Kevin Smith tells Ed Potton how he talked himself into movies

“He’s horizontal,” cautions the publicist as he leads me into Kevin Smith’s room at the Dorchester. “But he assures me he’s still lucid.” Sure enough, the portly writer and director is flat on his back, but he raises his head and fixes me with a saucer-eyed stare as I approach. It’s the same sedate engagement exuded by the wisecracking underachievers of Clerks, Chasing Amy and the rest of his New Jersey slacker milieu.

The 33-year-old Smith, who is dressed in his regulation voluminous shorts and sports shirt, can be forgiven for taking it easy, as he has a busy few days ahead. A round of publicity for his latest film, Jersey Girl, will be followed by a weekend in Paris with his wife and daughter (”I’d rather be shopping for comic books in London”) and one of his epic Evenings with Kevin Smith. Something of an institution among American college students, the evenings are basically Q&A sessions. But, this being a man who could talk the hind legs off a sanctuary of donkeys, the emphasis is on the answers rather than the questions — Smith usually goes on for several hours; his record is six.

He holds court with the ease of a raconteur, the passion of a geek and the timing of a stand-up. There are the obvious questions about how he got started (he watched Richard Linklater’s 1991 film Slacker and thought: “If this counts as a movie, I can make a movie”). He details the origins of Jay and Silent Bob, who have appeared in all of his films except Jersey Girl (the verbose Jay is played by his long-time friend Jason Mewes; Bob is silent because Smith thinks that his own acting sucks). He is even more engaging when expounding on his loves (Eddie Izzard, Harvey Weinstein) and his hates (The Flintstones movie, the 3am Girls).

The thing that strikes you about these talks, whose best moments have been collected together on a new DVD, is Smith’s air of relaxation. Is this because he’s closer to his audience than your average movie bigshot? “Absolutely,” he nods. “Partly because a lot of them look like they do. It’s not a hard look to create — just don’t shave and eat lots of Twinkies. The people who like my movies occupy a specific demographic. They’re over-educated people who love movies and comics and think that the nine-to-five grind is beneath them.”

Fratboy philosophy and inventive pranks are Smith’s hallmarks, and some of his escapades have been brushed with genius. When his 1999 film Dogma — an irreverent take on religion that featured Alanis Morissette as God — attracted the wrath of conservatives, he decided to protest against it at a local demonstration. “We made signs that said: Dogma is Dogs***. A news crew showed up and actually interviewed me.”

Given Smith’s reputation, it was inevitable that Jersey Girl — a gentle comedy about paternal responsibility that was inspired by the arrival of his daughter, Hayley — would alienate some of his fans. “There have been people who have said: ‘What are you doing, dude?’” he admits. “But there are others who were the same age as me when Clerks came out and are now having kids of their own. I just cribbed from my own life. Although when I say this, my wife generally asks: ‘So how come my character dies after 15 minutes and yours ends up f****** Liv Tyler?’”

Hardcore Smith fans can rest easy, though — his forthcoming list of films proves that he’s not about to turn into Nora Ephron. Fletch Won will see him resurrect the insouciant journalist formerly played by Chevy Chase; he’s a fan of the latter, but it was the source novels by Gregory McDonald that inspired him to write a new script. Meanwhile, Jay and Silent Bob look likely to return, providing Mewes wins his battle with alcohol and drug addiction. “I told Mewes that if he could stay clean I’d be happy to head back into Jay and Bob country. He’s been clean and dry for a more than a year, so I might have to live up to my promise. Either that or get him to start drinking again.”

One project that looks less certain is the much anticipated The Green Hornet. Although Smith will be adapting the vintage comic strip for the screen, he has cooled on the idea of directing it. Coupled with his defunct Superman project, this decision suggests that cinema’s most famous comic obsessive — he has written strips for Marvel and DC — is unsure about ever helming a comic book movie himself. “If I direct a comic book movie I give up the right to bitch about other comic book movies,” Smith explains. “I love writing comic books, but it’s so much easier when your audience is about 100,000 people. Taking something that appeals to a small group and making it as mainstream as possible isn’t very appetising.”

Smith’s British faithful are out in force as he takes the stage at the Prince Charles Cinema three days later. He’s had a dismal weekend: a Parisian steak tartare has left him with food poisoning, and the 3am Girls have savaged the premiere of Jersey Girl and described him as “fat, bearded and Hobbit-like”. “Now I know why we left and started our own country,” he grins, to hearty applause. But when I finally leave three hours later, he’s still going strong — and he’s still vertical.