill could start up, I figured I’d get on our little website View Askew and proactively let people know that Emma was no longer involved in the picture, because she was expecting.  Her people called to complain that the paparazzi was all over her front lawn and that they’d appreciate it if I not post the goings on of her private life on my web site.  I was in disbelief that some reporter from England was reading my web site, but “apparently” as her publicist noted, “they do.”
And of course, this movie features Jay and Silent Bob.
Sure, well you kind of need the Jay element in this movie.  Butt fucking jokes really let the air out a bit.  He’s sort of the Han Solo of this film, and without him the movie couldn’t happen.  [Jason] Mewes really, for a while, owned this picture.  To see him working alongside some of the people on this film, really just blew my mind, but he held his own really well.  Alan Rickman began to [in dead-on Rickman] “this movie is no longer Dogma, it’s Dog-Mewes.”  It’s good to have the borderline misogynistic guy tempered with someone a bit warmer, even if he doesn’t speak.
It was at this point that host Dennis Michael relinquished his duties, at Kevin’s behest, allowing the audience to directly ask questions to the auteur.  Unlike many in this town Smith relishes the frank, open discussions that arise from this sort of situation.  He claims its mostly because he “hates to sit” as people will stare at his “fat calves,” but given his tendency to affix his gaze squarely on anyone who asks a question, his promise to “generate as long as you generate” and the unflinching honesty of his answers, it’s difficult to imagine that the slimming effect of standing has much to do with his decision.  A selection of the most interesting questions are included below:
What’s going on with Superman?
I am not involved in that.  Last I heard, Brett Ratner walked away from it.  I know Warners has it on the front burner, but I really don’t think I would do a superhero movie.  Ben keeps asking me to take a hack at the Daredevil sequel, but I mean this [Dogma] is really my comic book movie.  If you look at it it’s not much more than a graphic novel.
Mad Max 4?
I don’t know how that rumor started, I’ve got nothing to do with it.  I know this might lose me some popularity, but I’ve never seen Mad Max or the other one, what was it called?  Crowd bellows ROAD WARRIOR.  Right.  Loved the Tina Turner song though.  I mean, George Miller [writer/director of the Mad Max series] is probably like, “Kevin who?  I fucking made Babe.”
What is your next comic book [writing] project?
First up, I plan to finish the Spider-Man Black Cat series and then do Daredevil.  The problem is I’m so bad at taking on too many things, and I’ve really needed to focus on finishing this film.  I’ll take on a project and be really excited about it, and then I’ll be like, “ooh, look, a dog with a fluffy tail.”  I would like to eventually go back to the Green Arrow though.
What’s up with Vulgarthon?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vulgarthon, it’s a film festival we’ve held in Red Bank, New Jersey for the past three years.  We’ll screen Dogma and other films of mine alongside films that have not yet been given wide distribution.  It’s nice because it lets some of these smaller films get seen and fans of the older films can see those in a theater with those involved in the filmmaking process.
I’ve been thinking of moving it here, but you can only imagine the shitstorm I created with that idea.  I can’t tell you how many times in my career I’ve been called a sellout, but moving anything from New Jersey for me brands me a sellout of the worst sort.  My e-mail is flooded with slogans of “Jersey Represent.” 
I just figured it would be nice to actually have some of the stars of the movies show up, and having it here might make that a little easier.  I know it’ll be easier to get Ben to show up if I have it here.  Hell, it’s tough enough to get him out of the house at all these days considering he’s, you know, fucking…  I think the next one will be here though. 
So what inspired you to move out to Los Angeles?
At this stage I can pretty much work anywhere, so it wasn’t that.  To be honest we weren’t really planning on moving here full time.  We were down here for about four months for Jersey Girl and my given how much my wife [Actress Jennifer Schwalbach] hates New Jersey and the fact that our daughter, who shares both of our genes, would have a better chance of just sitting in front of the TV and eating like the old man if we stayed in a cold weather climate, it seemed like a good idea.  It’ll give my wife’s genes a better shot at stretching her up tall and thin rather than mine stretching her out wide.
Los Angeles isn’t a bad place though.  I’m no techno-geek but the projection is so much higher quality here than back home.  Back home it’s like they’re showing the film through a glass of milk sometimes, and the lampage is always wrong.  I also moved out here because Los Angeles has Dave’s Video.  Of course that closed down, but since my wife hates Jersey and my family and friends have mostly moved out, it still seemed the right time.
Can’t Jay and Bob just fuck and be happy?
Seriously, that’s what I said to Mewes before the last time he went into rehab.  Get yourself clean, and we’ll make Jay and Bob movies until we’re old and gray and they’re not funny anymore.  Honestly, his drug problems are the reason we’re not going to do them again.  Last time I saw him, I told him if he could stay clean for a year we’d do another one.  Sadly, I don’t think that’s going to happen.  Even on Dogma he was drunk all the time, and he’s not a happy drunk.
Following an audience question, Smith waxes at length on the fate of one of his oldest and dearest friends. Bordering between tough love and broken heart his story is gut wrenching.  Mewes, who was clean for five days at last report and has been in and out of rehab and in trouble with the law for petty offenses over the past few years, claimed to be working on a documentary for HBO about his life when he and Smith last spoke about a week ago.  Smith was genuinely troubled by his doppelganger’s foibles, recounting the fun they had when he finally sobered up for a bit after a stint at Malibu’s famed Promises facility as well as the relationship Mewes developed with his then two year old daughter during the filming of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Any word on the Clerks animated movie?
The question there is whether or not you can get feature-quality animation using flash.  We’re working with these guys who do some incredible work in flash, they actually built the arcade-style video game we ended up giving to Bennifer at wrap of Jersey Girl, and they did the Silent Stash video game available on our web site.  So, we’re doing a flash test for the big screen, and if that goes well we’ll move forward.
Has the experience with Clerks [schedule-plagued animated series] soured you on TV altogether?
Absolutely.  It’s funny, because I’ve been toying with this comic book idea forever, and I discussed it with Ben when we were working on the movie and he said, “that would be perfect for TV, you should do it.”  I couldn’t believe this guy who just got his own Push, NV show canned, and got screwed almost as badly as I did with Clerks, again by ABC—which is the devil—is ready to go back to that well.  He’s like, “you can’t hold it against them.”  Not me.  I might do something on cable if the right opportunity presented itself, but that’s about it.
Being that this is a Master Storytellers series, what writers’ work do you enjoy?
An audience member shouts, “Tim Burton.”  Smith laughs.  Tim Burton, right.  He is an amazing visual stylist but he can’t tell a story to save his life.  Quentin, I’ll watch anything he does.  Spike Lee, I still like, and Oliver Stone.  The audience continues to shout out names.  Cameron Crowe draws the most adamant response.  I love Cameron Crowe!  I would fuck Jerry Maguire.  Not the guy, but the movie.
Now that Jersey Girl is almost finished, what are you thinking about next?
Every time I work on a project, people ask me what’s next.  This is really one of the first times I don’t have anything specific in mind.  Again if I could do the Fletch project with Lee I’d be all about that and there is the Clerks cartoon, but the other two projects I’ve been tossing around are each very distinct.  One is sort of a sci-fi romance I’ve been toying around with for a long time.  The other would be a remake of this amazingly bad movie from the seventies, starring Peter Fonda and Loretta Switt Race With The Devil.  I’m obsessed with the title, and it’s about these two couples that go out in their Winnebago to do some camping, and stumble across a satanic ritual.  When they are discovered, the cult chases them and they spend the rest of the movie, you guessed it, racing with the devil.  Of course, I pitched it to Bob Weinstein because it’s this great slasher flick and I figured it would be right up his alley, and he just thought it was a terrible idea.  He didn’t even like the name, pointing out that they’re not really racing with the Devil but from him.  Turns out someone actually already has the rights, so I’m even less excited about it now.
Smith continued to field questions for an amazingly generous two and a half hours, earning his keep as a Master Storyteller with yarns about his wedding at Skywalker Ranch (his advice, don’t tell anyone your doing it, just do it) and his love-hate relationship with hooded sweatshirts before finally stepping off to resounding applause from the still nearly filled theater of loyal fans who remained through the end.

