“…You’ll be shocked to learn that Dante and Randal are still doing the exact same thing: standing around all day at their menial jobs, finding ways to avoid work, and talking. And talking and talking. They’re just doing it in color instead of black and white”.

Comic Book Resources – “Interview: Kevin Smith”

What was the genesis for the creation of this sequel?

I don’t! [laughs] I don’t know. I could point to any number of things. I really wanted to tell a story about what I thought it felt like it was like to be in my 30s. I tried to do that with “Jersey Girl,” and I think to some degree I think I was kind of successful in what I wanted to do, but at the same time it’s a movie that’s a bit manipulative and a bit mawkish and what not. So, I wanted to do a version of what I felt what it was like being in my 30s that was a little more in touch with reality, which is odd because this movie does have a donkey show at its epicenter. [laughs] So, that’s part of it and I thought that “Clerks” was a movie about what I felt it was like to be in my 20s, so I could use Dante and Randal as the way in and suddenly it became “Clerks II.”

I talked about doing the movie back in ‘98. In the tail end of the “Dogma” credits it says, “Jay & Silent Bob will return in ‘Clerks II: Hardly Clerking.’” Then I was like, “You know what man? Maybe I shouldn’t fuck with the sacred cow. Do a sequel to the first film? What if it sucks and people retroactively go back and hate on the first film. Perhaps it’s not the way to go.” And it became “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” instead. But all the ideas were there. The groundwork had been laid in my head, so that Dante and Randal story was always in the background. I figured one day I’d just do it in comic book form or something like that. Then, when I thought about telling the story, about what it’s like to be in my 30s, I was like, “Shit, that’s the story. It’s all coming together. It’s gelling.”

Some people online have said it’s obviously a reaction to “Jersey Girl,” the film didn’t do well and he went back to the well and he’s retrenching. They’ve missed the target, but hit the tree. “Jersey Girl” played a role, but it wasn’t that because I was already dialed into doing “Clerks II” while we were still working on “Jersey Girl.” While working on “Jersey Girl” I was just like, “Man, next movie I don’t want to work with famous people. I don’t want to work with celebrities. I want to work with unknowns. I don’t want to fucking worry about ‘In Touch Weekly’ or ‘Us Weekly’ putting them on their cover every fucking week.” It’s weird when you spend like two years of your life trying to put together and tell a story and then when you sit down to talk about it nobody wants to talk about the story, they just want to ask, “Did you see the pink diamond? Is it huge?” And I’m like, “Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything, man?” When the back story overshadows the story, it’s just not cool anymore. As a storyteller it’s kind of insulting. Either the movie is as bad as you say and you have nothing to talk about except these two, or you find these two more fascinating than the movie we put together. Either way you’re kind of screwed.

Canmag – “Clerks II Racism” (**CONTAINS SPOILERS**)

“…That didn’t make it any easier for Jeff Anderson to perform the scene. “The weird thing, it’s like you’re going through the script and you’re reading the script, and you’re trying to memorize your dialogue,” said Anderson. “It’s like when you’re in the moment you have to get into that scene, your brain is telling you the whole time, ‘No, no, no, no, you don’t say this,’ but it is what it is.”

About.com – “Trevor Fehrman Talks About Clerks II”

“…How I came up with this character… all I can say is a couple of the mannerisms came from a couple people I know. It’s sort of a cross between my friend Paul from Long Beach who’s like the best guy in the world, but people always think that I’m describing him as stupid. He’s not stupid. He’s smart. He’s an amazing drummer. He’s just one of those guys who’s very single-minded. He completely thinks something through before he moves onto the next thing. He does stuff in order. So whenever you explain something to Paul, he does this look where he goes like, ‘Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, I got you dawg.” So there’s a little bit of that in Elias, where he’s trying to wrap his mind around something.”

WHIOTV – “Kevin Smith Counters Bennifer Disaster With ‘Clerks II’”

“…Fans of the iconic character of Jay will be buzzing over Mewes’ dizzying performance in “Clerks II.” Because of the actor’s burning intensity, Jay is funny — and scary — at the same time.

“There’s an edge to the dude and I think that’s what makes him funny. The fact is, you never know where’s he’s going to go with something,” Smith said.”