After switching from professional skateboarder to actor in 1995, Jason Lee went on to star in films like Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Enemy Of The State. He’s currently starring in both Mumford and Dogma, and is also shooting an as-of-yet-untitled Cameron Crowe film.

In Mumford, you play Skip, a skateboard-riding millionaire. That’s what they call perfect casting.

I was told that the character was written with me in mind, which is flattering — especially since it’s a Lawrence Kasdan script.

You were 24 years old when you decided to become and actor. What led to the decision?

Skateboarding had become sort of tiring. Although I made good money and got to travel, I was getting burnt out by it. Then one say I saw Barton Fink and decided that I wanted to do movies. I was just amazed by the cinematography, the music and the oddness of the characters — especially Steve Buscemi’s performance. I met friends that were actors and thought, “What the hell, I’ll give it a try.”

What was the first step?

I appoached a friend — who is now my manager — and said, “I don’t know much about acting, but I want to give it a shot. I don’t want to do commercials or television, just films. Give me three months — if I can land a part, you can represent me.” A few days later she sent me to Universal to meed the casting director for Mallrats. He told her that although I was inexperienced, I “seemed like a good guy,” so he was going to have me come back and read for the director, Kevin Smith. It took three or four days of reading for him, but Kevin eventually gave me the part.

That shuffling sound you just heard was all the late great Hollywood actors rolling in their graves.

[Laughs] I was very naive in my approach to acting. Unlike a lot of other actors, I hadn’t been jaded by ten years of the auditioning process — it was just something that I wanted to do. During my Mallrats audition, the first thing I said the Kevin was, “Look, I have to tell you that I’ve already envisioned myself playing this role.” I think he was impressed by my honesty. Sure, it may have been an unorthodox thing to say, but no one ever told me what the “rules” were.

– Micheal Moses

Also Showing (MINOR SPOILER AHEAD!)…

“Dogma”
Director: Kevin Smith
Stars: Linda Fiorentino, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon.
Plot: Descendant of Christ/lapsed Catholic (Fiorentino) is inexplicably tapped by an angel to save the world from two fallen angels (Affleck, Damon) conspiring to re-enter Heaven.

How Is It?: Good… if you like Kevin Smith. As annoying as his characters can be, Smith has proven himself to be a smart, insightful filmmaker with a knack for spinning wonderful webs of dialouge. This time out, he does for Christianity what his earlier films did for sex and comic books.

Rating: 3 (of 5)