Clerk (2021) - full transcript

[Video tape rattles]

[Machine beeps,
rewinding sounds]

- Mom, Dad, there's probably
a million things I wanna say,

but I won't be able to.

[Sighs]

So, I think I could probably
say some from here.

Notice how half of my face
is lit?

For professionalism.

That's why I'm going
to film school.

Feeling pretty scared,

and it has nothing to do
with going away.



You know, going to school,

it has to do with the fact that
everything's gonna change.

Perhaps bring fame
to this family name,

although, I know that's not
all that important.

That all starts with you, Dad.

Goes back to when you used
to take me to the movies.

Thanks.

I love you.
[Tape stops]

♪♪♪

♪ Ahhhh... ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhhh... ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhh

♪ Ahhhh

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♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhhh... ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhhh...

♪♪♪

♪ Ahhhhh...

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♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhhh... ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhh

♪ Ahhhh

♪♪♪

♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhh...

♪ Ahhhhh...

♪♪♪

["My Hometown" by
Bruce Springsteen plays]

[Seagulls cry]

- My people came
from up north Jersey.

I was the first generation
born down here,

down the shore.

Highlands is the epitome
of a small town.

♪ I was eight years old

♪ And running with dime
in my hand ♪

- That is Our Lady of Perpetual
Hope Parochial School.

They filled my head
full of lies

about a magician
from the Far East

who was the Son of God.

No, they taught me great things.

There was my first-grade
classroom, right there.

That's where I learned
the basics.

I would become a writer
because of that building.

- Kevin was a very quiet child
when he was growing up.

But he liked to play,

and we had one of those um,
word processors,

and that's what the older
ones gave him for his birthday,

and he worked on that
all the time.

- I remember a scenario
that he had gave me to read

that was family oriented.

You'd go to visit the relatives
and there was always a story

what we could tell
and laugh about.

So, I remember the writing
had something to do with that.

I thought it was hysterical.

My Dad, I guess you would say,

is probably polar opposite
of Kevin.

My father and Kevin
were very close.

When Kevin would have to go
to the dentist, you know,

they would take him
out of school,

take him to the dentist,
then take him to the movies.

- It was movies.
It was always--

- Always movies. Always.
- Always movies.

And he would take me out
on Wednesdays,

to go see a matinee.

My Mom was like, Dad's coming
to get you, you're gonna go

see a movie today. I was like,
"What do I tell the office?"

Like, "Tell them
your uncle died."

The sister, at one point,
was like,

Kevin, there are too many dead
people in your, in your family.

And I was like, "I know,
they're droppin' like flies."

- My father worked
for the postal service,

very like, old school
about the work thing.

You don't have to like your
job; you just have to do it.

It's responsibility.

- Loved my Mom, loved us.

Didn't really care
about anything else.

That was his biggest dream,
he wanted to get married

and have kids, and he
accomplished it and stuff,

and so, everything else was
just shit to pay for that.

So, like, he wasn't like,

"Oh, my career
at the post office,"

it was like, my job,
and I hate my job.

My life is a reaction to his
life, inasmuch as like,

well, I don't wanna get a job.

Like, I see what a job
does to people.

Maybe I'll take my shot trying
something that's not a job.

- He was in every play
in high school.

He did pretty good;
everyone liked it.

- This, right here,
Henry Hudson Regional,

this is where our,
I did high school.

You know, it was clear
that I liked the arts

more than anything else.

I was familiar with the concept
of the high school hero,

like, people that quote unquote
peaked in high school.

So, I didn't,
I didn't want that for me.

I didn't want like, high school
to be the greatest time

of my life,
and I loved high school.

I just wanted that
to keep goin'.

Never understood why
we were expected to stop

pretending and, and dreaming,

and-and making things,

and you know,

shootin' the moon.

So, this is the Highlands
recreation center.

This is where I meet
Walter Flanagan,

Bryan Johnson, Jason Mewes,

the people who will define
the rest of my life.

I met here.

- He got a job a the location
I was working at,

the uh, community center.

I knew he was one of these guys
that was into the-into plays,

and into being on stage.

And I immediately associate
that with like, corn bowl,

or like, somebody I would never
have anything in common with.

I didn't talk to anybody
about comic books.

I was intrigued by
having somebody else

that talked about comic books,
that really pushed me

towards opening up and
becoming friends with him.

- Kevin, I knew of
in high school.

He was a couple years younger,

and he was like a,
one of the video geek guys.

He was into drama,
which I was not into.

He was a big fan of SNL stuff,

so, my humor was a brand
of humor that he hadn't seen

thus far, that's dark.

What I loved about him
was how quick he was.

The recreation center itself
is what brought us together,

brought Mewes there.

- Sister, can I come in?
Okay, come on in.

You wanna come in?

Eyeline.
- [Man laughs]

[Rock music plays]

♪♪♪

Get the fuck outta here!

Kevin, Walt, Bryan,
we used to all hang out and,

and read comic books, and stuff.

And Kevin knew of me because
Bryan and Walter were like,

"Oh, Mewes is funny, man.
He loves comics,

he wants to go to the comic
book convention.

Let's bring this kid."
He thought, you know,

"No, I'm the funny one,
not him."

He didn't want a new person
in the group,

and then, when we dropped him
off from that show,

like I knew where he lived,
and I was like, "Oh, my God,

he's one block." So,
I would walk to his house

and knock on his door
and be like,

"Hey, what are you doin'
today?"

Um, and he'd be like,
"Yo, bro, we're not hanging out,

we're not friends now."

He was like, "Hey,
I'm writing a script

and I'm puttin' you in it."
I was like,

"Yeah, sure, whatever."
I thought he literally

was gonna borrow
his aunt's VHS camera

and we were gonna make like a,
video with some friends.

And I'll kick his fuckin' ass

if he talks about my girl
like that.

- Kick his fuckin' heart
if he talks about your woman.

- I'll kick his ass!
I'll kick his ass!

- Black Panther whoop his ass!
- Yeah!

- "Clerks" was forged
in the kiln

of the Highlands Recreation
Center.

We're comin' up
on the foundation

upon which my entire life
was built.

[Heavenly singing]

Can't escape it.
Best job I ever had

in terms of return
on investment of time.

Holy shit.
Can you imagine?

I came to interview
at RST Video,

the video store next door,
which is closed.

Because I went to Quick Stop
and Mr. Topper was there.

He goes, "Would you be
interested, from time to time,

in working at the convenience
store?"

So, what had happened was,
it wound up being

mostly convenience store.

It was, I got catfished
into this job, man.

Like, I came for the video
store job,

but then they were like,

"You're really here
for a convenience store!"

and they netted me and
put me behind the counter.

So, it wasn't even a job
that I wanted.

It wasn't even me going like,

"Oh, my lord, I-I
desperately wanna work

in yet another convenience
store."

It was by default,

that I wound up working
at the store

that would literally
change my life.

- I was workin'
at the Quick Stop.

I was workin' there before
he was, actually,

so, I was like, you know,
I had seniority.

We would sit around
at the Quick Stop

reading the Village Voice,

and we started noticing these
ads for these midnight movies,

and they looked interesting,

and more interesting
than the type of films

that were playing at the
multiplexes around New Jersey.

So, uh, we had gone up there
to see "Slacker".

In the car ride home,
he was driving,

and I would look over at him,

and you could see this
intensity in his eyes.

I, I could tell that
his mind was racing.

It was going a million miles
an hour,

and that something
that clicked.

Through "Slacker"
he saw filmmaking

as an outlet for
his writing, really.

Like, he had always wanted
to be a writer,

and then, he was like,
"Holy shit,

I can make a film for next
to nothing.

I can self-finance a film

and get my writing out there
that way."

- I saw it all crystallize
when I saw

Richard Linklater's "Slacker"
because I'm like,

here's a guy who's like,
I'm gonna make a movie.

Never mind waiting for somebody
to let me make a movie.

- Oh, did that inspire Kevin
to get in front of the camera?

[Laughs] 'Cause I show up
in my movie?

At least I gave myself
a three-page monologue.

Kevin used that to stand around
and be quiet all the time.

Tough acting.

♪♪♪

What inspired me
to make "Slacker"?

Probably not being able to
do another kind of movie

I wanted to make,

so I made the film that
was kinda in my head.

Some experimental narrative
that I was,

can make in my backyard.
Very cheap.

- You cannot argue the power of,

of cinema,

when I saw a movie

and it made me change
everything.

Everything!

Like, what I thought
about myself.

And it's not like I saw
this movie

and it challenged what
I thought about myself

because it spoke to me
on some level,

I just like, this counts.

Like, this, this is what I've
been waiting for my whole life.

Like, I wanna do this.

I had to educate myself.

I wound up going to film school
in Vancouver.

I had seen an ad
for the VFS -

wanna go to film school,
but don't have time

to go to four year?
Hit this program.

And so, I went, and it's very
uncharacteristic of me

to have made this weird move.

Like, my friends often
think like,

"You, who never thought
about doing that shit,

what made you leave there
and go there?"

Because there was no other way.

- His word processor
was going up on a belt

to go into the bottom
of the plane, and he goes,

"Oh, my God!
Why isn't it up here with me?"

- My education of film
school was

"You need to surround yourself
with talented people."

I did that, and then I bolted.

So, if I hadn't seen that ad,

I don't know that I would've
pursued film school.

I never would've met
Scott Mosier,

and Scott Mosier is absolutely
essential, the key,

the battery, to all this shit.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- That's beautiful, man.

♪♪♪

I knew I wanted to get into
movies, but I was not--

I was the guy who was like,

I was playing sports.

I guess I was more jockish.

Man: You're Emilio Estevez
in "Breakfast Club."

- I was--
- If it was the five.

- I would, if, okay.
So, I have to align myself

with a part of
"The Breakfast Club"

I would be more in
the Emilio Estevez camp.

- If I had to put Mosier
in "The Breakfast Club",

he's not Molly Ringwald.

He's not the princess.

He might see me
as Molly Ringwald.

- He's not Molly Ringwald.

I mean, he might want
to fantasize about,

but I don't think
he's Molly Ringwald.

- Emilio Estevez, the jock.

But I mean, at the same time,
I know if somebody said,

"Hey man, in a documentary,

I said you were Emilio Estevez
in 'The Breakfast Club'",

I'd be like, "What the fuck?
Is that how you see me?

After all this time,
you think I'm the Emilio?"

- It's tougher to say.
I mean, on one level,

I guess I'd have to put him
in the Judd Nelson's character.

Man: Really?

- Bender's the smartest guy
in there,

and he's the smartest
manipulator of the conversation.

And there's something
of Kevin in that.

- Maybe it's one
of the girl characters.

[Applause]

Who does he think he was?

- I wish I was Bender,
but I'm probably not.

- I do think people
underestimate like,

how hard he worked,
or how much time he put in

when we got to that point,

'cause there was nobody in film
school or anything like that,

that could write like him.

The script was the star, right.

The script isn't the star
of that movie

if he doesn't work his ass off

and put in a ton of hours
as a writer,

leading up to that point.
It's just not.

This is somebody
who has a voice.

- It's gonna be on my tombstone,

"Here likes Brian O'Halloran,
born December 20, 1969,

died whenever,

he's not even supposed
to be here today."

I'm not even supposed
to be here today!

I don't need this. I'm not even
supposed to be here today.

I'm not even supposed
to be here today!

- Oh, fuck you!

- Cool the fact that someone
of our age

was taking a chance
to make a film.

In reading the script,
he was incredibly witty

and incredibly poignant
at the same time.

When making it, I don't know,

I didn't have that type of,
you know, vision of like,

well, this is gonna be awesome!

I was hoping that, you know,
we'll get a VHS copy of it,

I'd be able to show friends.

[Door creaks open]
- John?

Ah, my old friend.

- Becomes clearer and clearer,
the more times you see it,

just how unbelievably
meticulously structured

and worked out "Clerks"
really is.

- 37. My girlfriend
sucked 37 dicks.

- In a row?

- Everyone got it.
Just like,

the voice, and the, you know,
the authenticity of it.

- You think the average
Storm Trooper knows

how to install a toilet main?

