SModcast 12: A Fat Kenickie

In which our heroes tread the boards and let loose their inner-gay via a prolonged discussion about their Broadway experiences, hold their “Damned” nut, show a lack of respect for tenth grade Thornton Wilder, try to put Snoopy in the pound, get “Grease”-y, dramatize comic books, prevent Mewes from shanking a non-comics fan with a somewhat legal stiletto, fret where the Fourth Reich will emanate from, sort out Kevindia’s geopolitical impact on the continent of Mosieria, and overuse the term “moxie”.

AN INTERVIEW WITH VINCENT PEREIRA

BY CHRIS GRAVES

Chris Graves: For those who do not know, what is your background and how were you introduced to the world of View Askew and Kevin Smith?

Vincent Pereira: My background is I was a tall, quiet, angry, and introverted high schooler who was obsessed with horror flicks and who got a job stocking the shelves at the Quick Stop- albeit a tall, quiet, angry and introverted high schooler who was obsessed with horror flicks AND film and filmmaking since I was in grade school. So here I was, working at the Quick Stop after school as a junior in High School, when Kevin was hired to man the registers at both the convenience and video stores. At first, Kevin seemed almost as quiet, angry, and unapproachable as I was, and sometimes downright snotty (I still remember the day I had asked him to hold some new action movie for me because my dad wanted to see it, but Kevin went ahead and rented it off to a customer instead, and when I confronted him about it a little bit annoyed his response was, “What am I, your mother?”), but before too long we cut through all that bullshit and developed a rapour overour mutual love of David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS, and a friendship was born.

CG: How did you come to be known as the unofficial “View Askew Historian”?

VP: I think it’s because I have a good memory and recall of minutia that other folks normally forget. I tend to pay attention to little details and soak them in and most people don’t do that, I suppose.

CG: What was your first reaction to Mr. Smith when you met at the Quick Stop? And what was your favorite flick (Slacker excluded) that the two of you saw at the Angelica Theater, after working at the store all those years ago?

VP: At first we didn’t really get along, but then we realized that the Thapers (the owners of the Quick Stop) were playing us off against each other. They would tell me that Kevin was complaining to them that I wasn’t working hard enough or whatever, so I figured him to be a snitch. Turns out it wasn’t the case, he didn’t give a shit what I did (or didn’t) do there, and after that we got on just fine.

As for our favorite film that we saw together at the Angelica, I dunno what Kevin’s was, but mine was probably Abel Ferrera’s BAD LIEUTENANT- although my car at the time was broken into while we were watching the film (a midnight screening). As I recall the thieves stole some of Kevin’s money, but they were kindly enough to leave his journal literally sitting on the hood of my car so at least he didn’t lose any of his written-down ideas and notes (some of which found their way not only into CLERKS but later CHASING AMY).

CG: Mr. Smith has said many times before that you were an integral part in getting Clerks made. What was your first reaction to the first draft of Clerks? Is it true that it didn’t seem like a comedy at all, but more like a weird David Lynch-esque drama?

VP: No, the script pages themselves were always comedic. It was the original concept that wasn’t a comedy, but more of a David Lynch-type film about a guy working the midnight to 6 AM shift at an all-night convenience store and the weird people he meets and how he gets through this strange night. Kevin had written a one-page synopsis for that, titled IN CONVENIENCE, but by the time he actually started writing script pages, the comedy just poured out.

He gave me a big bunch of pages that were only in temporary order- he was writing individual scenes with the characters at that point, not a point-A to point-B narrative as such. I loved the material, although it was obvious that some of it was unfilmable at his budget- specifically, a subplot involving the fired mop boy/sniper at the convenience store who takes refuge on a roof overlooking the local bank, and was to take shots at Dante when he goes there to deposit money for the Quik Stop, all while Randal watches the event unfold live on the television news in the Quik Stop…

Although said “angry mop boy” character was clearly based on me and I’d have loved to see myself so memorably immortalized in CLERKS, I swallowed my pride and pointed out to Kev that I doubted he’d ever be able to film something that complex on such a low-budget, so it was dropped. A few other dropped scenes included a bit with a JFK conspiracy nut who visits the video store, my favorite *EVER* unfilmed Kevin scene- “Scruples the Cat”- which wound up in different forms in several other of Kevin’s scripts only to be dropped from them as well, and a long scene where Dante carries an old ladies’ groceries home for her at night. The later was an incredibly funny scene, but again- doing an extended exterior nighttime shoot with a moving camera and pages of dialogue just seemed undoable given the CLERKS budget, so the scene was dropped early on.

CG: Any entertaining anecdotes about the filming of Clerks that might not of been shared yet? And what was your reaction to the film’s success?

VP: To be honest re: anecdotes, I can’t think of anything that hasn’t already been said. As for my reaction to the success, I know I’m supposed to say it was a shock or surprise, but for me at least it really was not. I knew the script was great, and I knew the cut of the film was really clever, incredibly well-written, and funny beyond belief, so when it kept going further and further- first, the Village Voice write-up, then accepted at Sundance, then Miramax buying it- my reaction was, duh. I figured good work was SUPPOSED to be rewarded, so everything that came to CLERKS didn’t surprise me at all, it made perfect sense. Things are supposed to happen the way they did with CLERKS- what surprises me is when really good films are NOT successful, or when bad ones are.

CG: What was the genesis of your film “A Better Place”? Where did the idea come from and what were your thoughts on the finished film, having work with a limited budget? Anything you would’ve done differently with a larger budget?

