I
remember my first viewing of CLERKS. It
was years ago and I had had my experience serving others in a retail
environment. And with all the
crudeness and over the top humor, one thing stuck with me… Kevin
Smith gets it. He gets what
it’s like to have to deal with a-holes and he gets what it’s
like to be trying to keep sane in a f*cked up world.
Since then, he continues to make funny and surprisingly
heartfelt flicks including CLERKS 2, DOGMA and one of my personal
favorites, CHASING AMY.
Yet
recently, we are going to be seeing a whole lot more of Mr.
Smith…as an actor and I’m not just talking Silent Bob.
He’ll be appearing in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD: DIE HARD 4 and
the romantic dramedy from Sony Pictures, CATCH AND
RELEASE.
The latter of which is a scene stealing performance alongside
the lovely Jennifer Garner, and Sam Jaegar and Timothy Olyphant.
I
was lucky enough to hang out on a one-to-one basis with Kevin at the
Casa del Mar in
Santa Monica
,
California
, and I couldn’t have had a better time.
The dude is just an all-around great guy.
This is a guy who loves movies and I mean, really LOVES
movies and not in a ‘how much money is this gonna get me’ way.
He’s laid back and funny but he also happens to be very
smart. This shows in his
writing but it really is clear just talking to him.
We
spoke a little about making a huge flick like DIE HARD 4, we talked
about the affect of pop culture and its appeal and we spent a bunch
of time talking horror. If all
goes well, we should be seeing what the IMDB calls, the “untitled
Kevin Smith horror project”. And
if his excitement for the genre is any indication, we may be in for
a treat. But until then, check
him out in CATCH AND RELEASE and see the softer side of Kevin Smith.
Coming to theatres next Friday, it’s definitely worth a
look.
Kevin
Smith
Who’s
more pimp; Han Solo or David Addison [Bruce Willis in MOONLIGHTING]?
David
Addison.
I
agree.
And
also, it’s [an] unfair comparison because Han Solo, we only got to
see him three times. And
David Addison, they did almost four years of that show, they never
did twenty-two episodes of any season so they never reached their
syndication number. So
they did roughly sixty to seventy episodes so he had more time to be
a pimp. But even in that
first episode he was more pimp than Han Solo.
I
agree with you completely. So
now you’re working with Bruce Willis, DIE HARD 4; what was the
experience like? You had
five days on it…
It
was mind-bending sir. It
was a real education on why those movies are expensive.
Because everything just kind of slows down.
Like on the stuff we do, it’s like, lets move, let’s keep
going because we’ve got a lot to get to and a very little budget
to work with. Those
movies, its like, ‘we’ve got a hundred and fifteen mil, we’re
gonna take our time.’ And
also Len [Wiseman] is a really strong visual director so that
dude’s always rockin’ minimum of two cameras, sometimes three
and covering a scene every which way but loose.
And
also, when you’re dealing with something like DIE HARD 4, it’s
the fourth in a franchise so it’s like got continuity behind it,
it’s got a character behind it that you wanna honor and whatnot.
You know, it’s one of the most successful franchises of all
time. But it was fun and
sometimes weird, you know, ‘I can’t believe f*ckin’ John
McClane’s yellin’ at me.’
It was awesome, you know.
It was a real education though.
I mean, if anything - and I enjoyed my experience on it and
I’m so glad I did it and I can’t wait to see the movie – but
it just kind of reaffirmed my long held suspicion that I never wanna
make a movie like that; too big, just too big for me.
Well,
the thing with your movies, in fact as I was watching CLERKS 2 with
my wife and I kept thinking, here he has the donkey jokes where
everything’s so vulgar and it’s all packed in there with the
small budget. But it has heart, big time heart…
Yeah.
Well, that’s what I’ve always found, movies that appeal
to me the most are the ones that make you laugh, make you feel.
And that’s what I kind of like to do.
It’s kind of like, I love making jokes, I love making
people laugh, getting naughty, getting dirty and shit like that but
dirty for the sake of dirty is just kind of boring.
You know, you’ve gotta have something to hang it on.
And the real meat for me, like I love everything in CLERKS 2
but my favorite scene though is them in the jail.
Very few jokes but it’s just the interplay between Dante
and Randall. And I love
the Jay and Silent Bob asides in that scene but I just love – Jeff
Anderson is nothing short of amazing to me in that scene.
And what he says as Randall is wonderful.
He’s
a fantastic actor.
He
should f*cking work a lot more.
Seriously.
With
you personally, would you be a Dante or would you be Randall?
You
know, I used to be a Dante, when I wrote CLERKS.
I was very much like Dante and I wanted to be more like
Randall. And then when I
wrote CLERKS 2 you know, years later, I identified far more with
Randall than I did with Dante. Even
though Dante, in CLERKS 2 is doing things more akin to my life in as
much as like, he’s having a kid, he’s thinking of getting
married, stuff like that. I
identified far more with Randall’s storyline in that movie.