All's they know is killin'
in white uniforms.

♪♪♪

- Who knew, you know,
that it tapped into

the subculture that's been so,
we've been able to see now,

all these years later,

of people who Kevin
were speaking to,

that were like, I've never
been spoken to before.

You're my guy.

- There's something
about Kevin's story

cobbling together the resources
he had and like,

coming out of working
in a video store,

dropping out of film school.

Like, he is the sort
of number one story

of what Sundance represents
for, for filmmakers.

♪♪♪

[Indistinct chatter]

♪♪♪

- We're now looking to get
a distributor for "Clerks".

- We're still getting picked up.
- Yeah.

Woman: Okay, guys,
so how's it been going?

- Great. We just did like,
three killer interviews today.

- Is this the last screening
today?

- And there is a great piece in
the New York Times coming out.

- Yeah.
- And a great review

in the Hollywood Reporter,
so, it's been a great day.

[Applause]

- The film won over
that festival

that was a very clear sense
of a build,

the culminating screening
at The Egyptian,

which sold the film.

- I actually brought
something with me.

This is my "Clerks" ticket.

On the back of it,

I wrote "The Clerks."

I didn't even get the name
right. [Scoffs]

["Ghostbusters"
theme song plays]

I told Kevin Smith,
many times,

"Hey, you're one of the reasons
I'm a director,"

and he's like,

"Uh, you grew up on the set
of 'Ghostbusters'.

Why did you need me
to tell you,

you were a director?"

"Clerks" became this access
point for me,

to independent cinema,

in a way I didn't think
it could be.

I didn't think that art house
films could be funny.

I grew up surrounded
by big comedic movies,

but those always felt like
my dad's movies.

When I saw "Clerks,"

it felt like
I belonged to this.

- When's the last time you
actually worked here,

Mr. Smith?

- God, it would have
to be back in May.

You know, it was right
after Cannes, I think.

I think I even came back
from Cannes,

and worked for another week
or something,

and then, that was it.
That fateful '94 year.

- There's an element of luck
involved, but it's also,

you know, kind of been the
voice of your generation,

which, you know,
I mean he, he was.

- "Clerks" was, you know,
me jumping out

in front of the audience
and saying,

"Hi, my name's Kevin Smith,

and I'd like to speak to you
for the rest of my life."

♪♪♪

I, I did my thing,
I sang my song,

in a very fortunate time.

Timing was everything,
in the case of "Clerks,"

me starting my career,

because if I had started
a year or two later,

that's the advent
of the internet,

and there's gonna be
a generation of me.

- When you sent me one at the
house to see it, a VCR tape.

- VHS, yeah.
- Donald called me and said,

"Well, what do you
think of it, Mom?"

I said, "Oh, it's good,
it's really good."

And right away, Donald said,
"You didn't even turn

the voice on, did you."
- [Claps]

- I said,
"Oh, I was afraid to."

- Making "Clerks"
making it to coming out,

was still one of the, you know,

great experiences of my life.

♪♪♪

You know, it's like being
on "The Price is Right."

With each thing that happened,
there was a new,

there was like, one more reveal,
like yeah, and fucking boat!

And you're like,
"Holy shit, there's a boat!"

- The underdog story of like,
"Look at this,

movie looks like shit.
Don't we love these kids?

Give it up for the kids!"
You know, like oh!

It was always a shock,
and a surprise,

and stuff like that.

But once we'd gotten our foot
in the door, you know,

I didn't wanna fuckin' risk
pulling it out again.

You'd heard about one-hit
wonders and stuff like that,

I didn't wanna be that.

I was immediately tryin'
to set up the next thing.

- Yeah, at Sundance,
we met Jim Jacks.

- Jim Jacks, met him
at a party at Sundance,

after we'd won an award and
shit like that, for "Clerks"

and I was introduced to him,
and I was like,

"Oh, shit, man, you did
'Dazed and Confused.'"

- My same casting guy,
my same producer, same studio,

same everything.
I don't know,

I was trying to give him
advice on,

to avoid some of the pitfalls.

- We talked about when
they were ready to start

talking about their next movie,
that we would talk.

- We had this idea
for "Clerks" in a mall,

and he was just like,
"Oh, my God, that's perfect."

- That's January '94 and
I feel like by summer '94

we were making "Mallrats."

Jay: [Sings incoherently]

♪♪♪

Kevin: We were making
a movie at a studio -

the same studio that had made
"Animal House"

and the "Blues Brothers,"
"Breakfast Club."

"Mallrats" is literally me,

making an 80s movie
in the 90s.

- Snoots to the doo!

♪♪♪

- I felt like it was an
opportunity

that I didn't wanna pass up,

but I wouldn't say at that
point, even I was like,

"Oh, my God, I wanna be in
movies, and act, and do that."

It was more just like,
"Wow, this fell in my lap

and I'd rather do this
than roofing."

Growing up in Jersey,

and flying out to California,

and seeing like,
palm trees and stuff,

I'd only seen them in like
"Beverly Hills Cop,"

and "90210" and all this stuff,

and now, all of a sudden,
I'm like,

driving down Hollywood
Boulevard, you know,

with the palm trees,
and meeting Shannon Doherty.

It would seem surreal.

Well, if it isn't my neighbor,
Mr. Svenning.

- I get bags of chocolate
covered pretzels, all the time.

You know, and it's just,

that's such a memorable moment.

Oh, my God, people like, "No!

Oh, no, don't eat it!

Yeah, eat it! Oh, no!"

It was great working
with Kevin.

We all got along;
everybody had a fun time.

We met afterwards,
we'd have dinner, we'd eat,

we'd go to the pool,
we'd play games.

It was a great experience.
We took over the mall.

- I was excited about it.
I was excited for him.

I really liked the script.

- When Jim Jacks read
the script, he goes,

"This one character,
who's that supposed to be?"

I was like, "Well, he's kinda
like a Stan Lee, I guess."

You know, somebody that
everybody knows

in the comic book community.
And he's like,

"Well, why don't you just
write it for Stan Lee?"

I'm like, "Well,
I don't know Stan Lee."

Jim Jacks goes,
"Well, I do."

And I was like,
"Hollywood is good."

- Oh, my God!

Holy shit!

Aren't you...?
- Oh, Stan Lee.

- My very first cameo,

people refer to it
as its cameo.

I would rather think of it

as my first starring role.

♪♪♪

Filming on "Mallrats"

was some of the most fun

one could ever have.

- "Mallrats" was me trying
to be entertaining,

going like, you know, "Clerks"
worked out, and I was like,

"Oh, they like me.
Well, here's me being

entertaining to the masses!"

And people were like,
"What? Comic books?

Who is Stan Lee?"

- It was an acting job.
I expect an award for that.

- Kevin is not only
a terrific director,

he's a great humorist.

- It was fantastic.

He was everything you hoped
in the world that he would be.

- You don't somehow feel
that you're working,

when you're working with Kevin.

It's more like you're
with a friend

and you're having
a great time together.

♪♪♪

- At one point, I got a phone
call from head of the studio,

he's like, "I'm watching
the dailies.

This scene with Stan Lee
reminds me

of the Wolfman Jack scene
in 'American Graffiti.'"

- There was no reason
it couldn't,

and shouldn't, be a big hit.

- Things were lookin' up
for that movie, man!

♪♪♪

My dream, of course,

because I was a child
of the 80s,

is a hundred million dollars
is a lot of money and stuff,

and that's,
used to be a banner,

hallmark in our industry
of like,

oh my, if you could make
a hundred million dollars.

Head of the studio,
Tom Pollock, said,

"We're gonna to 'Animal House'
business with this movie."

He goes, "We're gonna make a
hundred million dollars,"

and he was off by 98 million,

which is like, close.

[Whistling through air]

[Hard thud]
- Ah!

- Suddenly, I went from
a high high to a low low.

It mattered, to me,
to you know,

get critical praise.

Uh, that was, you know,
how "Clerks" thrived.

- Whoever sent the review
that was like,

"If they're ever gonna teach
a class in what not to do

for your second film,
'Mallrats' should be

at the heart of
the curriculum,"

is not a,
is not a great review.

And that was a review
admonishing Kevin for like,

you know, we built you up.

- The audience that ushered me
into this world,

uh, were you know,
were intelligencia.

"Clerks" never played on
more than 50 screens,

and it was reviewed by like,
"The New York Times,"

the "LA Times,"
the "Washington Post."

- You know, those reviews were
painful because they were,

they were, essentially, you
know, critics who had made him,

you know, feeling betrayed.

- Those were the people
that elevated that movie.

Wasn't like the general
audience.

General audience wouldn't
discover "Clerks"

until home video,
and then, boy,

it really connected, man,
and that was my true audience.

So, when I went out there a
second time with "Mallrats,"

the intelligencia were like,

"What? What is this?

John Landis, John Hughes?

Like, ew. We put you here.

We let you into our club,

and this is the kinda shit
you're gonna make?

Get outta here!"

And so, it went south,
like real fuckin' fast.

- You know, at that moment,
it's like,

we're not, "Mallrats"
isn't a cult movie,

it's not anything.
It's like, that's it.

Like, its fate was sealed.

It was a fuckin' bomb
that we made.

You know, like that was it.

Jason: "Mallrats didn't make
a huge box office hit,

or anything,
but enough people saw it

that I remember when I was
delivering pizza,

um, people would be like,
"Hey, man,

I saw you in that movie,
'Mallrats.'"

And I'd hand them the pizza,
and I would be like,

"Please, tip me big. Please
give me them tips, baby."

- I feel like on "Clerks"
we were a real team,

and on "Mallrats,"
we were a team,

but in a little bit
of a different way.

- On that movie,
he didn't know what to do.

Like, you know, there were
times I think he was just like,

"I should go home."
- I wanna be more involved,

like, I want more
responsibility.

- Scott was, to me,

the most important person
on the journey

'cause he was the only one
who was comin' with me.

It's like, we have to keep
the fuckin' nucleus together.

When "Mallrats" fails,

you're like, all right,
well, fuck, we were in,

and now we're not,

so, how the fuck
do you stay in?

- "Mallrats" hurt... hurt us,

and a lot of people were like,
"Done!"

- I have never seen those
two look more forlorn,

that I can remember.

- Nothing's going
to take away the uh,

the disappointment that he,
that he had

and you could see in him.

♪♪♪

- I don't think people
understand what a huge

adjustment that is,
to be making a film

with your friends,
for no money,

to have people in some other
city watching your dailies.

You pay such a price.

- That's where Scott,
the magician, came to life.

- I'm the person that people
should come to,

to get shit done,

or to even understand
what the fuck's going on.

In order to become that person,
I had make "Chasing Amy."

- "Chasing Amy"
could not have happened

without "Mallrats" in between.

- It was kind of like a,
let me see,

do I have another magic trick,
and there was one,

and I wouldn't have had
that magic trick,

if I hadn't met Joey
on "Mallrats."

- I remember getting
to know Kevin

and we just had a great banter.

You know, he, he's one of the
funniest people I've ever met.

Yeah, hi, somebody told me
they make comic books here.

Kevin and I started dating,

and so, a lot of the movie is

in a more cinematic sense,

but like, issues that
we were going through.

- "Chasing Amy" came
from a place of a guy

who didn't know emotionally
how to be a grown up

in a relationship.

He was still a high school kid.

- This kid from New Jersey
coming,

and then living in Hollywood
with me,

and all my friends,

it was a lot for him.

So, there was just a lot of,
I think,

insecurity on his part.

- Thank God I had that
relationship.

Like, thank God, you know,
Joey was like,

"What's wrong with you?"
You know, number one,

"Chasing Amy" came out of it,

that, that movie is about
our relationship,

to some degree,

or my inability to process
her past, or whatever.

And number two,
it, more importantly,

I came away from all that
a better person.

Like, you know,
at the end of the day,

you hope you could say that
about every relationship

of your life, and particularly
the ones that end.

- He gave me the opportunity to,

in a really smart
and articulate way,

kind of cuss him out about it,

and that exterior hockey rink
scene is what that was.

In some of the more
emotional scenes,

he surprised me that
he could do that, as well.

