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.”

SMALL TOWN GAY BAR

Tuesday, January 23
Screening at 7:30pm

* Q & A with Director Malcolm Ingram, moderated by Executive Producer Kevin Smith, to follow screening

The fight for equal rights is far from over, and nowhere is this more evident than in small towns in the Deep South. Homosexuals in these communities lack the social outlets of their cosmopolitan brethren. Focusing primarily on two bars in Mississippi, Rumors and Crossroads, the film introduces us to their proprietors as they struggle to stand their ground in hostile terrain. Director Malcolm Ingram deftly balances the joy and pain of this world and crafts a film that will connect with anyone who has ever felt oppressed and found strength with a little help from their friends.

“Inherently moving and excruciatingly truthful, Malcolm Ingram’s SMALL TOWN GAY BAR is the story of real people in a real place, documenting their fight to create a family of love and acceptance in a world that has offered them none.” – Film Threat

Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2006

Director: Malcolm Ingram
Executive Producer: Kevin Smith
Co-Presented with the UCLA Documentary Salon Series
View Trailer

I recently got the chance to sit down 1-on-1 with the talented, extremely witty and all around cool dude, Kevin Smith. He is doing the rounds promoting his latest feature CATCH AND RELEASE where he plays Jennifer Garner’s roomie in a scene stealing performance. He seems to be doing the actor gig quite a bit lately with this, a small role in TMNT (voice work in case you were wondering) and the recent pilot for MANCHILD which is the US version of the hit British series starring Mr. Giles, Anthony Stewart Head of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE fame. And don’t forget, he will be wisecracking his way through LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, the latest DIE HARD installment with the one and only Bruce Willis.

Well, the question is, when will he get back behind the camera? The rumor was that he was working on a horror film. Yep, you heard right, “It’s all in my head, I haven’t sat down and started tapping away yet.” When I asked what type of horror he is looking to do, he asked, “Did you ever see RACE WITH THE DEVIL? It’s like that.” Many others had asked him about zombies, to that he added, “Is that what a horror movie is to people? Like, just zombies? It’s such a wide genre, its wide open… In a world where 28 DAYS LATER is a horror movie and THE SHINING is a horror movie. Those are two very disparate films… It’s a wide open genre and very tough to pin down. It’s so odd to me that people immediately assume that you are talking a zombie or a monster.”

I for one am a major fan of Mr. Smith, and after talking horror with him, I guarantee that he’s got a terrific grasp on what makes a great horror film. He understands that there is more than one kind of horror and it’s not just jumping on the bandwagon of the recent trend. I am eagerly awaiting his contribution to a genre which means a whole lot to yours truly. And if you haven’t seen RACE WITH THE DEVIL, I urge you to check it out on DVD. See what you can do with a great script, top-notch actors and a truly suspenseful premise. And thank whomever you want to thank that Mr. Smith has NO plans to just remake it. You can read more on my conversations with Kevin Smith very soon.

BEN AFFLECK

Role: George Reeves, Hollywoodland

Age: 34 Birthplace: Berkeley, California

“I think it’s vaguely flattering, but not entirely somehow,” Affleck says of folks who say this role is something of a comeback for him. “I hadn’t done a movie in two years in a conscious effort to just be away from everything, mostly paparazzi and the tabloid culture, with the idea if you just stop, maybe it will go away a little bit. I also made an effort to just kind of really examine what kind of actor I really want to be, and what kind of career I want to have. I was lucky that [Hollywoodland] was the first movie that I did after that, because I really like [it] and it would have been just as easy for it not to have worked. So in its simplest sense, I take it that that’s a sort of way of saying like, “Well, the guy’s last movie wasn’t very good, but this movie seems to be.’ So I don’t know if it’s a comeback. But I guess it’s an improvement.”

In the Future with Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith has shot a role for the upcoming Live Free or Die Hard, which also stars his Catch and Release co-star Timothy Olyphant as the villain.

“I play a character that has a lot of depository dialogue; I’m the only person in ‘Die Hard’ who talks, and doesn’t shoot somebody,” Smith said. “When I got there, I was like, ‘[director] Len [Wiseman], can I get a gun?’ He’s like, ‘No.’ But it’s fun; it’s that role in the action movie where you provide a bunch of information for them to head into act 3. And my character gets talked about throughout – and it could all change. But the time they get in the editing room, they might be like, ‘You suck, yank him out.’ But as it stands now, in the script, and as I shot it, they talk about me a lot and then they meet me; and I provide a lot of information about the villain.”

Smith talked a bit about coming up with his own lines for the fourth “Die Hard” film. “What’s nice about working on those big, awfully expensive Hollywood movies, is they have so many writers, they don’t even notice if you’re one of them. So, I got there, and I wrote myself a one page monologue, and I got to deliver it; it was hysterical, they let me do it. Bruce Willis was like, ‘Do it up, that was a good speech.’ So, you do it, and they totally went for it; so that was kind of cool, and I got to give that speech in that movie. They were kind of riff friendly. There was one motto on that movie, and they kept saying it, which was, ‘Keep it Die Hard.’ So you didn’t want to – you couldn’t get in there and do a Jay and Silent Bob type monologue, but you had to make it germane to the movie. So I don’t give a funny speech, I wind up giving a very paranoid, Joe Pesci in JFK type speech, which was fun.”

