GETTING IN ON THE ACT

It’s not unusual for actors to try their hands at directing, but there aren’t many directors who have the guts to go the other way. Kevin Smith goes against the grain for Catch and Release

By Earl Dittman

Kevin Smith admits he’s never felt comfortable in front of the camera. “If you looked like me, would you want to see this face on the big screen,” asks the 36-year-old New Jersey native who’s best known as the writer, director and producer of such films as Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

But after appearing in many of his own films – particularly as the mostly mute Silent Bob – it’s a little hard to believe Smith finds appearing on camera so unpleasant.

“Acting is not one of my favourite things,” he insists. “In the beginning, I appeared in my movies more out of necessity than anything else. I didn’t have to pay anyone if I did the role. Plus, I never felt like I was that good of an actor, so I was always anxious to get back behind the camera and direct.”

When writer/director Susannah Grant (director of TV’s Party of Five, writer of Erin Brockovich) began to cast the supporting roles for Catch and Release, a romantic drama about a woman (Jennifer Garner) coming to terms with the her financ6’s death who discovers he was keeping a big secret from her, Kevin Smith was on her short list. Havingjust rented An Evening With Kevin Smith, a documentary which follows one of Smith’s college Q&-A tours, Grant was intrigued by his natural presence and thought he’d be great as Garner’s funny and supportive friend Sam. “I was flattered when I heard somebody wanted to cast me, but I was like, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,”‘ Smith recalls.

But Grant had the upper hand – Garner is married to Ben Affleck, a member of Smith’s regular acting ensemble, and his best friend.

A slimmer, trimmer Smith, decked out in a basketball jersey, jeans, tennis shoes and a baseball cap (worn in reverse, of course) admits, “Once Jennifer asked if I would be in the movie with her there was no way I could say no. Not doing the role would have been like refusing a kidney to a member of the family. So I did it. And it wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be,” he says with laugh. “I would have still rather given a kidney.”

What was it like acting for another director?

“It wasn’t all that difficult because Susannah knew her stuff. She knew what she was doing. It might have been a different story if she was walking around in a constant stupor, but she was a real pro the whole time. Jennifer said she would be great, and I trust Jen except for her taste in men [laughs]. I was simply an actor and I didn’t feel an overwhelming need to tell her how to do her job. But, to he honest, I really like working behind the scenes.”

o you think you did a good job?

“I must have, because no one ever talked about firing me. I think I did good. I mean, I’m not exactly a novice. I’ve done several of my own movies, so I know how the process works. Now that I think about it, it was kind of relaxing to do my lines and then let someone else deal with the nightmares of making a movie.”

Are you naturally Shy?

“Painfully so. I don’t even go out and party much. You should talk to my wife about my shyness. My wife is in bell because I’m not a ‘go-out’ type of person. She lives in a gilded cage. She’s got the diamonds, but she doesn’t get to go to parties and stuff. She used to write for USA Today, so she used to go out and cover parties in the city left and right, and then we hooked up…. She was suddenly trapped in a relationship with a guy who does not ever go out…. I mean, I can speak to 4,000 people at a college Q&A, I can sit and do press all day, but the moment I’m out there by myself I tend to clam up. When I’m around her good friends, they don’t think I speak at all.”

Speaking of good friends, Affleck is currently directing his first movie, Gone, Baby, Gone. Did you visit the set to check up on him?

“A while back I was in Boston doing press and, of course, I was interested in going to see him on the set. Then I was like, ‘You know what? It sucks when you’re visiting a movie set and you’re not a part of the movie.’ When you’ve got no job on a movie set you shouldn’t be there, because you’re just always in the way.”

So he didn’t give you a cameo?

“No cameo for me. But I made the mistake in Boston of joking about that. I think that I was talking to The Boston Herald – which one is the more tabloid, The Herald Well, the chick from The Herald was like, ‘Are you going to see Ben?’ I said, ‘You know what, I’ve got no business being there. I’ve nothing to do with the movie.’ She’s like, ‘You’re not in the movie?’ l said, ‘No! Can you believe that I cast that bum in six movies, and he didn’t have the courtesy to give me a cameo in his?’ I said it totally tongue-in-cheek. Like, what do I give a hoot about acting? I’m not an actor. But the next day in The Boston Herald was the headline ‘Smith Angry with Affleck. ‘Then that piece got picked up and tons of online pieces ran about this fake feud. You know that it’s reached ridiculous proportions when on IMDB – in that morning news thing, where you read those stories and go, ‘I know these people, none of this is true’ – that story made it and it was like, ‘Smith Slams Affleck.’ l was like, ‘Doesn’t anyone understand a joke?”‘

Of all the movies you’ve made, Chasing Amy is often considered the best. Will you ever make a sequel?

“No, I don’t think that we should. Affleck is always bugging me to make another Chasing Amy, but not as a direct sequel, right, but that’s how I got him intojay and Silent Bob. I called him up and I said, ‘You get to play Holden McNeil again,’ and he said, ‘Oh, God, I love it.’ I said, ‘The bad news is you’ve got to play yourself, too,’ and he said, ‘Crap! There’s always a price with you, dude.”‘

There’s now a street named after you in New Jersey. How does that feel?

“It’s kind of weird. I mean, it’s definitely an honour. I’m glad that it’s in New Jersey, but at the same time they’re real careful not to give me a street where anyone actually lived.”

What’s on your street?

“It’s an access road to a high school, which is appropriate, but no one lives on Kevin Smith Way. So I’ve often thought about buying a little property and building a house there so that someone can have that address.”

You don’t live in New Jersey anymore, do you?

“I live in Los Angeles now, in the Hollywood Hills, but I did live in Beverly Hills for about eight months while my house was undergoing reconstruction because they had a flood in it. Long story, but I did get to live in Beverly Hills. It ain’t all that.”

Why did you hate it?

“It’s not that I hated it, but I just thought, ‘How can they charge this much for a house based on a Zip code?’ because the house that we live in was far nicer than the house that the insurance company put us up in. I was like, ‘What’s the list price on this house?’ and someone told me and I’m like, ‘This is a hole. Are you insane, why?’ They’re like, ‘90210.’”

So Jersey will always be home?

“What do I say about Jersey? It always was, and always will be home. I went out of my way to make sure that my daughter was born in Jersey. When my wife was pregnant, real pregnant, she couldn’t get on a plane because they don’t let really pregnant women get on commercial airliners, because they won’t just land the jet if your wife goes into labour. So, we were out in Los Angeles at the time promoting Dogma, and we called Harvey Weinstein and said, ‘Dude, I’ve got to get my wife back to Jersey so that she can have the kid in a Jersey hospital.’ I wanted her to have the kid in the same hospital that I was born in and so we did. And we took a jet.”