It was amazing, to be given the
opportunity to play a lead role

and for Kevin to see that in me,

um, you know,
it was just magical.

- I wrote the script,
loved it.

When I got it to a place,
I liked it,

I submitted it to Miramax,
and I said,

"I wrote it for Ben Affleck,
and Joey Adams, and Jason Lee,"

and I was like,
"They were in 'Mallrats.'"

And she goes,
"Well, Kevin, you know,

the movie business isn't
about making movies

with your friends."
I said internally,

"Well, I'm gonna spend the rest
of my career disproving that."

- Making "Chasing Amy" was
really hard, and you know,

the original budget was
like a million and a half,

or something like that.

- We were at an impasse
for awhile.

Miramax wasn't green-lighting
"Chasing Amy"

and Sundance '96,

John Pierson releases his book,

"Spike Mike Slackers & Dykes."

Does a book signing, and stuff.

This is the opportunity.
I'm going after John's book,

but I'm also gonna sit down
with Miramax

to have a discussion
about "Chasing Amy."

- He was like,
"I got the budget!

I got the money for the movie!"
And I was like,

"Fuckin' awesome."
And he's like, I was like,

"You got the one point
whatever?"

And he's like, "Well..."
he's like, "I got $250,000."

I was like,
"To do the whole thing?"

- He goes, "What are you
fuckin' crazy?

We can't do that!"
And I was like,

"Well, sure we can, man,

we made 'Clerks' for $27,000!"

- That was my fault.
I was like,

"Yeah, well, what could you do
this for, Kevin, $250,000?

Okay, sold." [Laughs]

Mosier should totally blame me.

Coffee, Rolaids, and cigarettes
for that whole movie.

That was not the healthiest
I've ever been.

You know, I mean,
I was young.

I mean, not to say
that I'm like,

"Hey, kids, when you're young,

just fuckin' do stupid
things to your body."

♪♪♪

And "Chasing Amy" to me,
was accepting that idea

and that budget, was me
going like, "All right, well,

I'm gonna, I'll just say yes,
and figure it out."

At the time, I was just
exhausted, and felt beat up,

and kind of didn't know
if it was worth it,

but looking back,

I can say like,
I had to do that.

- To bring all those people
together and shit,

and actually make it work,
like that was his magic.

♪♪♪

- The execution was shock,
you know, shockingly good.

You know, I thought it was
completely transcended.

- After seeing it for the first
time, I was like,

"This one will,
will please the people

who weren't happy
with 'Mallrats.'"

♪♪♪

- "Chasing Amy" was a
delivering upon that promise

that here was a voice,
it was real,

it had something to say,
it was authentic, um,

and that there was more to come.

- He made a movie that was
going to be well received.

Way ahead of its time.

- It's about a guy who comes
to this club and [whistles]

hightails it when
he finds out...

ready for this?

This girl is gay.

We knew people like that.

Like, you know,
it wasn't like,

Kevin created this world
that didn't exist.

Kevin captured a world,
that, you know,

we knew gay people like that.

- I would definitely say
I was probably

the first gay person
that Kevin ever met.

His complete acceptance
of my life

came out in that movie.

I came to the realization
I was gay

when I was in college.

I probably should've figured it
out long before then,

but the town we lived in
was so small,

that we never knew
any other gay people.

When he first started asking me
questions, you know,

it was a little on
the uncomfortable side,

because I really didn't
know how graphically

he wanted to know.
You know, I thought it was,

maybe it was feigning interest,
you know, to be like,

"Oh, okay,
and this is your new life,

well, let's talk about it."

Um, but then I could see, as
the conversation was going on,

that you know, no,
he was genuinely like,

what to do people do?

And that was his way
of going through it

and trying to put it all
in perspective that,

okay, well, this is true,
or this isn't true.

After you broached the subject,

then you looked at me
with kind of funny face,

you went like,
"So, you suck dick."

And it was like,
"Yeah, I guess I do,

yeah, that's part of it."
[Laughs]

It speaks to me in
a lot of ways,

just like it did
a lot of other people.

Tarantino: "Chasing Amy"
is extremely personalized,

extremely good. I'm still
shocked that Kevin Smith

turned the corner he took
in that movie.

I got a nosebleed, he like,
took such a jump. [Laughs]

- Now, at last, we've come what,
at least I think,

is the only good movie
on this week's show.

It's called "Chasing Amy."

- To feel his start continuing
to rise, from like,

"Clerks" to "Chasing Amy"
and beyond,

was, was really exciting.

- And the Oscar goes to
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon!

[Crowd cheers]
- Yeah!

Yahoo!

Damon: Without Kevin
and Scott, the movie never,

never would've happened.
Couldn't have happened.

We were going to get
into turnaround,

we were gonna lose our script,
but you read it,

and that's why
"Good Will Hunting" got made.

And that's why you're a
producer on the movie.

- I do, I get my name
on the flick.

- I don't know where we
would be without you.

- It's on "Dogma,"
where suddenly like,

we get to add to the resume,
and shit.

Like, "Ladies and gentlemen,

coming off of their Oscar win

for 'Good Will fuckin'
Hunting,'

which the fat guy
was involved with as well,

him and his buddy,

it's Matt Damon
and Ben Affleck!"

So, we had those two dudes
at the fuckin'

absolute height of their
magic hour power.

Reporter: And Hollywood dish

on Ben Affleck, Matt Damon,
and their on-screen reunion.

- Damon and pal,
Ben Affleck,

playing fallen angels

trying to get back
into heaven in "Dogma."

- I remember saying like,
"Next movie I wanna make is-

is about the Catholic Church,"
and uh,

they loved that.
Everybody at Miramax, like,

"This is the company for that!
Right on!"

- To do "Dogma" was like,
just a stupor of bliss,

and that's how it's been for me

every time I worked with Kevin.

♪♪♪

What have I been doing
with my life?

The power of his humor
is commensurate

with the terror of the times.

- Like, it's bittersweet
for me to watch "Dogma"

because it was written by
a boy who believed all that.

Like, it wasn't Christian
mythology,

that was just what happened.

There are angels, there's
a heaven, there's a hell.

You know, it wasn't until
on "Dogma"

I worked with George Carlin
for the first time.

George Carlin, you know,
one of my heroes.

At one point, he goes,

"You really believe this stuff
still, huh?"

And I go, "Yeah, you don't?"
And he goes,

"No, I'm smarter than that."
[Laughs]

- I give you, The Buddy Christ.

[Organ music]

[Shocked murmuring]

[Choir sings]
♪ Halleluiah

♪ Ahhhhaaa

- It was awesome gettin'
to work with Chris Rock,

and Ben, and Matt,
and everybody.

Alan Rickman,
it was crazy, bro.

- There's been, like on "Dogma"
like, Alan Rickman.

This guy like,
invited me to dinner.

Like, he's like, telling me
stories of like, growing up.

Like, I got invited
to dinner by this guy.

Like, that's when you go,

I never fucking imagined that.

- I'll see ya.

- So, when I got to "Dogma,"

I did feel like oh, like,
I know where my place is.

"Dogma" to me,
ends up being like,

trying to make an indie movie

with a lot of big movie
problems.

- "Dogma" on paper,

or in theory,

like, sounded like
a Miramax dream come true,

where it's like, oh, my God,

we're gonna get so much press.

And then it turned into
a Miramax nightmare,

because there was too much
press,

and the Catholic League
came after the movie.

Catholic League is
a self-appointed body.

They're a watchdog group.

That organization
went after the movie

in big, bad way.

Reporter: Ben Affleck
and Selma Hayek

were greeted by hundreds
of Catholic protestors

at the premiere
of their film "Dogma."

- We went to the, you know,
New York Film Festival

and jumped out of the car,

thousand people or more
lined up with rosaries,

protesting the movie.

Holding a giant statue of Mary
and shaking placards at us,

and stuff like that.
It was crazy.

So, the movie caught some
people

in the absolute wrong way -

people who'd never seen it
and would never see it.

- We're giving them publicity,
but negative publicity.

- It doesn't mock religion.

It's actually very
pro-faith and devout.

- Protest against the movie
in Eatontown, tonight.

They were joined by this man.

He wouldn't admit it,
but he looked and sounded

suspiciously like "Dogma's"
writer, director,

co-star, and New Jersey
resident, Kevin Smith.

- Lady's like, "You kinda
look like the filmmaker."

And I was like, "No, no, no."

I don't think it stands for,
for anything positive.

- What does it stand for?
- I don't know,

but I've been told not good.

- It was one of these
things where read it,

and then flash forward to like,

seeing it in Cannes.
- That was very exciting.

That was the first time
I ever went to Cannes,

that was to be, I wanted to be
part of the "Dogma" entourage.

I was like, really meant a lot.

- Production was quiet.
Nobody heard anything,

like, while we were making
the movie. There was nothing.

Wasn't until later on.

Wasn't until like,
when we were gettin' ready

to start showing the movie
in Cannes,

they had to install metal
detectors.

400,000 pieces of hate mail.

Three legit death threats.

Like, uh, one said,
one of the letters said,

"You Jews better take that
money you stole from us

and start investing
in flak jackets,

'cause we're coming in
there with shotguns."

♪♪♪

It was strange
because it was a movie

with a rubber poop monster
in it.

Out of that environment,
like, you know,

I gotta make a movie after that,
and I was just like,

I do not wanna make a movie
where anyone gets mad,

or anybody is shoutin' at me,

or, you know, sayin'
that I'm gonna go to hell.

I'm gonna make the least
offensive movie

I can possibly make,

and that was "Jay and Silent
Bob Strike Back,"

which has one of the highest
fuck counts of a movie

ever made.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

[Rapping]
♪ Mother, mother fuck

♪ Mother, mother fuck, fuck

♪ Mother fuck, mother fuck,
noise, noise, noise ♪

♪ One, two, one, two, three,
four, noise, noise, noise ♪

♪ Shmokin' weed,
shmokin' weed ♪

♪ Doin' coke,
drinkin' beers♪

♪ Drinkin' beers,
beers, beers ♪

He was on fire,
like he stole "Dogma."

If he stole "Dogma"
out from under like,

movie stars and comedians.

George Carlin, Chris Rock
in that movie,

and still, people like,
"Oh, Jay."

So, felt like,
all right, lean into this.

When all was said and done,

it was like a very dirty
version of "The Muppet Movie."

- [Chuckles]
- You know,

where two, they're on their
way to Hollywood.

- Three days to stop that
fuckin' stupid movie

from gettin' made.
Come on, Silent Bob,

we're goin' to Hollywood!

[Music crescendos]

- I was surprised, not
because that Kevin cast me,

but because I might have

my name in the title of a movie,

leading a movie,
so I was a little nervous,

'cause I was,
I was a little rusty.

Um, I excited because all,

honestly the greediness
in me was like,

"Ooh, how much money,
if I'm the lead?"

Shit, yeah,
we gots to get paid!

- "Jay and Silent Bob
Strike Back"

is like this victory lap movie,
like we made four movies!

Let's talk about 'em
in the fifth one!

♪♪♪

Kevin: It's a fan film,
and you know,

I was a fan of myself.

It's important to be a fan
of yourself.

Proud to be a Kevin Smith fan.

Like, I like Kevin Smith movies.
They're fuckin' weird.

It's like they're made for me.

[Ominous music]

- It's not like "Chasing Amy"
and "Dogma" weren't fun,

like we always had fun,

it was just the level of stress

makes it less fun.

Now, you go and make "Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back"

our most expensive movie
at that point.

We shoot five-day weeks,

we're shooting in LA,
it's really simple.

- I was writing for "USA Today"

and I was assigned
to interview him.

I didn't know who he was,

and that's how we met.

We did the interview and within
a year, we were married.

[Chuckles]

["Laid" by James plays]

♪ This bed is on fire
with passionate love ♪

♪ The neighbours complain
about the noises above ♪

♪ But she only cums
when she's on top ♪

I had never dreamt of acting.

I'm incredibly awkward
and shy

in front of a camera.

I knew that it was not
something

that I wanted to pursue and,
and make a career out of,

but the experiences that I had

while doing the movies
with my family,

were pretty priceless.

