AN INTERVIEW WITH JASON MEWES

To the world, this man is known as Jay. As in Jay and Silent Bob. As in Jay of the Bluntman and Chronic comic. Jay is Jason Mewes and Silent Bob is director Kevin Smith, the man who put him in cult comedies Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and now Dogma. In the process, Smith made the former New Jersey roofer the best slack suburban sleazebag turn in the world.

Jay first appeared – dealing dope and philosophizing about “bitches” and Star Wars- in Clerks, a brilliant comedy about a day in the life of a New Jersey convenience store with all the lunacy, eccentricity, death and sexual tension you normally get down the shops.Smith’s latest film, Dogma, features Alanis Morissette as God, Alan Rickman as the voice of God and Matt Damon as the avenging angel who laid waste Sodom and Gomorrah. In a film full of jokes about the meaning of life, the universe and everything, Jay has all the best gags about girls, sex and latent homosexuality loaded called him at his mother’s house in New Jersey to see what he’s smoking these days.

[Before a single question Is Asked, he’s off]

Jason Mewes : I’m so sorry I was at the View Askew[Dogma production offices} in Red Bank with Kevin, and Kevin said he’d give me a ride home but he’s been like tied up on the phone and I was like, “C’mon Kevin, I’m gonna be late for my interviews” So he just rushed me home and I just got in. I told my ma if you called I’d be home soon. I ain’t got a car right now. I lost my licence ,for parking tickets and stupid stuff. I paid ‘em and I didn’t like get my lisence renewed and then I got caught driving on suspended and I didn’t know, I thought after I’d paid the tickets they’d renew it but I didn’t know you had to go to Motor Vehicles and renew it.I have to take buses and cabs all the time.Kevin’s always driving me around.

Er, right… why do you think Kevin Smith originally wrote the part of Jay for you?

Jason Mewes : He told me it was because he thought I was really funny. One day Kevin said he was really curious about how many other people had the sense of humour that we did.

Danny Plunkett : It’s the type of humour that sometimes gets you into trouble…

Jason Mewes : Sometimes people don’t realise I’m joking around with them, and get all mad. I fool around with girls and they won’t get the joke.You know.

Danny Plunkett : You slip into character?

Jason Mewes : Yeah, and I say some rude things to ‘em,joking around, thinking they’ll understand that I’m joking, but they don’t.

Danny Plunkett : Jay is extreme. Do people think you’re him?

Jason Mewes : People expect me to be exactly like that,which I’m not all the time. Sometimes I get real rowdy and goofy and sometimes I just get real quiet. We just had a thing in New York, this screening, and I met some guys there and they’re like, “Yo, man, let’s smoke some weed,” and I think, nah. I didn’t feel like smoking ‘cos I was drinking, and I don’t smoke when I drink. And they were, like,disappointed. They thought that I was some big stoner, that I’d smoke 24 hours a day,which I totally don’t. I used to but it just got to be too much, you know? I just wanna sit at home and watch TV when I smoke. I used to like going out and doing stuff when I was smoked up, but then it got to be like I was too old to be getting into trouble being caught with a joint in my pocket.

Danny Plunkett : So guys expect you to be a stoner. How do girls expect you to be?

Jason Mewes : I don’t know-girls seem like they think I’m funny and they wanna hang out. They don’t want to date or nothing. I guess they thinkI might be like how l am in the movies, just like a player and be like, “You slut!”. Alot of girls wanna be my friend

Danny Plunkett : That Jay approach ‘hey, sit on my face,bitch” – doesn’t work for you?

Jason Mewes : Yeah ha ha no. With some it does. This one girl on the Internet she’s like “I love it.”I’m like messing around and saying dirty stuff to her and she loves it so some girls I guess like it.

Danny Plunkett : Kevin Smith has said that Alanis Morissette was terrified of you on set.

Jason Mewes : Was she ? I didn’t know that. In the make-up trailer I used to hang around and talk to her. She would laugh and it didn’t seem like she was scared.

Danny Plunkett : How was it working with Salma Hayek?

Jason Mewes : Salma was cool, really nice. They did a press junket in New York and I was in the TV room. She was saying, “I never met anybody like him. I’d be in my trailer and he’d come and knock on my door and say, ‘Oh can you sign my friend’s picture?I’ve been using his cellphone all week and I promised him if I used it I’d get an autograph from you for him’.” She said that was weird.

Danny Plunkett : What’s been going on since you made the film?

Jason Mewes : I was working at the comic book store[Jay And Silent Bob’s Secret Stash] for awhile. I just stopped a couple a weeks ago because another guy started working there. He has a car and I wasn’t making it every day and the guy who runs the comic book store was getting upset with me. ‘Cos I had to get a ride from Kevin and I had to get a cab.

Danny Plunkett : You got the sack from your own comic book shop?

Jason Mewes : My own comic book store gave me the boot! Can you believe it? It’s true. That’s just the way it goes, I guess. It’s been fun not working. It’s been cool to work for four months and like kick back for six months, but now I’m ready to work pretty steady and start making lots of cash.

Danny Plunkett : Kevin Smith’s producer Scoff Mosier recently said: “I am definitely stuck holding the bag a lot. With Mewes, it’s like it’s a job. Like running around, being like, ‘Don’t do that! Get off Of that! Why are you late?”‘

Jason Mewes : Yeah, ha ha, yup, totally.

Danny Plunkett : Are you the problem kid on the set?

Jason Mewes : I guess I hangout a lot and do stuff, and I’m alway late. I’ll be in my trailer and they’ll be like knocking on my door saying, “Come on, you’re on in five minutes.” So I’m like,’Alright, I’ve got five minutes.” Then they come knocking again two minutes later and I’m like, “You said five minutes so I’ll be out there in a few minutes.” So tell Scott I’ll come and get me and go like, “Come on man, they’re read for you.” Then I’ll get mad ‘cos then the I bring me on set and I’ll have to wait a half hour and go, “Yo man,you rushed me do here and it’s not time yet.” And sometimes they’re like, “You have half an hour,” and someone’ll go, “You wanna go to the store with me?” and I’m like,”Sure”. So I’ll take a ride and I’ll leave. when I get back they’ll be mad and like, “Everyone was looking for you,” and I’m like, “Yo, you said I had a half-hour…”

Danny Plunkett : What do you do to keep yourself amused between takes?

Jason Mewes : Usually just hang outside and bullshit with the people watching and stuff. Like in Pittsburgh when we were doing dogma I was chatting with the cop that was doing the traffic, and he was like, “Dude, after the set tonight you’d wanna go do some shooting?” I was telling him how I love shooting guns and he took me to the police range that night. Shooting up cardboard figures-that was pretty fun.