5 Comments:

1. When I first saw Dogma I felt there was something rotten in there. I mean there are many that are making religion a joke but the thing is when you make fun of it and give a detailed image of how things are presented in religion it’s not the same. You are creating an impression of a conaisseur that only cares about what he thins and would like others to think as he does. All this apart from the fact that I believe that religion is no joking subject..
   Rehab saved my life

   Posted by Me  on  06/11  at  04:56 PM

2. The question there is whether or not you can get feature-quality animation using flash.

   Posted by web hosting  on  02/17  at  11:55 PM

3. Dogma is my favorite film, I admire it for being so bold and showing religion to be the silly and fake organization it is today, having a faith is fine, the movie has no problem with that, just religious fanatics who aren’t willing to accept anything else. It’s a real shame mews won’t get some drug addiction treatment so they can make jay and silent bob movies!

   Posted by Ada Wakeman  on  06/03  at  03:20 AM

4. As far as I know they did went in drug rehab, but without any success. Anyway, the most important thing is that at least they tried… what can I say?

   Anyway, this is a great article. This is indeed an interesting list of movies, I didn’t watch some of them yet, but I will!

   Posted by Rehab  on  07/20  at  05:25 AM

5. Kevin Smith really got talent..!!

   Posted by style advice  on  11/30  at  12:52 AM

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