Our first real big move
for a shoot

was "Jay and Bob Strike Back."

We were in New Jersey

and we all moved to Los Angeles.

[Plane engine roars]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- I had a blast on Jay and Bob,
a hundred percent.

I was just happy I still
had the opportunities.

♪♪♪

There was the fun of going out
and drinking,

but I feel like there
was a lot of camaraderie.

- It was me and him every day,

and everyone else changed.

- Who's the main guy
in this movie?

- Some asshole.
- That's not true.

I've seen him working hard.
- Really?

You think he's a hard worker?
- Yeah.

- The shoot was a blast.

- It was like,
"How do we do this?"

and then there was some guy
would pop up and be like,

"Well, that's my job,
I do that.

You want him to have a giant
dildo lightsaber? Okay"

[Energy hums]

- There was a spirit of fun

and enjoyment there,
and I thought,

you know, you almost forget
that that,

that it is fun to perform,

because everyone's so nervous
for their jobs,

and the money, and time.

- Kevin has worked hard
to make sure that

he has this group of people
that are like a family.

It's the Partridge Family bus.

- This is my single favorite
shoot, of all of them.

- Really?

- Yeah, this is fun.
Great. Well scheduled.

Man: "Jay and Silent Bob
Strike Back" is wrapped.

Thank you all, very, very much.

[Cheering and applause]

- We had a test screening.

And it went well.

We scored higher than
we've ever scored

on any of our other movies
before.

The early 2000's was nice
to see like,

oh wow, the, the characters

from you know,
the very first film,

and the View Askew are popping
in mainstream kinda culture.

♪♪♪

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- We opened up the website,

the View Askew website.

It's a message board
where people could post

a subject and inside, they'd
write whatever they want.

And then you can answer
at your leisure.

I'm like, suddenly you
could reach people.

Once we opened the doors,
like a community built,

and we were all like-minded
individuals.

- Kevin was the first person
that I knew, that had,

that set up an internet
visibility of you know,

of a known person, to kind
of reach his fan base.

- He's like, the first person
I knew who had a computer,

and he was in like,
already like,

chatting with fans somehow.

And I just thought it
was the stupidest thing.

- Kevin and his fans.

Have nothing but admiration

for how that got built up
over time.

- They were my audience.

They have a fuck about
Kevin Smith, like, fantastic.

And we also had common
interests in comics,

and "Star Wars," and hockey.

Suddenly, I was tangentially
pulling those things in.

- The web board, I started
just posting on that,

just because Kevin was on there.

If you posted a question,
Kevin answered it.

Like, now, you know,
everybody, that's anybody.

You can do that on Twitter,
you can do that anywhere,

but back then,
it was just unheard of.

So, I became part of this
little community.

♪♪♪

"Mallrats" comes out.

They released the "Mallrats"
script book,

and I went to the Staten Island
mall to get it,

and the guy's like, "Nah,

he's like we don't carry
that Kevin Smith.

Kevin Smith sucks anyway."
So, I took my recorder,

and I just started screaming
at the guy.

I wrote Kevin an email,
and I was like, "Hey man,"

I was like,
"...just to let you know..."

I don't know even why
I told him, but again,

that's what Kevin fostered,
that like,

ability to just reach out, and
he was like, "This is amazing."

And then he's like, "Do you
wanna come work for me?"

And I was like, "Yeah."
It was great.

One of the most defining
moments of my life.

- People on the message
board were like,

what are you sellin'?
I was like,

I'm not really selling
anything.

And then I looked around
and I said -

this was after "Mallrats"
tanked -

and we had boxes and boxes
of posters of the movie.

So, I was like, "I guess,
I could sign these posters

and sell them,"
and people were like, "Yes!"

So, I started taggin'
the "Mallrats" posters

and sellin' 'em online.

So, people would order stuff.

Brian Quinn,
he was the guy

who would put the shirt
into an envelope

and send it to you.

- Kevin made View Askew uh,

so welcoming to fans.

I mean, he would throw
the Vulgarthon.

We've got a few movies,
let's have film festivals.

People from the message board
from the website

would come to Redbank you know,
from all around the world,

and see movies,
and we'd have Q&A's

and bring the actors up.

- And Kevin had no barriers
between them.

Like, I'm your friend,
let's talk,

let's get to know you.
He would listen to everybody;

he would talk to everybody.
So, dealing with fans was fun.

- We had fans coming from
Australia, from Canada,

and England, Brazil.

People would put that type
of an effort to come

and see movies, and meet you,

because it connected with them.

- Oh, my God, these strangers
on the internet.

Oh, my God,
how did you do that?

I was like, so, oh, my God,
they could be like, murderers,

and this is crazy, you know.
And we drove down,

because I was like,
I had to see this.

All these docile, sweet people
from around the world,

went to the store,
bought a bunch of stuff,

and then he signed it,
all night long.

And I thought,
this guy is just brilliant.

- So, this is Redbank,
New Jersey.

This has been the home
of my office,

the home of uh,
the comic book store -

Jay and Silent Bob's
Secret Stash.

We wound up moving the base
of operations to Redbank.

View Askew office is still
in Redbank, to this day,

and that's where we send
all the merchandise out of

when people order stuff.

It's crazy that the merchandise
went from like,

"Hey, what are you guys
sellin'" to... this.

♪♪♪

I like making loot,
don't get me wrong.

I got a mercantile instinct,
and stuff,

but more importantly,
there's a thousand of that

thing out in the world,

where somebody's walkin'
through somebody's house

being like "What is this?" "Oh,
that's my Kevin Smith pop."

"Who's Kevin Smith?"

"What? Let me tell you!"

And then, the story goes on.

Some people watch entertainment
just to be entertained,

they go, "Oh, that's fuckin'
cool."

Some people go deeper than that
and become fans,

where they're like,
I watch everything I can

of these people. Oh,
I fuckin' love what they do,

I love the cut of their jib.

Penn and Teller,
back in 1985, I think it was,

when they first did SNL.

That's when they jumped
on my radar,

and instantly,
I fell in love.

A, they were funny;
B, they were subversive.

They were working
in their genre

and poking fun at their genre
at the same time,

which is something that
I would go on to do,

when I had a career.
It just sat well with me.

So much so, that I went to see
"Penn and Teller Get Killed"

and then bought the VHS

from Choice Video
in Middletown.

See my luck.

They gave me a damaged box,
those dirty fucks.

- Wait, wait, let me--

- Creased in there.

- Oh, yeah.
- Kinda mad, but oh, well.

- My name is Penn Jillette -

J-i-l-l-e-t-t-e.

First name is Pen,
like short for Penny,

with two n's, the old
abbreviation for Pennsylvania.

Don't put PA Jillette there,
it's Penn Jillette.

♪♪♪

I'm removed enough from Kevin,
in terms of age,

that it's so flattering
to have somebody

that was aware of stuff I was
doing when they were young.

Of course, I know that.

I mean, after our show every
night, someone mentions it,

but someone who is kind of
as important of a culture.

There's a lot of talk
about what damage you know,

Twitter, and Facebook,

and, and internet itself,

has done to our culture,

and probably gave us, you know,
a, a really shitty president.

But while it gave us that,

it's possible it also
gave us Kevin Smith.

- Kevin has successfully kinda
created his own world,

his own humor,
his own fan base.

You know, you have
to really admire it.

- People were voting with their
dollars for Kevin Smith stuff.

It was very, very, very obvious.

His fans were ready
at that point, were legion.

What he did cultivating that,

you can't understate just
how, how amazing that was.

♪♪♪

1996, 1997,

it was about as dark a time
as you could imagine in comics.

When we approached Kevin,

Kevin was riding high as hell,
right,

as a, as a young director,
young filmmaker,

young writer,

and looking at it
from his perspective, right,

there was a lot to risk there.

And he said yes.

And when he said yes,
and when those books came out,

it changed everything.

He brought a spotlight
to comic books.

He brought excitement
to comic books.

He has been an advocate
for the industry

from his very first day that he
could say something publicly.

Not only saved my career,
and, and Marvel

but contributed to the saving
of comics.

- Kevin has had a great impact
on comic books.

Kevin: When I was growing up,
you knew Stan's voice

even before you ever heard
Stan's voice,

because he would write
in the comic books.

He would editorialize.

And he had such a good time
with it and made you feel

like you were part of
something,

and always treated
his fans insanely well.

He's a salesman,
at the end of the day.

Like, particularly
for Marvel in those eras.

But he taught me
how to be a businessman

and do it with class.

- Almost every comic book
writer and artist,

has great respect for him,

and great love for him.

- Kevin has had a lot of
stories to tell in his life,

a lot of ups and downs.

But one part of his life

has been the resurgence of
Marvel and the comics industry.

- Trust me, true believer.
Trust me.

[Book rustles]

- When I got to
"Entertainment Weekly"

and sort of set up myself
as one of the handful of geeks

that they had working
on that stuff,

especially in the,
in the mid to late 90's,

anytime we would have to do
a story about like,

geek culture, Kevin was
the guy we all talked to,

because he was the filmmaker
who did this stuff.

He was the voice of authority.

♪♪♪

The fact that geek culture
caught up with where he was,

you know, 25 years ago,

we're now fully in that sphere,

in the world that he was always
evangelizing for,

has made him sort of like,
you know, Methuselah.

You know, like, he's the man
on the mountain

who's been dispensing this
wisdom for a long time.

Announcer: Ladies
and gentlemen, Kevin Smith!

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

Kevin: At a certain point,

I, I gave up on the notion
of uh,

Kevin Smith filmmaker,

and you know, he's,
I still make films,

uh, but like, you know,

maybe it's because the critics
were like, "He's no filmmaker,"

I'm like, "All right,
they're right."

But I got to a point
where I'm like,

yeah, but I think I'm gonna be
so much more.

And because of that, I wound up
being myself for a living.

Suddenly, I wasn't just like
oh, he made "Clerks."

I was able to build myself
into the art project.

- I like that Kevin
is setting himself up

as just kind of general
interesting artist,

uh, that spills
in every direction.

- I was aware of Kevin Smith
beyond his movies,

but as an idea, you know.

Here was a filmmaker who,

not only did I know his name
on a poster,

but here was a guy who
was out and he was speaking,

and he was eloquent,
and he was funny,

and he could go on stage
and talk for an hour.

- I could listen to him talk
non-stop all day,

and I think the guy is just
this extraordinary storyteller.

- Because of the movies,
I was forced kind of out front.

I'd bring Scott up with me.

First of all, he was like
my security blanket.

Somebody would say,
"What was the budget?"

and I'd be like,
"Scott, what was the budget?"

And he was the producer,

so he would then lean into the
mic and be like, "$27,575."

And then,
I'd go back to talking.

- The first time we do a Q&A,

you, it's like,
he wasn't where he is now,

but there was something
there already.

- We just basically fed the cat

and didn't let him go near
a box for--

That's why you don't see
that like,

no animals were harmed in this.
[Crowd laughs]

- I was the guy coming in
at zero,

but he was up front
and figuring out

his relationship
to an audience early on.

- The essence of his
incredible gift

for doing that
was instantly apparent.

- First one of the night, dude.

- All right, first question,
what's a Nubian?

I'm sure that's--
- Not for nothin',

but I will do the fuckin' jokes,
here.

[Audience laughs, claps]

- I was raised Catholic
and I was an altar boy.

And as an altar boy, you're
right there with the priest,

where you're the centre
of attention.

I thought when I was a kid,

"Oh, maybe I wanna be a priest,
you know,

like giving the homily and
doing the readings, and stuff."

And then, years later,
I realized

oh, no,
I just wanna be on stage.

And so, you know, that's why
I spend a lot of time

on stages around the world,

because it fills that desire
from childhood.

So, I got a taste of that
in childhood,

up through like,
my teenage years.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

I had tried stand-up once
in my life,

maybe two years prior
to "Clerks."

I was like, one day,
I wonder if I could,

and blah, blah, blah.
I, I think I'm funny,

people do say I'm funny.

And so, one day, I went
to an open mic night

and I told absolutely nobody,

and when I got off stage,
I was pleased.