He is also voicing a character in the CG-animated TMNT. “Harvey Weinstein called me up and wanted to know if I wanted to do a voice in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’; ’cause Weinstein has a piece of it. And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ The dude that lobbied, and didn’t get the part, was Jason Mewes. ‘Cause Jason Mewes was like, ‘What are you doing today?’ I’m like, ‘I’m going to do a voiceover for ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’ they’re doing the CG cartoon.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ I showed him the trailer, and he was like, ‘Oh, I want to f**kin’ be in that.’ I was like, ‘Well, dude, you’ve been in Weinstein movies; call them up, they’ll put you in the picture.’ And he called them mercilessly, especially after he found out I got paid to do it. He kept calling and they were like, ‘We don’t have anything left, dude;’ they were like, ‘I’m sorry.’ He was like, ‘Add a character;’ he was like, ‘Can’t I be the girl turtle?’ But, he just said there was something they wanted to re-voice, and they brought me in; it took maybe an hour, or something like that. But no, I want to see that movie; I lobbied to see the footage, which they finally showed me when I did a voice over.”

Ghost Rider writer/director Mark Steven Johnson has also asked Smith to direct an episode of HBO’s upcoming “Preacher” series. “Yeah, he asked me if I wanted to direct an episode of ‘Preacher’; which I thought was pretty kind of him; but, I don’t know if I’m up to that. I love that book so much, and being able to translate one of those books to the screen, I don’t think that’s me. ‘Cause you don’t want to be the guy who f**ks it up, and so I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know, we’ll see.’ But I’m certainly not committed to do it, only as much of I don’t want to drop the ball ’cause I like it so much. But if it was some show I didn’t like; I mean, I’ve never really directed TV anyway, so it’s kind of difficult getting my head around it, but since it’s an hour-long drama, presumably, I’d be more keen to directing a movie rather than TV – I don’t know, maybe, maybe. The thing that would keep me from doing that would be I’d be afraid of ruining what I like so much about ‘Preacher’ – so we’ll see if that happens.”

Smith added that he hasn’t started writing his horror movie yet. “Horror flick is all up here (points to brain); I just have to put it down here (pretends to type). I’ve just been using acting as an excuse to not sit down and not write. For me, I don’t know; it’s kind of coming down to me wanting to do this comedy and me wanting to do this horror flick. And I feel like I should do the horror flick because I’ve done seven comedies in 12 years, and I don’t feel like a filmmaker most days; I just feel like a guy who makes those movies set in that universe. So if I really want to test myself or push myself, I’d try and make something completely out of my safety zone, completely out of my genre – that said, I’ve never tested myself, so why would I start now.”

He and Mewes have a cameo in the adventure-comedy, Fanboys “I’ve watched half of it; it’s a rather sweet movie. I haven’t watched the other half of it; I watched my half up until my part, ’cause we were doing that little scene, and I wanted to throw some stuff together for it. And I was like, ‘So what’s the movie about?’ My part wasn’t in it yet, but I turned it off where my part would be. ‘Cause [producer Scott] Mosier’s like, ‘We’re still in the midst of cutting it; watch the finished version,’ and what not. But I like it, I think it’s a really sweet movie, and right up my f**kin’ alley; so I’m kind of programmed to kind of dig it. That dude, Dan Fogler in the movie’s really funny, the chick from ‘Veronica Mars,’ who I absolutely love… [Kristen Bell]… she’s in it, and she’s really good. That dude who plays Windows in the movie is the guy from ‘Million Dollar Baby’… [Jay Baruchel]… he’s in the movie and he’s really pimp, and really funny.”

Smith also revealed the opening scene of his new Showtime comedy, “Manchild.” “In the opening scene in the show, we’re on surfboards in the middle of the Pacific, and I’m wearing a wetsuit, and I look like the f**kin’ Penguin, just round, with a little head on top. So I said, ‘I really feel like my character, Paul, would probably wear a shirt over this; and they were like, ‘You don’t wear a shirt in the ocean.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, Paul would; and Paul’s gonna.’ And they were like, ‘Alright.’ So they let me wear a Kings jersey.” The show revolves around a group of fortysomething male friends (Smith, James Purefoy, John Corbett, Paul Hipp) who are knee-deep in midlife crises. Smith said that if “Manchild” gets picked up, they will start shooting again in March on 12 episodes for four months.

“I’m a sucker for the ‘monster as a hero’ concept and I wanted to take a stab at drawing essentially a super-team of monsters,” Flannigan told CBR news. However, in the beginning, Johnson took a little more convincing. “I had no aspirations of comic creation and wouldn’t have thought of it had Walter not suggested the ‘Karney ‘ adaptation,” added Johnson. “The rest is comics history. At least in my house where publishing a comic is more than the eight preceding Johnson generations accomplished.”

