“Among the new breed of indie-trained directors, Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Dogma) has been more outrageous in his verbal assaults on the audience’s squeamishness than in his visual forays. Clerks was originally rated NC-17 for raunchy language and the rating was only changed to R after an appeal. “It would have been easier to show Dante gutting a woman or a 12-year-old boy than lamenting about his girlfriend sucking 37 dicks,” Smith says. “I find that a sad comment on our society.” Smith personally shies away from showing sexual acts. “Visually I’m not talented enough to bring it off,” he says. “Maybe when I’m 40, I’ll be more of a dirty old man, and I’ll want to show sex. That’s probably why you see nudity in Robert Altman films–not that I knock the man. But he probably has the desire to see young and vital actors in the buff. Maybe I’m too much of a Catholic ever to have those scenes. I don’t know if I could have that conversation with an actor.” Smith’s ultimate dismay, though, came about through circumstances that speak volumes about the problems he and every other director face in an industry that is, as always, hopelessly schizoid on the subject of sex. “In Mallrats, the studio said we needed a pair of tits, and so there’s a scene where Joey Lauren Adams opens her shirt. To me, that’s a career low. Talk about unsexy! Remembering that scene will probably chase me away from doing sex and nudity for a long time.”

Q: How was the chemistry between you and Jason Lee, who plays the “mark” that you end up falling for?

“A: We couldn’t be more different. He’s very much a guy and I’m very much a girl. If you saw us in a room, you wouldn’t say, “Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jason Lee should be together.” We don’t run in the same circle of friends or anything like that. I’m not as free and wild as he is. I remember meeting him the first day and thinking, “He’s going to think I’m such a dork,” because he’s really hip. Later, he told me, “I had no idea what to do with you the first day.” Slowly, we became best friends on the movie. I still talk with him all the time.”