I didn't kill but I was like,
"You did it!"

One time when we worked
at Quick Stop,

he asked if I could bring
my guitar to a comedy club

and play, I believe it was
"More than Words,"

that Extreme song,
because he had a,

a song parody
he wanted to sing.

I could not figure out
what he was even talking about,

so I didn't know that he had
this, this secret life,

running off and telling jokes
to strangers.

I wouldn't have approved.
[Laughs]

- Well, you get up in front
of an audience

and somebody hands you
a microphone,

you just got that where Kevin
was slightly stepping forward,

like, he was comfortable up
there.

- Over time, I learned the Q&A

was the second bite at
the apple with the audience.

I used to go to colleges,
they'd show a movie of mine,

and then, I'd get up
and talk afterwards,

for like, an hour.

And then, I was like,
why are we watching the movies?

Like, they're here presumably

because they've seen
the movies and stuff,

let's do away with the movies,
just do more Q&A.

The "Evening with Kevin Smith"
DVD,

it kicked off a personal
series.

It also put me on the map
as like, a public speaker.

Suddenly, talking became
something marketable.

- I loved it.
I loved the humor.

- Kevin's so cool.

The stories he tells
are always phenomenal.

- It's been the greatest
night of my entire life.

- That was never part of the
plan, talking for a living,

but it makes sense
that it happened

the way that it did.

- He carved his own path
through uh,

through movie making,

in a way that I don't think
was possible when he started.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

The movies are a conduit
to this moment.

It's the audience telling me
that I did a good job,

and they'd put my,
my work up on the fridge

with a couple magnets.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

George Carlin was the guy

I most wanted to be
when I grew up.

I wanna be smart, and funny,
and curse a lot.

Like, that seems amazing.

What a great person to be.

He's so brutally honest.

He wears his fuckin' truth
on his sleeve.

- What's this documentary for?
Are you gonna do a making of?

- Making of, yeah.

- And then you're gonna do a
making of the documentary.

Isn't there another guy
with a camera?

There's somebody following him.
- Good.

- You gotta have that bullshit.
- He was the first person

who was allowed to curse
in my house.

So, I wasn't supposed
to listen to George Carlin,

but it was a cool thing
for a dad to give his son,

you know, sometimes you see
in movies,

like they share a beer and shit,
that, that was Dad going,

you can handle this,
just don't tell your mother.

And so, getting to work
with him, you know,

I did it on "Dogma"
and it was fun,

and I got to hang out
with him and shit,

you know, that was one thing,

but to do it on "Jersey Girl"

and spend all that time
with him.

To like, give him a meaty role,

that like, he could really
fuckin' like,

show people what he could do.

That was cool, that was like,
payback for like,

you know,
you showed me a way to be.

I stand up stages
after the movie's done

and I try to be funny
because of what you did.

So, thank you,
here's a movie role,

that for some reason,
I know you'd wanna play.

And he did.

Something more than
just jokes to do.

I got to hang out with him
on "Jersey Girl."

Like, that was the best use
of my time that I could imagine.

- Kevin loves to push,

and he loves to forge
new territory,

and he likes to see
where the edges are.

- Excuse me.

[Engine rumbles]

If we took all that stuff,
you know,

which essentially did in
"Jersey Girl."

For him, it might've been
the challenge

of making that movie
was to do it without that.

- Hmm.
[Lighter snicks]

[Clatters on table]

[Inhales]

Some people think "Jersey Girl"
is the one that broke me.

You know the one that made me
what I am today, and stuff.

Um, because people didn't
embrace it the way

I wanted them to, or something.

It was the movie that was
supposed to do very well.

It was designed to be
that kind of movie

that everybody enjoys.

You know,
the first Kevin Smith movie

that wasn't a Kevin Smith movie.

How do you fuckin' sell that?

I wrote the script
for "Jersey Girl"

and I gave it to Jen to read,

and you know, I was like,
"This is my valentine to you."

- Fucking kills off the wife,
in like, you know,

the first 10 minutes.
I'm like, am I supposed to

take this as a compliment
of some sort?

Narrator: Oliver Trinke
was on his way to the top,

'til everything changed.
- [Yells]

- "Jersey Girl," I enjoyed
this film very much.

- Thank you.
- It's very sweet.

It's Ben Affleck, and of course,
Jennifer Lopez is in it.

- Jennifer Lopez, as well.

- Now, you must have been going
nuts when "Gigli" came out.

You had the next film
with them in it.

Were you just going, "Oh, my
God, I'm gonna shoot myself!"

- I'm sorry, what movie now?
- [Laughter]

- We got hit a little bit
by the blowback of Bennifer,

and so, that became not
just like,

oh, they're famous people,
but like,

people lost their shit.

Reporter: In 2002,

the twosome dubbed Bennifer,
exploded.

- Paparazzi would pop out
of like,

the bushes and shit like that,
and get right up.

They were in a horse
and carriage,

and just, bam, bam, bam, bam,
bam, bam.

- With Ben and Jennifer,
and all the publicity

and all the rest of it
flying around it,

it became really distracting
to the, to the process.

- Nobody wants to see it
because they think

it's the same thing as "Gigli"
and Kevin,

he began to make all these
self-deprecating jokes.

- Might've heard already, she
dies very early on in the movie.

- Okay, so Ben plays a widower.
- Ben plays a widower,

and uh, it was something
we tried to keep very quiet

for a long time.
And then, after "Gigli"

you know, it became
a marketing hook where,

we almost wanted to write it
on the poster, you know.

[Audience laughs]

"Jersey Girl" don't worry,
she's dead in the first 15.

[Audience laughs]

- That angel girl, Raquel,
so good,

so perfectly cast,
just genius.

- Your name is Raquel Castro?
- Yes.

You are the Jersey Girl
of "Jersey Girl?"

- Yes.
I was like, this little like,

tiny Puerto Rican-Italian
seven-year-old that like,

told everybody what to do,
'cause Kevin would be smoking,

uh, Ben would be smoking,

George would be cursing,

and I'd be yelling at them all.

- First movie you've
ever been in?
- Yes.

I'll never forget
the quality of work

that I got to do with him,
it's irreplaceable.

- Who could dislike that movie
that was a little valentine

about father-daughter love?

- I wish it had done better
because I-I wonder

what other avenues
he would've made,

because it seemed to kinda like,

okay, I'm not doing anything
like that, ever again.

- Before we started making
"Jersey Girl"

or in the middle of it, we'd
been working pretty non-stop,

and I was like, I'm gonna take
a year off and go travel.

It was a good break for me.

And then he brought up
the sequel.

♪♪♪

When he brought it up
at first, I was like,

I was like,
what's that gonna be?

Like, how do you make,
you know?

It's not like "Lethal Weapon"
and someone's like,

"We're gonna make 'Lethal
Weapon 2.'" You're like,

"Well, what the fuck's
that gonna be?"

And then I read the script
and I really liked it.

- "Clerks II" is my favorite
movie of mine

that I've ever made, um,

because I loved the journey
that the characters go on.

- Where "Clerks II" succeeds is
by trying to be its own thing.

Day 1.

- This is Day 1.

♪♪♪

The cool thing is Kevin
always writes

to the newer version of Jay.

He got a little less obnoxious.

Where I was younger,

I used to get myself in trouble
all the time.

Like, I'd pull my ball bag out,
and someone would be like,

"What are you doin?"
Now, it's like, I'd be like,

"Oh, this guy doesn't
wanna see my ball bag."

♪♪♪

- We lived at a very
inexpensive Days Inn motel

that was right next to the set.

- We went from room to room.

Toilet papered Jay's room,
he got real mad.

Lots and lots of fun.

- It was a really fun movie
to make. It was really fun.

- That was pure joy.

I loved making "Clerks II."

I wish they could all be
like "Clerks II."

♪♪♪

That's picture wrap
on "Clerks II!"

[Cheering, applause]

My favorite moment that
I've ever put on film,

and the one that's kind
of the most telling

and the one that means
the most to me,

is in ""Clerks II"

where I learned who I was
through the art,

and that's what
you're supposed to do.

Dante and Randall are in jail,
and he says like,

"What would the great
Randall Graves do,

if he was the master
of his own destiny?"

He gets right
in his fuckin' face,

all defiant as fuck,
and he goes,

"I'd buy the Quick Stop
and reopen it myself!"

- And he, in that moment,
is laid naked and bare.

The character who has um,
worn on his sleeve

this entire journey.

His cynicism,

his disappointment
with the world.

For one magic moment,
shows you his fuckin' heart

and shows it to the guy
least likely.

It changes everything.

That scene is a fucking
metaphor.

That scene tells the story
of my life.

The day I realized that like,

you can just buy the Quick Stop
and reopen it yourself,

that's how you'd be happiest.

That was me going like,

"I'm never going to be

who other cats
would like me to be."

The only reason that you
liked me in the first place

is because I was me.

So, I'm gonna go and be me

for the rest of my life now.

♪♪♪

[Applause and cheering]
- Yeah!

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Applause]

- There was "Clerks II"
which was, what I like to call,

the last good time,

and then "Zack and Miri"
which was a much harder shoot.

[Bell tolls,
tires crunch, honking]

[Tires squeal, crash!]

- It was a very tough shoot,
"Zack and Miri."

I blame the winter,
[chuckles]

at the top of the things that
went wrong in Pittsburgh.

- Fightin' the weather
a little bit.

We want it to look really cold.

You can see my breath right now,
so everybody assumes it is.

- "Zack and Miri Make a Porno,"

that was me going, oh shit,

Apatow movies are making movies
and Apatow movies

are Kevin Smith movies
that are well made.

So, maybe I can go back and
make a Kevin Smith movie,

now that Judd Apatow
has made that popular.

- Apatow had,

you know, monetized
and mainstreamed,

you know, whatever the Kevin
Smith breakthrough had been.

- I think "Zack and Miri" is
very representative of him,

because it's like,
this is a movie about a bunch

of fucking blue collar people
in Pittsburgh, shooting pornos.

It has this deep,
romantic love story,

and then there's somebody like,

taking a face full
of fucking shit.

- "Zack and Miri" worked out,

it just didn't work out
the way I had hoped.

I was told like, this is it,

this is the one that makes
a hundred million bucks.

- I am bummed out that that
movie didn't do as well,

because I think it deserved
to do better.

- The notion of "Zack and Miri"

not making a hundred million
bucks,

when I had the guy
from "Knocked Up,"

who just, you know, that made
over a hundred million bucks,

or more.

Um, that, that killed.

That might've broken my brain.

[Machine rumble]

[Loud thuds]

My midlife crisis kicked in,
I think, at that point.

Seth Rogan,
he was fucking fantastic.

I'll never regret anything
I've ever made,

but I'll especially never
regret "Zack and Miri"

because just sitting on set

and watching him work
was so much fucking fun.

- I was pissed that Seth Rogan
introduced him to pot.

I was like, "Fuck!

What did you do that for?

Mother--"

You know, because I thought
that it was gonna hurt

Kevin's writing.

♪♪♪

- Wake up in the morning,

put a little shake
on that plate,

then it's, it's shake and bake,
my friend. Like...

[Lighter snicks]

[Inhales sharply]

Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!

[Exhales sharply]

Let's take on the world, man.

Man: He's been stoned
every day since 2008.

Every day since 2008.
- That can't be possible.

- That's absolutely true.
That can't be possible.

- I see the--
- Nobody does the same thing

every day, for 10 years.
Nobody.

This isn't like,
we're not like,

not staging an intervention
via video, are we?

Both: [Laugh]

- Here's the thing, you know,

I'll, I guess,
I'll always wonder,

and I don't need an answer,

so if you figure it out,
don't tell me.

Um, was weed a help,

or did weed hurt

these last few years
of my career?

Uh, you'll find no shortage
of people on the internet

that will point to weed as like
where they lost interest.

But here's what I always
ask myself,

"How much did you do in
the first half of your career?

Like, you made movies and
you wrote some comic books.

What have you done in the
second half of your career?"

And it's all over
the fucking map,

and it's me doing everything
that I've never

imagined I'd wind up doing,

and stuff like that.