The frustration of when did everything change, when did the
status quo change? Why
do I feel so left out, why do I feel so behind the times and shit?
That happens like anytime I put on MTV, I’m just like,
“My God, I’m an old man.” because I don’t identify with any
of this anymore.
Yeah,
especially like music videos, if you can find a music video anymore.
Yeah,
good luck.
I
was reading your blogs and it strikes me that you are big into pop
culture, what do you think it is about our generation that pop
culture is all over, whether it be movies or whatever, especially
now?
I
think it has a lot to do with the fact that, I don’t think we were
the first generation, but we grew up in a time where there was
nothing radical going on, you know what I’m sayin’.
Like, our grandparents lived through World War II, our
parents lived though Vietnam and like a president who turned out to
be deceptive and people getting assassinated.
You know, I grew up in the Seventies forward, really not that
much going on. There was
no massive upheaval; we didn’t live through history so to speak.
We
did have disco.
That
was it. You know, and
until the shuttle exploded, nothing really horrific really happened.
There was the hostage crisis in Iran which ended after a long
period of time relatively well.
Like, so there was nothing hard core going on and so,
what’s to talk about except movies.
We were lucky; we kind of grew up in a period where you know,
irony could foster cuz you didn’t have to worry about [things]…
Now is a different age right, like now all of a sudden it’s
like, “When is that dirty bomb going off?”
And suddenly, there’s more at stake then there was in the
Seventies, I think.
And
also in the Seventies and Eighties they started making insanely
popular entertainment. Like
prior to JAWS, there were no blockbusters.
They had movies that would, like even GONE WITH THE WIND was
the highest grossing movie of all time in adjusted dollars or
something like that and made a shitload of money when it was out, it
never played on a thousand screens, two-thousand screens.
So as the multiplex kind of develops into a cultural force
and movies open up on thousands of screens and stuff like that, we
came of age during that. You
know, we came of age during like, fantastic fantasy films where you
actually believe what you were seeing on the screen; the STAR WARS,
JAWS, INDIANA JONES, shit like that.
They didn’t really have that prior to us.
They had movies of course and some of them had fantastic
elements to them but it just became so much more dominant in our
youth.
I
think also TV, I mean; you had so many different mediums.
I remember when I was seven years old seeing [the trailer]
for HALLOWEEN and I was like, “Mommy, can I see that?”
And she took me.
To
the theatre?
Yeah,
several times.
Wow.
Yeah…
Parents
don’t do that now. Like
I showed my kid GREMLINS and I caught shit from my wife for it
because she’s like, ‘She’s gonna be up now forever.’ You
know, that’s gonna haunt her.
I watched these movies when I was a kid, I watched scary
things when I was a kid and it didn’t really bother me as much.
Now, it’s weird, like I have to wait til’ my kid is a
pre-teen before I show her some of the movies… I can’t wait to
show her THE SHINING, it’s f*cked up, this movie’s amazing.
I can’t show it to her til’ she’s older cuz the wife
won’t let me.
Now
with the horror movie you are working on, you mentioned that you
hadn’t started writing yet.
Nah,
it’s all in my head. I
haven’t sat down and started tapping away yet.
What
are you looking at? What
are the types of films that…
You
ever see RACE WITH THE DEVIL?
Oh,
of course.
Like
that. So it’s not…
like I had a bunch of people today be like, so zombies?
No. It’s so
weird that whenever somebody asks me zombies I’m like, ‘Is that
what a horror movie is to people?’ Like just zombies?
It’s such a wide genre, wide open.
Like there’s so many… in a world where 28 DAYS LATER is a
horror movie and THE SHINING is a horror movie, those are two very
disparate films. Where…
not even that, like NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and THE SHINING.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is almost like a parody of horror at
this point. But THE
SHINING isn’t like that [kind of] horror... It’s a wide open
genre and very tough to pin down.
It’s so odd to me when people immediately assume you’re
talking about a zombie or a monster.
I
think because it’s a trendy thing right now.
Right.
Let’s
make a zombie film or a remake of course.
Right.
F*ckin’, I can’t believe THE HITCHER’S coming out.
I
saw it.
How
is it?
It’s
okay.
I
mean out of all the f*ckin’ movies that you would think to remake,
like, really… THE HITCHER?
They’re
remaking NEAR DARK too.
WHAT!
?
Yeah,
I know.
WHY?
I
don’t know.
This
is the thing I don’t get. I
don’t know, like DAWN OF THE DEAD really worked for me, the Zack
Snyder one. I enjoyed
it.
It
was fun.
It’s
kind of like, you know the difference between the book of THE
SHINING and the movie THE SHINING, two very different beasts but
they co-exist and I like them both.
