‘Clerks II’: Growth and gross-outs

“”I wanted to see what happened to the characters when they lost their center point,” Smith says, sitting on the creaky merry-go-round outside the restaurant building they’ve co-opted for the shoot. “It opened up a world for Dante. He met somebody, fell in love and got engaged, then he met somebody else (the restaurant manager, played by Rosario Dawson). He reacted well to the outside world, while Randal just got more closed up and scared and angrier.

“The whole flick comes down to whether or not the two of them can reach a compromise of some sort,” Smith adds. “It really comes down to the choice a friend makes for another friend.”
Sequel or sellout? Smith feels heat

“”I never want to taint the original,” Smith says. “But that’s not a reason not to tell this story, just because you’re afraid of the potential reaction.”

The sequel, he promises, is not a “money grab” after the poor response to his Jersey Girl. He says it’s a chance to catch up with some characters who used to be like him, and further explore their non-lives.

Among those who are nervous about it were the two stars, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson — two local Jersey guys plucked from obscurity by Clerks who are hoping not to fade back to obscurity this time. “You’re touching a film that is beloved by a rabid following. I was excited about the sequel, but at the same time I was like, ‘I hope we can do it right,’ ” O’Halloran says.

Offbeat original shattered barriers

“Smith says Clerks “said something about a certain time in American culture, when there were a lot of kids coming out of college and not getting jobs, overeducated and underemployed, with a sense of entitlement.” Now finishing Clerks II, he says, “these are those same kids, 10 years later. Not all of them found their place in the world.”