And that, you know,
from "Zack and Miri" forward,

weed has been a factor
in all of that.

That one hurt the most

of, of anything that didn't
live up to an expectation.

Broke me so much
that the next movie,

I was open to suggestion

and I wound up directing
somebody else's script

at, at Warner Brothers.
I wound up doing "Cop Out."

And so, as a cure for,
you know,

my near nervous breakdown

at the failure
of "Zack and Miri"

I got the, you know,
cure all of Bruce Willis.

There was a period where like,
it was, those were dark days.

Very dark days.

♪♪♪

- After "Zack and Miri
Make a Porno"

I... I take another hiatus.

I just think I need to try
some stuff, you know,

like, writing and directing.

- Scott didn't go
to Vancouver Film School

looking to be my producer,

he wanted to be a filmmaker
himself.

And then, instead, spent like,

a good part of his 20's
and 30's making my stuff.

- Kevin was more driven
than I was,

especially in those early,
early years.

You know, did "Clerks"
and then "Mallrats,"

and then with "Chasing Amy"
it was like,

there was thing of like,
he, he wasn't gonna stop.

- "Chasing Amy" we were sitting
in the editing room.

Scott goes like, you know,

"I think after this movie,
I'm gonna get out of film."

And I'm like, "What?!"

- I get so drained at the end
of the movies sometime

that I would just be really
emotional, and I was like,

I can't do this anymore.

- It broke my heart
because I'm like,

what, I couldn't do this
without you.

You know, fucking Scott
was my everything, my battery.

He dreamed my dreams for me.

That's the most beautiful thing

that anyone could do
for another human being,

and he did it while putting
his to the side.

♪♪♪

At a certain point,
I had to be like,

you know,
Scott needs to be Scott

and do what Scott wanted to,

and so, I went from like,

"Scott, we're doing these
things," to giving Scott space.

- We, we'd go to what we need,

and I just needed to,
I needed to leave.

I left and started
writing scripts,

and started producing
documentaries,

I started editing
documentaries.

I had always sort of wanted
to get into animation.

- Scott kinda went off
on his journey,

which culminated with him
directing like,

a billion dollar fucking
cartoon movie.

- Working with Kevin
gave me that opportunity.

I got to figure out kinda
what I wanted to do,

and see the world,

um, all at the same time.

♪♪♪

- After that, we never made
a movie together again.

But it didn't seem like

the end of the world or, or,

you know, like what the fuck,

because we had the podcast.

Before Scott went off,
Smodcast happened,

and I always like to think
of that as Scott's like,

last gift before he went off
to be himself.

Like, we created, you know,
the cocktail baby.

The thing that will
probably sustain me,

at least on a personal level,

for the rest of my life.

Welcome to Smodcast,
I'm Kevin Smith.

- Scott Mosier.

- All right, as established
last week, Scott's back,

so enough with the fuckin'
ceremony, back to work.

♪♪♪

Here's the part of the story

where everybody goes, oh.

All of those movies
were either bought,

or financed by Harvey Weinstein.

All I ever knew about him,

working at Miramax
and the Weinstein Company,

was he cheated on his wife.

That was it.

Everybody seemed to know
he was a philanderer.

And in the pages
of "The New York Times"

I learned about a guy
that I had no idea existed,

at all, whatsoever.

You know,
if somebody told me like,

everything that you did

over the last 25 years
and stuff,

you're gonna do,
they laid out my next 25 years,

and they were like,
but in order for that to happen,

this shit's gonna happen to,

this horrible shit's gonna
happen to other people,

I wouldn't have taken
the fuckin' journey.

It's not worth it.

So, I like,

gave all my future royalties,

all my royalties that I get,

uh, to Women in Film.

♪♪♪

- Come on!
[Cocks gun]

[Gunshots pop]
- [Yelling]

[Gunshots pop repeatedly]

- You know,

Meryl Streep
is doing "Mamma Mia!"

Barbra Streisand is doing
"The Fockers,"

and I get to "Red State."

I loved "Red State."

- God loves you.

God loves everybody.

[Gun fires repeatedly]

- And he was like,
I'm doing a,

a religious movie,

I was just like, "Oh, fuck.

Oh, it's gonna be 'Dogma'
all over again."

- You have to take chances.
You know,

you can't just do the same
thing over and over again.

- I was really impressed
with "Red State."

- This was well done.

- He made a horror film.

- If you'd seen his films
leading up to that point,

you wouldn't have seen
that coming.

- That it was fascinating,
that it was a fascinating turn.

- I thought he did a great job
at, at building tension,

and working within that genre,

and understanding the genre,
and like,

kind of using it
to surprise the audience

in terms of disrupt
their expectations.

The crazy thing about
"Red State"

was that first screening,
uh, in Park City.

Reporter: Sundance
controversial director,

Kevin Smith, made a scene
outside the premiere

of his new horror film,
"Red State."

Smith used outrageous signs
to steal attention away

from a protest by the
Westborough Baptist Church.

That group is well-known for
picketing military funerals,

and its extreme
anti-gay message.

- Protestors and Kevin's uh,

I think, not-so-great idea,

to sort of fuck with the,

the acquisitions uh, world.

- A lot of people were angry
with kind of, the whole,

it's you know,
this is for distribution,

well, I'm gonna distribute
it myself.

You could feel in the room,
people were pissed off,
you know.

- It resulted in me standing
on a stage in Sundance,

and going like,
"Come see an auction!"

- It was the film
that was for sale

and everyone was treating it

like this hot acquisitions
title.

- And then, when everybody
who could possibly buy it,

all the business people
were gathered in,

I was like, "Lock the doors.

Light it on fire!

Let's burn this fucker
to the ground!"

I went crazy a little bit.

- I'm going to open up
the bidding on "Red State."

[Crowd laughs]
- I bid $20.

- [Gavel thuds] Sold.
- Thank you.

- Kinda gives them all like,
the fuck you, you know,

I'm gonna do this on my own.

- Smodcast Pictures
is gonna take

"Red State" out on the road.

Uh, just kinda the way

that they used to do
with the movies.

Like, "Gone with the Wind"
would go play somewhere

for a week, a month,
pack up, go someplace else,

play it there, as well.

Pack up, leave. "Roadshow."

We're gonna do the same thing
with "Red State."

It's called the Red State
USA Tour.

- I actually love the fact
that he had that idea

to kinda do the distribution
the way he did it,

with this sort of like,
going around with it.

- It's pretty great how he did
"Red State" and all of that.

Just brilliant and wonderful.

I think that's his best.
I-I love that.

Besides being a great movie,
also it was just a,

it wasn't like that kind of uh,
Soderbergh jive

of this is a new way to put
out a movie, and it isn't.

You know, a fine movie,

but I think the way Kevin
does it really is different.

- So, I rented a bus
and I went to do some gigs,

Q&A gigs, and I loved it!

I was alone on the bus, though.

I was like,
this would be so much better

if I was hanging out with Scott.

Like, if me and Scott had
a band,

and we were like,
The Partridge Family.

♪♪♪

[Laughter]

- It was kinda cool.

We got on a bus and did
the first Smodcast tour.

After doing Smodcast for like,
two fuckin' years.

From the jump, it was just,

let's just fuckin'
have the conversations

that we always fuckin' have
in the car,

or fuckin' while we're doing
this,

or while we were fucking
hanging out in film school,

let's just put a microphone
on it.

And that was revolutionary,
at least for me,

because nobody-nobody
ever tells you

to hold on to somebody's voice.

My father's voice,
I don't quite have anymore.

It's been, what,
13, 14, 15 years

since he's been gone.

You wanna get to the essence
of a human being,

core of who they are?

You wanna understand
who they were,

if they're no longer here
anymore?

Listen to a conversation
they have.

Uh, that's what it is.
We just put conversate--

mics on the conversations.

We used to live in a world
where technology was expensive,

so the idea of like,
I'm gonna rent out a studio

and just talk to myself,
of course, that seems lunacy.

But you know we don't live
in that world anymore.

You can literally open this up,

and there's your fuckin'
studio.

It helped that I had
the movies, though,

because it's one thing
to talk the talk,

but clearly,
I could walk the walk.

And whether or not
you liked the movies,

it's like, you couldn't deny,
he made movies,

and they had movie stars in 'em,
and they had budgets,

and they played in movie
theaters,

and stuff like that.

So, that was good
for everything else.

Like on "Fatman on Batman,"
the podcast,

I just talk about like,
oh, I saw "The Avengers".

♪♪♪

- For the first year
of the podcast,

it was audio only.

It was, it was my voice
and Kevin's voice,

and nobody knew for better
or worse,

who I was, where I came from,

or what I looked like.

And so, Kev's fan base,

while almost entirely made
of lovely, lovely people,

are do not, by and large,
look like me.

And so, then when we put
cameras up,

there was like,
a half beat of like,

three or four weeks,
where it was like,

Marc is Black? Huh!

Now understand why I talk
about things like diversity

and inclusion,
and they were just like,

I guess this is a really
woke white guy.

And for every one person
that's like,

"I don't care!
Donald Trump forever!"

There is another 100 people
like, "You know what, dude,

I just never thought
about it that way.

I'm, I'm coming to the world
differently

because we talked."

And we talked about it
on our recent podcast.

I'm like, I know you don't
think that you are some

like beacon for diversity,

but in the podcast that you do,

like, you've got me standing
next to you,

you've got Malcolm standing
next to you,

you're exposing people
to influences

they never would have had
ordinarily.

You're broadening horizons.

- Whenever I see young people,
I'm always baffled.

Chances are, it has very little
to do with the old stuff,

and has everything to do
with the new stuff.

They're podcast fans.

I always figure the podcasts
were my way

to shine a light on the people

that I thought were like,
talented,

you know, and never mind me,
here are my fucking friends.

Here's Brian and Walter.

♪♪♪

- So out of everything
that I've done,

Tell 'em Steve-Dave is still
my favorite, by far.

- Doing Tell 'em Steve-Dave

and turning it into like,
you know, that we made movies,

and we made albums.

- When they spun off Tell 'em
Steve-Dave out of Smodcast,

that made me feel really smart,

'cause I'm like, right on,

I knew those boys were funny
and original.

What I didn't know was

I was paving the way
for our eventual TV show.

Without Tell 'em Steve-Dave,

you don't get
to "Comic Book Men."

- I had always talked to Kev
about like,

I would love to run
a comic book store;

I think it would be,
how awesome would it be

to go to work every day
and turn the key,

and for the next seven hours,
just sell comics?

And I guess that resonated
with him.

He was like, "I'm gonna buy
that comic book store

and I want you to run it."

♪♪♪

- This is Jay and Silent Bob's
Secret Stash -

what I like to think of,
and what I've, many times,

claimed as the world's most
famous comic book store.

This place is still thriving.

Now, it helped that we had
a TV show,

but the only reason we had
a TV show is

because Walter built a really
solid, interesting business.

- This is really the best
decision I ever made.

- What comes out
of the podcasting

is endless potential -
the TV show, touring,

then the hockey.

You're the new son
of Brantford, now.

- I know. I wanna see
the Brian Johnson Parkway.

Fuck this Wayne Gretzky shit.

- I'm from New Jersey,
that's where I came from

to get up here this weekend.

We're up in Brantford, Ontario,
playin' hockey.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- We're in Brantford
for the 12th annual

Walter Gretzky street
hockey tournament,

and this is the 10th official
year that the VASHL League

has been playing in this
tournament.

VASHL stands for View Askew
Street Hockey League.

- View Askew Street Hockey
League is a group

of Kevin Smith fans.

- It's all around him,
and everything he does,

that's the basis
of our community.

He will always be something

that we build the league
around.

- We grew now to 14 teams
over the past 10 years.

We just keep growin'
and growin'.

[Hockey arena music]

- The community has let him do

most of the things
he's wanted to do,

because he was able to energize
and tap into that community.

- If film was the only thing
I did,

I'd be done,

I'd be out of this business
a long time ago.

But because I could do
other things,

because I could be like well,
I'm gonna go talk for a while.

- I think that sustained him

in times when film
had failed him.

