At a press conference for Indie American filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Jersey Girl) held this morning at Epitome Productions in Toronto, Smith announced that not only will he be guest-starring in Degrassi: The Next Generation, but Jason Mewes will join him in the three episode story-arc scheduled to air in January.

The plotline follows the Degrassi cast as Smith, playing himself, films a fictional sequel to the cult-hit Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. For the ‘sequel’ titled Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, eh, director Kevin Smith has chosen Degrassi as the perfect Canadian high school for the shoot. In the Degrassi/ J&SB storyline, Jay and Silent Bob (played by Mewes and Smith) come to Canada to get a high-school diploma since no high-school in the USA will take them. A concept of which Smith has said, “The plot of the movie within the show is so funny, it almost makes me want to shoot the flick for real.”

Below are clips from the Oct. 20 press conference.

How this came to be

• “There is something about our storytelling that has a lot in common. A certain social consciousness. A warmth.” –Linda Schuyler, executive producer of Degrassi’

• (Schuyler’s response to Smith’s offer to direct an episode of Degrassi) “I can’t hire you for that. The show is 100 per cent Canadian.”

• (Schuyler’s response to Smith’s offer to write an episode of Degrassi) “I can’t hire you for that. The show is 100 per cent Canadian.”

• (Smith’s response to Schuyler’s offer of a cameo spot) “I don’t do cameos. How about I star in a three episode story arc.”

• (Schuyler) “That – we can do!”

• “I’ve offered to direct other things in the past. ‘Because the show is 100 per cent Canadian’ is the best excuse I’ve ever got for not letting me.” –Smith

What to expect

• (On what the shows could be about) Smith: “I want to get in between Joey and Caitlin.” Schuyler: “We can make that work.”

• “Aaron and Shelley did a great job of writing my little world into their little world.” –Smith talking about Aaron Martin, Executive Producer and Writer, and Shelley Scarrow, Story Editor and Writer

Kevin Smith on Degrassi

• (On how he got hooked on the original Degrassi back in 1994) “The first time I watched the show I thought, “this is so melodramatic,” and by the end of the episode I was weeping.”

• “Degrassi is one of the very few fascinations that I’ve carried through to adulthood.”

• “When I heard they were bringing the show back I was one of those people who said, ‘Don’t [mess] with perfection.’ But this is better. [The Next Generation] took all the best parts of the last show and put it together with a fantastic cast and great stories.” -Smith

• “I’ve always viewed Toronto as my adopted home planet.” –Smith