In many ways Kevin Smith and his body of work have been elevated to cult status over the years. From “Clerks” to “Chasing Amy” to the soul-searching “Dogma” and the just plain silly “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” Smith has remained pretty true to the subject matter that is important to him. That’s why it’s not so shocking to hear that he’s doing a movie about fatherhood, because he is, after all, a father of five years. And while people may think he’s growing up with his latest film “Jersey Girl,” Smith firmly believes this is only a slight tangent. In fact, many of us who grew up watching his career spawn may be experiencing much of the same domestic bliss and agony. I was lucky enough to be entertained by Smith in an interview a few months ago in Seattle. As he stumbled into the room, groggy from a nap and instantly reaching for his pack of smokes, I knew immediately that he would be one of the most casual and genuine interview subjects I’d ever had. It was also comforting to meet another parent who curses more than I do.
The whole introduction was very casual, just like we were old friends sitting down for a beer and shooting the shit. Smith, nestles into his chair and reacquaints himself with his surroundings. He admits he never would’ve made a film about fatherhood had he not had a child of his own. “Never in a million years,” he confesses as he takes a long drag off his cigarette. “What do I know about fatherhood? I’m still five years into it and I still don’t have a hold on it yet. This definitely came from Harley, so for the people who don’t like the film, blame my kid,” he says with that great sarcastic humor that brands his personality.
And, while his latest film strays from Smith’s usual conventions, he is quick to divulge that he really was interested in experimenting around a bit—meaning he wanted to make a movie that would stand on its own. “I was curious to make a movie that didn’t lean on a another movie, or the two or three or four that came before it. Like my last movie, I loved, but you have to see the first four to get it. After that experience I wondered if I could actually make a movie that doesn’t refer back to Julie Dwyer dying in a fucking pool, or Jay and Silent Bob popping up.”
He claims the closest he ever got to this goal was when he was writing “Chasing Amy,” because that movie didn’t reference anything else. But alas, he got cold feet. “I got real scared at one point,” he confides. “Because I was like, man, this movie’s really touchy-feely, and all the ‘Clerks’ guys are going to hate my fucking guts. Oh, I better put Jay and Bob in it. I always felt really shitty chicken-shitting out at the last minute and caving into my more male instinct of like, ‘can’t show anyone I have heart, must make dick joke.’”
Though Smith did wholeheartedly commit to this project without any trace of Jay and Silent Bob, it’s still easy to recognize that “Jersey Girl” is definitely a Kevin Smith production. His sharp wit and knack for extracting genuine performances remains a constant, but it was actually Ben Affleck (who has recently been portrayed by the media to be an insensitive womanizer) who encouraged Smith to continue writing the script that was so close to his heart. Smith says what kicked them into gear to make the movie was Affleck wanting to do something more along the lines of “Chasing Amy,” where it would be all about the performance, the dialogue and how the characters interact. “Ben was coming off of ‘Pearl Harbor,’ and said he was sick of the fucking machine. He was like, “Dude, write another ‘Chasing Amy,’ that’s what you need to do,” and I was like ‘well one of us won an Oscar for screenwriting and it wasn’t me.’”
Affleck convinced Smith to write it because “Chasing Amy” was his favorite. So Smith told him about the beginnings of a script he stashed away in his drawer, and the rest is history. “I think he tends to romanticize the ‘Chasing Amy’ period,” Smith discloses, “because that was the last moment before he stopped being ‘Ben Affleck’ and became ‘Ben Fucking Affleck,’ so I think he looked back at that time very fondly.”
When asked if Smith got nervous about treading emotional territory for a second time, he admits he was a bit gun shy about disrupting his fan base, which, by the way, he cherishes as much as his profession. While he hated losing his teen base, he had to do it in order to move forward. “You can’t live your life in service to 13 and 14-year-old boys for the rest of your life unless you are fucking Michael Jackson,” he chides. “I do what I do on every movie, which is to serve myself first. I have to make something that I am happy with, something that I feel very connected to and hopefully the audience will follow. Historically it’s worked, and hopefully it will work this time.” |