But when you start remaking stuff like NEAR DARK which
didn’t come out all that long ago and really stands the test of
time, you can watch NEAR DARK today and it’s just as good as when
you watched it when you were a kid.
Why would you make that movie?
It makes no sense to me.
THE HITCHER was one of those too where I’m like…
I guess their philosophy is like, no, you’re not going to
get a young audience to watch those movies now, but why not?
You know, I don’t get it.
Well
it’s amazing because they are talking about remaking so many
films, like SUSPIRIA for instance.
And we have so many creative outlets, why not go and do
something like it.
Right.
Maybe
get inspired by it instead of, ‘let’s make the same movies’.
Right.
Do
you think that Hollywood is lacking lately in the creativity
department?
I
mean, I don’t know. I
don’t really dwell in that world as much so I don’t… but I’m
like you in respect that, you found out that they’re making a new
NEAR DARK remake. I just
found out they’re making a NEAR DARK remake.
And I’d probably react the same way.
And I don’t react from an insider’s perspective, I react
as a dude who saw NEAR DARK and why bother?
Somebody who’ll potentially go see it, you know and I’m
just sitting there scratching my head going, ‘I don’t know why
they would re-do that.’ I
don’t understand the remake thing.
You know some things, if you’re reaching far back like, for
example, in the Seventies when they remade INVASION OF THE BODY
SNATCHERS.
Great
movie.
Yeah,
that was a great remake.
Well,
yeah, that was also early on, back in the Fifties you couldn’t
really do what you did [in the Seventies].
But
you have to imagine the audience that supported that movie in the
Fifties probably felt, ‘Why bother?’ That was a relic of the
Cold War, it was truly a Cold War movie and how are they gonna do it
now in the Seventies when the Cold War wasn’t what it was then.
You know, we were still in the midst of it but it wasn’t
what it was in the Fifties you know with the Red Scare and shit like
that. But still Phil
Kaufman turns out a great movie that’s almost better than the
original.
Yeah,
in many ways it was.
In
many ways, but still, same subject matter but not nearly the same
“red menace” that they had lurking in the subtext of the
original. So you wanna
give them the benefit of the doubt and be like, alright, well it’s
possible to make an update of an old horror movie and do a really
good job with it. But
then they choose obvious things like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
Why? That movie
was creepy enough. Like
why do it?
Well,
I mean, I’ll admit, I liked the remake.
Well
yeah, they did a fine job but on paper it was like, why bother?
Well,
it’s almost like you see it and you’re like, well okay that’s
a great sequel.
Yeah
and why not just make it that. Why
call it a remake or a re-imagining.
Why not just be like, yeah, here’s another one.
I guess they don’t want a number in front of it because
they feel like a cop out or something.
Well
when you like at when FRIDAY THE 13th was huge, they keep
making them and making them and that number became almost like,
‘Oh, Jesus. Another
one!’
Same
with HALLOWEEN. By the
time they got to the “X” [with FRIDAY THE 13th], when
they got to like, JASON TAKES MANHATTAN you’re just like… when
you got to like f*ckin’ in space, you’re like, it stops being
horrific… at all.
Oh
yeah, it stopped being horrific with…
Maybe
two or three.
And
then you have RACE WITH THE DEVIL, a great movie.
And
it’s one like, somebody said, ‘well why not just remake RACE
WITH THE DEVIL.’ I’m
like WHY, that movie’s awesome.
Why bother… And also there are things that movie has going
for it which you wouldn’t have going for it thirty years later in
telling that exact story. I
mean even the little simple shit like, in this day and age, the
whole thing is figured out with a cell phone call.
They didn’t have cell phones back then.
You know, so it’s kind of like, why bother.
And
also, you can respect the spirit of it but not necessarily wanna
remake that movie. That’s
the genre of horror that I’m really interested in working in.
I like watching everything, but if I’m gonna make a horror
movie I wanna do that. Kind
of creepy, unsettling and kind of terrifying because it feels like
it’s possible. I mean,
you don’t really, truly get scared of FRIDAY THE 13th
because you’re like, well this could never happen.
And by the time you get to, you know, f*ckin’ Jason with a
hockey mask, it’s like, well I guess there could be a relentless
ghoul who wants to chase you but that’s more of a monster movie
more than anything else.
But
like RACE WITH THE DEVIL is like totally believable.
And I like that genre. You
know, even THE SHINING is totally believable.
You remove the elements of like, the supernatural, Lloyd, the
ghostly bartender, or the former caretaker, Delbert Grady who killed
his family… that’s a story of a dude who has lost his mind.
As a parent with his wife and his child, in a vast hotel
caught in the middle of winter and he just unravels and tries to
kill them. And you buy
that. I could sit there
and believe in this. It’s
totally believable. When
you get into the Jason’s and stuff, not so believable.
I wanna work in a little corner of that genre that’s more
believable, that could happen.
Let
me know what you think. Send
questions or comments to jimmyo@joblo.com.
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