Gonna podcast a lot,
and you know what,

podcast is leading me
back into movies.

- If you ask people uh,
who know film

and know that I've been
a part of the film community,

they'd probably tell you that

the earliest work of mine
is the best.

I wasn't even confident
in my voice at that point.

It's weird, to me,
now I'm like,

oh, I'm confident enough
in my voice and my material,

that even if it's bat shit
fuckin' crazy,

I'm gonna make it work.
Watch this. "Tusk."

- [Screams loudly]

- My name's Justin Long.
My name's Justin Long.

I'm Justin Long.
Hi, my name's Justin Long.

Too casual.

I'm Justin Long. [Laughs]

♪♪♪

I get a lot of people who say
versions of this,

which is like a dude,

I saw "Tusk." What the fuck?

♪ Build me a boat

- My parents hated that.

My Mom, she went even beyond
like, don't work with him.

She was like, don't go near
that guy. [Laughs]

I did tell Kevin that,
I was like,

my Mom doesn't want me
hanging out with you.

We can't play together.

I'm such a fan of his that
like,

I-I was, I was like,
I would've done it,

even if it was, as I did.

[Screams]
[Tusk pierce, man grunts]

I would've done it if it
was a human walrus movie.

We were talking about it,
and it was great,

and we were like,
getting into it,

and getting into the weeds,
and the next day,

later that night, I was like,

I have no idea
what we talked about.

Uh, and what a waste of time.

It was fun,
but a waste of time,

because Kevin wasn't writing it
down or recording it.

And I don't know if it was
the next day, or like,

maybe two days later,
he sent me a script

that so like, beautifully,

so eloquently incorporated all
the things that we talked about

when we were, I thought,
out of our minds,

but I guess I was just,
I was the only one out of,

out of my mind.
Um, and he did it like that.

People are like, "Well, maybe
you shouldn't have smoked

when you wrote that movie.

Maybe next time,
do that sober." Um...

- You couldn't do that sober.
- You can't, yeah.

- Some people are like,
"Weed ruined his filmmaking,"

or whatever. Weed brought me
back to filmmaking.

I quit like, after "Red State"
I was like, oh, fuck it,

and took three years off.

And then it was sittin' around
in this very room

recording a podcast,

a ridiculous episode
of Smodcast.

Smodcast 259.

And I was kept in companionship
with a walrus,

whom I named Gregory.

[Laughing]

- Good, good, right.

- That led to "Tusk"

what for me, is the defining
moment of my career.

For most other people
it's just like,

"Well, that was the beginning
of the end."

- I tend to go along
with the flow

because things generally
work out.

Like, it's sort of a tried
and true method

where he's like,

"Okay, well, I'm gonna make
a movie

about a fuckin' walrus."

I'm like, "All right."

- "Tusk" I mean, I love, I mean,
it was just so fuckin' bizarre.

- It is like the best episode

of "Tales from the Dark Side"
I've ever seen.

I was like, I loved it.
How the monster looked.

Man, I was so into it.

- It's not for everyone,
but it's,

but I love that it exists.

Kevin: Thanks for being here on
day one of "Tusk" everybody.

[Applause]

"Tusk" to me,

is the closest I ever came
to doing "Clerks" again.

I wasn't thinkin'
about like fuckin like,

oh, my God, what if people
react to this poorly?

I was just like,
I just gotta see it.

And that's how "Clerks"
was made.

- Yeah, the kids here at
the convenience store

are tellin' me that it's
aboot two hours away.

- I hate American guys.

- Ahhhh!

This is,
she doesn't do this a lot.

Man: Really?

- You're really capturing like,
gold right now.

Man: This is the gold
right now?

- Hi! Whenever friends come
over, I'm always like,

uh, before you come in,

I just want you to know
that this is here,

uh, prepare yourself.

I don't know if when I look
at it, I see myself.

I can't really tell.

♪♪♪

Ladies and gentlemen,

introducing my Dad,
Kevin Smith.

[Crowd cheers and applauds]

["Pulp Fiction"
theme song plays]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- I'm such a fan of Tarantino,

and when I put that up,
my Dad,

I felt like he was jealous.
[Laughs]

'Cause he was like,
"You know like 'Clerks'

came out around that time,
right?"

It's like, "Do you, do you
want me to put

a 'Clerks' poster on my wall?

Like, what do you want from me?

Like, stop getting jealous."

So many of the things that
I listen to, or watch,

or the people I admire were,

were during that time
that "Clerks" was made.

[Audience applauds]

- You have never seen "Clerks"
up until now,

is that correct?
- Never.

- All right, let's talk
about this movie.

- So, it was weird to see how
my dad contributed to that time.

But it was really cool, like--

I've had so many people
tell me that

that movie has changed their
life, and I'm always like,

"Okay, whatever,"

but then it really makes,
it really makes sense.

- What's your favorite
of your dad's movies?

- "Yoga Hosers,"

I'm gonna say "Yoga Hosers."

♪♪♪

It was like, oh, you wanna act,

here's a movie written for you.

That was a really beautiful
thing

to be able to have
my first lead role

working with my dad
and my best friend.

- Warrior Three! Ah!

- It's like "Clerks" but with
two 15-year-old girls

and the only difference is that

basically we found out that
there's a dormant Nazi

living under our convenience
store,

and that he has all these
little mini um,

Nazis made of bratwurst

that are kind of taking
over our store,

and we have to fight them
to uh,

basically save the world.
[Laughs]

- It's the weirdest thing
you're probably ever gonna see?

It's so fucking bizarre,

but I'm honored.

- Yeah!
- Oh, my God!

[Indistinct]

- Kevin's so much fun,
and he's so sweet,

and he's so um, uplifting,

that I feel like his whole
set has that same energy.

[Both scream]

- You piece of shit!

- [Laughs] Cut!
- Cut.

- That's my girl.

You remember ever going
to a Q&A here,

or any of the Hall H's?

- I, unfortunately,
do remember uh,

last year,
I came for a second

and you were talking
about Batman,

and I was like, this is,
this is cool,

I'll come and watch him
all the time.

And then, you started
talking about

you and mom having sex.
[Audience laughs]

- Kevin Smith is the man!

He is a God among nerds!

- Who doesn't know
who Kevin Smith is?

- He's good! Good director,
big nerd.

I like him.
- I love Kevin Smith.

- I'm a big comic book nerd,
so, I can relate.

- Uh, love him. Awesome, dude.

- He continues to be
a great dude.

He's an inspiration to artists.
Beacon of hope, man,

who needs Superman?
I got Kevin Smith.

Kevin: This is Mecca for
any pop culture enthusiast,

but it's grown
well beyond comic books.

I've been coming to this show
since 1995.

♪♪♪

I love coming to San Diego
Comic Con.

I used to come as just
a passionate enthusiast,

somebody who likes the culture.

Now, I come with IMDB

and I interview people.

♪♪♪

- [Indistinct]
- Yeah, totally.

- Well done.
Thank you. See ya later.

- Nice seeing you.
- Thanks.

Nice seeing you, Nelson.
See you next year.

- Yes, sir. Next year, it is!

- Hi, Kevin!
- Bye, bye!

[Cheering, indistinct chatter]

- Thank you so much!
- Bye, bye!

- Off to the next thing, man.

Hall H.

First thing, go smoke a joint,
then Hall H.

Whenever you hear
about the Comic Con,

you're hearing about things
that happened at Hall H.

It's where pop culture
comes to unveil

what's gonna happen to you
for the next year.

Man: It is my pleasure
to bring out Kevin Smith.

[Audience applauds and cheers]

♪♪♪

Now, I just wanna be
Kevin Smith.

I wanna be the Kevin Smithiest
Kevin Smith I could fuckin' be,

from now until the end of time,

because that's all
I'll have going for me.

That's all I've ever
had going for me,

and that's all they'll remember
about me when I'm gone.

They'll remember the Kevin
Smithiest moments of it all.

[Audience applauds]

♪♪♪

[Door slams shut]

♪♪♪

[Sirens wail in the distance]

♪♪♪

[Sirens wail]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

- Hey, kids.

Reporter: Really close call
for director

and writer, Kevin Smith.

Reporter: He suffered a massive
heart attack last night.

He's already posting on social
media about it.

- It's me, and I'm fine.
Kinda.

I had a heart attack,
a massive heart attack,

and very nearly died.

I am terrified of dying,

and always have been,

up until when I almost died.

[Engine roars]

At the end of the show,
"Silent but Deadly,"

you know, I'm tellin' people
like, live your dreams,

go out and you know,

say, say what you wanna say,
you know uh,

before you leave this world,

and then I literally got off
stage and almost fuckin' died.

Over the course of your life,

you've listened to people
talk on the radio,

or seen people talk on TV,
and you've said to yourself,

or thought to yourself,
"I'm smarter than these people,

I'm funnier than this person."

You're probably thinking
that shit right now.

[Audience laughs]

And you're probably right, man,
but nobody's gonna know

unless you kinda go out there
and express yourself

in some way, shape, or form.

That's where I almost died.
Could you imagine

if at the end of the day,

like, that's,
that's where my life ended?

♪♪♪

They put me in the ambulance;
they took me to the hospital,

brought me into the ER,

and Dr. Ladenon, he goes,
okay, well,

"Pain, give me an idea,

0 to 10, how much pain
are you in right now?"

And I said, "Negative three."

And he goes, "Boy, you're doin'
this all wrong, man.

That's not the way you're
supposed to feel

when you're having
a massive heart attack."

All of a sudden, I was hit
with the information like,

I'm having a heart attack.
Like, it's impossible.

No, clearly, no.
He's, this guy's an idiot.

He's gonna find out that I'm
just way too high right now.

- I got a call saying you need,
you know,

Kevin's in the hospital.

I almost fainted
when I got there,

because one of the first
questions that they ask is,

do you know if he has a will?

So, I thought that he had died.

- I was upset because you,
but then,

I was upset too because
your wife was there,

and she was hysterical.

- So, I sort of collapsed
into a chair.

- What if they came out
and said this happened?

Like, I don't if I, if like,
my brain could handle it.

Like, literally, it's dramatic,
but I feel like I couldn't--

- What if a doctor came out
and was like,

"He died,
and you didn't save him!"

[Laughs]
- I'd be like,

"It's not my fault!"

- Jay wasn't there
for Silent Bob!

- What if I like, push him out
of the way, I was like,

"But I can save him!"
I go in,

I just put your dick
in my mouth, I'm like...

- That might've pulled me
out of the heart attack.

- Yeah, you're like,
"The light!"

- "What's goin', what the!"

- I wait to make sure
he gets out of,

you know, the surgery,

look at him, everything's okay.

- He's alive, you know,

so I was like, okay. I'm like,
now I can move forward.

- Ugh, [chuckles]

that heart attack scared
the hell outta everybody.

- As soon as I got to a place
where they're like,

"All right, you recover here."

I was like, "And now,
it's time to alert the world."

And so, I Instagrammed
and Tweeted,

because that seemed
like the easiest,

quickest way to disseminate
the information.

- I will admit,
I will admit that I did go

to Instagram before calling.

- It made me feel a lot better
that he was posting things.

- When I saw him posting photos
from the hospital,

or whatever, I was like,
Kevin's all right.

- Like, I started thinking
about my life

and how lucky I was,
and all the cool shit I did.

I thought about my parents.

- It's like, 3:00,
and I looked, and I said,

wonder why he's calling me,

something must be wrong
with Harley. So, I said,

"Kevin, why are you calling me
at 3:00 in the morning,

what's the matter?"
And he said,

"Well, you and I
are the same now, Mom."

And I go, "What do you mean,
we're the same?"

He said, "Well,
I just had an LAD put in

because I almost died;
I had an hour to live."

I go, "Kevin, that's a terrible
joke at 3:00 in the morning."

You know, 'cause that's
what happened to me.

- I was like, "Oh, my God, I
actually got to do that thing,

like I got to be a parent
as well."

It wasn't just me, you know,

"Oh, I had a great job."
I had a personal life, as well.

- Well, his heart attack
was the worst thing

that has ever happened to me.