…

Just as their entry into comic book creation was unusually simple, Johnson and Flannigan don’t collaborate in what could be called the “traditional” way of other writer/artist teams either. ” We talk about the story, spitball ideas and figure out what we want to happen in the issue,” said Johnson. “Walt then goes off and draws whatever he wants and when he’s done I go back and fill in the narrative. From what I understand this isn’t the way it’s normally done. However, I’ve also been told it’s the way ‘Stan the Man’ used to do it. So I’m pretty much exactly like him – except for the talent, money and good looks. Other than that, we’re exactly the same.”

If you’re gonna come on all authoritative with “Here’s what was the worst out of everything”, you’d have better peeped all the flicks, I say. I hadn’t.

Sadly, I didn’t figure that all out until I sat down to write my mini-reviews. The “Ebert” folks were very gracious and understanding.

For a non-critic like me, I can get away with reviewing a few flicks on any given episode, but considering (unlike Roger and Richard), I don’t see every flick that comes out, I shouldn’t be sitting in on a year-end “Worst of” special.

The “Best of” and “Worst of” eps should really be chaired solely by critics.

“When I first heard about this sequel being made, I was scared like many of you, but I’m happy to report that this is a solid movie with laughs galore, pop-culture reference galore, vulgarity and sexual connotations galore and even a cute romance for the ladies in the audience. If you’re a fan of Kevin Smith and his previous films, I see no reason why this movie wouldn’t rock your balls off.”

I guess I’m a little biased since I’ve met Kevin Smith once or twice in my lifetime and he was even cool enough to write a foreword to my book, but that aside, this film was one of the funnier ones of the year for me, especially as a 30-something who connected with some of the film’s subtext (and yeah, by “subtext” I mean Pillowpants!!!!!). And I’m pretty sure that I can watch the scene featuring Rosario Dawson “dancing” on the rooftop for say…days on end!

‘Silent Bob’ Addresses Macworld

Filmmaker/actor Kevin Smith gives his unusual take on Apple and iPods.

By Eydie Cubarrubia

The ramifications of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ announcements Tuesday could affect the cell phone market –worth $251 million in the third quarter of 2006—and the digital home. But screw that.

Instead of pontificating about changing the world and its technology markets, filmmaker/actor Kevin Smith regaled a packed house at Macworld Expo with his often raunchy observations about the movie industry, iPods, and word processors. Really, really raunchy.

Mr. Smith first made a splash with Clerks, a black-and-white independent flick with low production values and compellingly hilarious dialogue. Since then, he’s written well-received movies like Dogma and Chasing Amy, and even a documentary-like short to benefit post-911 charities that explored the, er, acrimonious relationship between New Yorkers and New Jersey denizens.

Whether documentary or feature, what sets apart a Smith film is the insanely blunt dialogue. Same with his live appearances—at least at Macworld, happening through Friday in San Francisco.

“Yeah, I’m just here for some free shit,” Mr. Smith said in opening remarks that even beat Mr. Jobs’. Pointing to a bald spot in the back of his head, the Jersey native added, “I would put an Apple logo there, if they would just give me a free computer!”

In between fondly recalling his days working at a convenience store or admitting the embarrassment he sometimes feels wearing tight costumes for a movie role, the filmmaker also recalled his first Apple and gave his take on what are the real repercussions of the iPhone.

On when he first used an Apple computer: My first Apple I got in late 1994. Up until that point I was writing on a Smith-Corona word processor. I didn’t even know what a computer was—I saw War Games and thought, ‘Shit, I can’t afford that.’ That’s (word processor) what I wrote Clerks on… it had a heavy-ass monitor… a heavy-ass drive… I remember lugging it down to the Quik-Stop. When you wanted to print something out it was just like typing really fast. It took four minutes per page and I was thinking, ‘This shit’s lightening fast!’ I wanted to start work on Mallrats (and a friend introduced him to Apple computers). It had a weird green-screen image… I don’t know what the model was. I worked off that a good year. (Upon news of Clerks tribute sites) I was like, ‘What’s the Internet?’ I didn’t even know how to describe it—I’d never seen a Web page before.

Ever since I’ve been into computers, I’ve been a Mac guy. I don’t want to get into PC-bashing, but PCs are just weird and stupid. ‘Right-click?!’ I’m not a branding guy, but [Apple] and Vans are the only two companies I’d buy stock in.

On digital movie distribution, as a filmmaker: I like it. It’s yet another avenue to get your movie out there. There’s always someone who hasn’t seen something before… And it looks good. And I’d said ‘f*** DVDs’ when they first came out, same when they announced the iPod.

On the new iPhone: I’m just waiting for them to drill a hole in it. The iF***. Now that you can make phone calls from your iPod, the only thing left to do is [make love to] it. Women are in big trouble! And it’ll all be Steve Jobs’ fault.