Kevin Smith has created a cult following for his films since the release of “Clerks” a decade ago. He is breaking the mold of his other films with his newest film, “Jersey Girl.” Smith was recently in Philadelphia to talk about the film and The Quad got a few minutes to speak with him. “Jersey Girl” was written in part while Smith was working on the cartoon version of his film “Clerks.” It wasn’t until a year and a half later when he was at Ben Affleck’s house that it came up again. It was out of Affleck’s desire to do something small, because he was just coming off of the mammoth “Pearl Harbor” film. “I was like one of us here won an Oscar for screenwriting, go write the script. He was like no you go do it,” recalls Smith.
Smith said that originally he pictured an older actor, such as Bill Murray, in the lead role. But after Affleck read the script, he persuaded Smith to cast him instead.
Before the film came out it got a lot of attention for starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. According to Smith, while the film was shot in Philadelphia there wasn’t much of a stir. It wasn’t until the last two days of filming that it came full force. “That’s when literally 100 paparazzi showed up in Central Park and were snapping photos of these two in a horse drawn carriage,” said Smith. “We would say we were rolling and those dudes would disappear like ninjas into the shrubs. We would shoot the scene and say cut and they would come back out again.”
Even though he was on the inside, Smith was not able to figure out what the fascination was with the two of them. “It was weird. Suddenly, everyone was interested in their relationship. That kind of kick started what became Bennifer for over a year. It was very surreal to watch it because you were just sitting there like, ‘come on man, like to movie stars never [had sex] before. It happens all the time’,” Smith said. “They had it far worse than me. It seems a little selfish to be like how it affected me and my movie. I was not at the epicenter. Those two took it hard, right up the ass for a year.”
Despite being a father and a husband, Smith said that he hasn’t softened and that fans shouldn’t fear so. “So people are like ‘is this what you are going to do?’ Not really, this is kind of a one off for me. This is everything I want to say about fatherhood at this particular stage.”
George Carlin, father to Ben Affleck’s character, is not much like Smith’s real life father. Smith said that his real father was much more open with his feelings than that of the character portrayed onscreen. However, he said that his father is similar in the amount of crap that Carlin’s character gives Affleck in the film. “My father is the kind of guy, you present him with 100 great reviews and he will leaf through the stack and find the one bad one,” Smith explains. “He needles, not on purpose.”
“I can curse around my kid because you don’t want the kid growing up thinking there are bad words. So I’m not the guy who feels real precious around the kid in terms of language, other people’s kids definitely,” Smith explained. “So by virtue of the fact that I was making a movie about a seven year old girl that was not going to be portrayed by my child it doesn’t pan out.”
Smith has been known to cause uproar with his films. He said that during the filming of “Dogma” he received death threats. This film wasn’t that bad, but there was a lot of attention paid to the actors in the film. “This one went through a phase. Hopefully that phase has died,” Smith said describing the feel of making the film.
“Jersey Girl” is a different kind of film from what most of his fans are used to seeing. Smith said that he knew going into the film he was going to lose some of them with this film. Most notably different is that Jay and Silent Bob are missing from the film.
But Smith says that the decision to retire the characters has been met with mixed reactions. However, he says that they might be coming out of retirement. “I told [Jason] Mewes, if you can ever get and stay clean I was thinking of making more Jay and Bob’s because quite frankly hands down, Jay and Bob was the best time I’ve ever had making a movie. It would be worth it just because it was that fun.”
Smith said that Mewes has been clean for almost a year and that after his next two films, “Green Hornet” and “Fletch” there is a strong possibility that Jay and Bob will return.