- I felt a little bit
like Mighty Mouse,

you know, the call kind
of went out far and wide to,

on Twitter.
People just saying,

"Why don't you save Kevin
Smith's life?"

I figured, ah, what the hell.

So, I got in touch with him
and said, you know um,

there are ways that you can um,
you can not die from this.

I don't really care very much

whether it's my exact system,
which of course,

is completely correct,
or whether it's Weight Watchers,

or whatever it's gonna be,

um, I just wanted his
commitment to be unbelievable.

Just, the same
as making a movie.

And I love the fact
that his daughter is vegan.

- I have been trying to get my
Dad to go vegan for so long,

and his doctor has been like,
you don't need to go vegan.

I mean, I am thankful he saved
his life, but I'm also like,

how could you,
how could you say this?

And it just, oh, my God,
it was so frustrating to me,

and it still frustrates me
so much.

But thankfully my Dad
did listen to me

and not, not his doctor.

- That was the thing that came
from the heart attack.

Like, it never would've
happened otherwise.

Fear of fucking dying

like, made me go, okay,
I'm gonna,

I'm gonna commit
to losing weight.

- And the fact of the matter
is, he lost a,

an awful lot of weight.

And um,

that's not only good for him,

but it's really good
because a lot of health stuff,

even on the positive side,

follows the patterns
of contagion.

Lives will be prolonged,

very likely by Kevin Smith.

- He's lost 50 pounds,
and it's so crazy,

and once he did lose 50 pounds,
I was like,

you should go to your doctor
and let him know

and let him know that it
was the vegan diet. [Laughs]

- The heart attack saved my
life in many fuckin' ways.

Part of the journey is the end,

so, we're at the end and stuff,

and I was okay.
I was at peace.

And then, all of a sudden,
I was like, "Wait a second,

oh, my God, if I die tonight,

'Yoga Hosers' is the last movie
I ever made.

Fuck! That's not
what to go out on."

I told the doc, I was like,
"You gotta save my life,

because I wanna make 'Jay
and Silent Bob Reboot,'"

and he goes, "There's better
reasons to save your life."

♪♪♪

- February 26,

was when we started the flick,

on the anniversary
of my heart attack,

as a big fuck you to death.

The original joke is like,

what if I just made the exact
same movie over again,

and see if anybody fuckin'
noticed,

'cause that's like,
we're in reboot culture.

The idea is you could get away
with that fuckin' sorta thing.

Jay: We got three days
to get to Hollywood

and stop this reboot
from ever happening.

- I'd call up people
and be like,

"Hey, man, you wanna
come down to New Orleans

and be in the movie?"
They'd be like,

"I don't know, New Orleans
is far." I'd be like,

"You do remember I almost
fucking died, right?"

♪♪♪

- One of the most common things
people still say to me,

in my life, as I go around
on the streets,

is that I was the bomb
in Phantoms, yo,

which is a line that Jay
had in an earlier movie,

and it haunts me.

- Affleck, you're the bomb
in Phantoms, yo!

- I don't know why
they're still so appealing.

I wish they weren't.

I wish I didn't have
to hear that so much,

but I do, that's just part
of my cross to bear.

- Word, bitch.
Phantoms like a mall, fucker!

- Kevin was the first person
to give me, to offer me like,

a lead role, you know,

to sort of like believe in me
for a movie

that was actually gonna be
distributed,

that someone was gonna do,

and really leveraged a lot
of his personal credibility.

It was the first time I really
felt like a director,

you know, really believed in me
and took a chance on me,

and I've always been grateful
to him for that.

- In the 90's when Ben
was doing all these movies

with Kevin, like,
I'd just try to get in them,

any way I could.

And then, after Kevin executive
produced "Good Will Hunting"

I remember we were on the set
of "Good Will Hunting"

and Kevin offered me Loki,

so it was the first time
he offered me a real,

a real job, a big job.

- Lion face! Ah!
- Lemon face. Ooh!

- I have no idea what
Jay and Silent Bob,

I didn't have any idea
what Jay was doing when,

when I was hangin' out with him.

- What are we gonna do?

- Jackie?
- Yeah?

- It's hunting season.

[Gun blasts]

Despite their best efforts,
they couldn't help growing up,

and, and gaining wisdom,
and deepening.

And like, you see that
in Jay's performance.

- I just found out
I have a kid,

but I don't know
how to be a father.

- You know,
Jay and Bob movies can be

just like sort of broad,
or funnier, or slapsticky,

or like, dick and fart jokes,
you know.

All that belies a sort of
a deep feeling from Kevin;

he's got a lot of heart.
That comes out in his writing,

so I think it was natural
that he would write about

having children,
since obviously

he's done such a great job uh,
raising his own.

- I got to work
with the kid again.

It was really sweet
because the kid had gone off

to work with Quentin Tarantino.

She got a part as one
of the Manson kids

in "Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood."

That was great for us,

on any number of levels.

Number one, she steps on
to our set with confidence,

not like, my father's the only
person that fucking hires me.

You know what I'm saying, she
walked onto a set coming off,

almost like, you know,

"I just came from a real
director's set!"

You know, just with authority,
with pride,

and shit like that.

- Yo, meth heads,
let's do this!

I'm Jay, and this is hetero
life mate, Silent Bob!

- It's my whole life,
it's my big old open,

broken heart, you know,
with fuckin' a stent in it,

and shit like that,
projected for the audience.

[Audience cheers]

Jay and I took the movie
on tour.

While we'd go intro,
Jay would go backstage

and play fuckin' Fortnite,

you know,
while the movie's playing.

But I'd sit there
with the audience, man,

and just like, soak it up.

I look out in the audience
and a good section of it

are a bunch of teenagers.

I'd be like, "What fuckin'
irresponsible parent

let somebody like you
watch movies at age eight?"

And then, a proud parent
will stand up and be like,

"I'm that parent." Then, I see
my old man in the audience,

like, for one brief
shining moment,

like, same fucking thing.

[Audience applauds]

♪♪♪

[Audience cheers and applauds]

[Chanting] Kevin! Kevin! Jay!

My old man took me,
and my Mom,

my brother and sister
in Virginia,

to the courtyard, 1979,

because I was like, the
"Star Wars" footprint is here.

There was Darth Vader,
and C3P0 and R2D2,

and he knew that I liked
Hollywood and shit.

So, the old man was like,
maybe one day, you'll be here.

And then, 40 years later.

Ben: They've been hangin'
around the Quick Stop

for 25 years, but today,

Jay and Silent Bob
start hangin' around

the TCL Chinese Theater
Courtyard forever,

ensconced in cement,

with all the other
Hollywood legends.

Right where they belong.

- [Emotional]
I don't think I ever loved

Jason Mewes more in my life

because that's how we got there.

Like, it wasn't like,
"Hey, Silent Bob,

put your shit in the ground!"

It was Jay and Silent Bob,

and there's something really
poetic about

being right next to him,
forever.

- I think if people ever saw
that VHS

that he recorded for us,

you'd get emotional,
you'd cry,

you know, as parents do.

His father laughed, too,
he said,

"Well, at least he feels
like he's gonna be famous,

so, that's good.

That is gonna help him get
through a lot of things."

But you look, and you say,
"Wow, this kid really made it."

- I can't thank you enough
for having me

and let me, putting me
on the path and the journey.

- Well, a lot of it
came from you.

You had to have that
instinct inside ya, honey.

- Not really.
- That was it, really.

- I love you to death.

I love this woman.
- I love you, too, honey.

- When "Clerks" was clearly
going to make

some impact in the world,

leave an impression of some
sort, he said,

"I didn't, I just didn't wanna
be a footnote." [Laughs]

- So, Kevin, the way
this works is,

the influence talks
about the influencer.

You don't talk to the
influencer about that.

The only reason I'm doing
this interview

is because you almost fuckin'
died of a heart attack,

so uh... [Laughs]

- I'm really interested in the,
in the people

that will learn from him,
that will,

people that are going
to see his Q&A's,

who are 16, 17, 18 years old,

and are gonna learn
that this is a way

that you can have a career
in movies.

- I am very impressed by him,

because he has managed
to change

and evolve in so many
different ways,

to keep himself relevant.

- I was kind of like,
how is this possible

that he can work at this pace,
unrelenting?

- Kevin is really one of the,

I think, most talented people
in the business.

- A lot of resurrections
in his career,

to the point where
I'm sitting here,

still talking about him,
and-and...

he is as relevant today
and he's ever been.

And actually funnier.

- He became a cultural
touchstone

beyond the movies that he made.

- It's just mind-blowing
that people

really embrace Kevin's world
that he's created.

- Walking with that dude
through an airport is a,

is an object lesson
in generosity.

But he always takes the time.
It's like, "Hey, man, sure,

you want a picture?
Come on, let's do this."

- Oh man, the dude
just gives everybody like,

if you feel like you,
like you had a moment with him,

if you're talking to him.

- There's no arguing what his,
he's created, is like,

indelible in American culture.

25 years later, people are
still talking about "Clerks."

It's affected so many people,
on so many different levels.

- To step up to the plate
at your first time at bat

and hit a home run
like he did with "Clerks"

makes a movie that is still
beloved to this today,

how many people do that.

- There's been people who have
been around for 25 years,

and they've passed
the movies on to other uh,

to the next generation.

It's really touching to see
how many people

that have been touched
by my dad.

That's a really beautiful
thing.

- He will never retire;
he will never give up.

He will find a way to keep
going, and going, and going.

[Cheering]

- Where he is now,
the podcasts,

the stage shows,

the hosting, making movies,
making TV, like...

I feel like he sort
of let go of some shit

and just got real free.

I do actually think like,
he got where he wanted to be.

♪♪♪

- What one memory sums up
"Clerks" best for me?

And there are so many, right,

because it literally gave me
a fuckin' career,

changed my life, and it's
just like, wishing on a star.

There's a beautiful line
in uh,

oh, my God, I'm not gonna
get through it

without fuckin' tearing up.

There's a beautiful line in a
song by Bruce Springsteen uh,

I think it's called "The Wish"

and it's a song for his mother.

And uh, the line is devastating,

I think, if you've lived like,
the life that I've lived.

And he says,
"It's a funny old world, ma,

where a little boy's wishes
come true."

And like,
that's what "Clerks" was.

It was a little boy's wish
coming true

over, and over, and over again.

Like, it was nuts.

It shouldn't have happened,

and it fuckin' did, and like,

cracked open the fuckin'
universe.

["The Wish" by
Bruce Springsteen plays]

♪ And it's a funny
old world, ma, ♪

♪ Where a little boy's
wishes come true ♪

♪ Well, I got a few left
in my pocket ♪

♪ And a special one
just for you ♪

♪ It ain't no phone call
on Sunday ♪

♪ Flowers
or a Mother's Day card ♪

♪♪♪

♪ It ain't no house on a hill

♪ With a garden
and a nice little yard ♪

♪♪♪

♪ I got my hot rod down
on Bond Street ♪

♪ I'm older but you'll
know me in a glance ♪

♪ We'll find us a little
rock 'n roll bar ♪

♪ And baby we'll go out
and dance ♪

Do it right now!
Come in!

[Eclectic guitar riff plays]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪ Well, it was me
in my Beatle boots ♪

♪ You in pink curlers
and matador pants ♪

♪ Pullin' me up of the couch

♪ To do the twist
for my uncles and aunts ♪

♪ Well, I found a girl
of my own now, ma, ♪

♪ I popped the question
on your birthday ♪

♪ She stood waiting
on the front porch ♪

♪ while you were telling me
to get out there ♪

♪ And say what it was
that I had to say ♪

♪ Last night
we all sat around ♪

♪ Laughing at the things
that guitar brought us ♪

♪ And I laid awake thinking

♪ 'bout the other things
it's brought us ♪

♪ Well, tonight I'm takin's
requests here in the kitchen ♪

♪ This one's for you, ma,

♪ Let me come right out
and say it ♪

♪ It's overdue

♪ But baby, if you're looking
or a sad song ♪

♪ Well, I ain't gonna play it

Come on now!

♪♪♪

Woo!

♪♪♪

All right now!
Let's do it.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