VP: The “genesis” was, Kevin filmed CLERKS when he was 22 and I was 20, so I put a goal in sight that I wanted to be shooting my own feature when I was 22, too. I had no idea what I wanted it to be, though, until one night in I believe the late summer or fall of 1993 when I caught a 20/20 (I believe) piece about the Jamie Bulger murder case in England- the todler who was picked up by two older boys at a mall then taken to nearby train tracks and murdered. Now, I had always been intrigued by stories of youthful killers- something about somebody that young doing something that devastatingly profound always resonated with and disturbed me. Seeing that piece about the Bulger case just brought all that back into my head, and it just hit me that THIS would be what I’d make a film about. Mind you, not a film about the actual case itself, but the case inspired me to reach deep within myself and expose all of that pent up teenage angst and rage I had growing up. So, inspired by the Bulger case, I took all that pent up rage and sat down and wrote 10-pages of what was to become A BETTER PLACE.

I remember giving those pages to Kevin a couple days later, and he responded really, REALLY favorably to them. Then, he went off on the festival tours for CLERKS and I went into deep thinking mode and the rest of the story germinated in my mind. Several months later, Kevin was home for a bit in between fest showings of CLERKS, and he came into RST Video one afternoon while I was working and basically said, “You know Vinnie, those pages you showed me were the start of something really good. If you finish it, I now have the means to finance it”, and that was that. I was given the kick-start I needed, and I went ahead and turned those opening pages into a first-draft script over the next six months, which I then took to the set of MALLRATS and handed over to Kevin and Scott, and the rest is history.

I’m very happy with the finished film. An interesting thing happens when you go from idea – to script – to screen: What ends up on screen is its own entity and isn’t identicle to what it is you originally had in your head… But then something magical happens- there’s a mood that permeates all three, so even though the final film is its own beast, it’s still connected and it still feels right. To me, that’s what matters- A BETTER PLACE feels right in its final form, despite the budget limitations and whatever technical flaws there may be. The mood and feel of the film match what I always had in mind, even if 100% of the images in my head didn’t make it on screen. I have no regrets and really like the film, and I truly think I’d still like even if it wasn’t “my baby”, so to speak.

CG: What have you been up to since the DVD release of “A Better Place”?

VP: Living my life, writing, etc. I worked for over a year and a half on an aborted attempt to adapt Clive Barker’s short story PIG BLOOD BLUES into a feature. When that fell apart, to be honest it put me into a pretty bad depression, and then my dad unexpectantly got sick and died only a few months later which made it worse. My personal life was thrown into a pretty big upheaval during that time. PIG BLOOD BLUES is now going ahead without me, albeit with some of my ideas in the final script for which I’ll be paid.

That’s the only concrete project I was working on- everything else has been personal stuff. Right now, though, I’m working on two very dark, very indie scripts. One started out as BROKEN BOY and I was on a roll with it last fall, but then I hit a snag and am not quite sure where to go with it in the final act. I have a few different ideas, I need to work them out in my head and see which works best dramatically and thematically.

The other is a fairly straight-forward dramatic thriller called THE TRAIL. It just popped into my head a couple weeks ago while I was bike riding along a 9-mile stretch of the Henry Hudson Trail which is right near where I live here in New Jersey. I’dalways thought it would be neat to do a film set along that stretch and on this particular day, something must have been right because the entire thing just popped into my head out of the blue and it’s all very simple and elegant in a way. I really think it will be my next project, it can be done on a very low budget and while it has a European sensibility to it and gets quite dark and violent, it could also be fairly commercial with the right audiences. The lead character has a lot of me in him, he’s kind of a dreamer and observer. And after that, when I come up with the appropriate final act for what is tentatively titled BROKEN BOY, I have a feeling that A BETTER PLACE, THE TRAIL, and BROKEN BOY (or whatever it ends up being called) will all fit together as kind of “youth violence” trilogy, or maybe the better description would be “troubled youth trilogy”. The stories of all three are completely different but share similar themes and sensibilities and they’re all very small, personal projects. I’m kind of jazzed about having them fit together in that way if these two new ones happen, which I hope they will.

CG: It is somewhat known that you are a horror movie fan. Did Kevin write a horror script for you to direct a few years ago? And what was your reaction to the news that Kevin’s next project would be a horror film?

VP: I’ve been a horror film fan for about as long as I can remember- in fact, my mom has saved pictures I drew in crayon when I was like 5 years old that were images from JAWS which I had seen on TV. Horror movies got me interested in movies in general, and by extension, they got me interested in filmmaking because I always wanted to know, “How’d they do that?”

When I was a senior in High School, I asked Kevin if he’d write me something to do as my major end of the year project for art class. My only stipulation was that I wanted it to be horror, and set in the old ruins out at the end of Sandy Hook. Kev came back with this intense, 80-page or so religious-themed horror epic inspired somewhat by Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL that was WAY beyond my means at the time. I mean, the dialogue was just crazy brilliant, and there was no way I could have mounted that on VHS tape for my high school art class, so the script was forgotten and actually misplaced for several years.

Then, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, my dad found a print out of it among a bunch of my old high school notebooks in our basement. I re-read it and thought it might be worth it to try and turn it into a feature, and Kevin gave me his blessing to go ahead and see what I could do with it. It had to be re-written as some of the concepts and ideas had actually found their way into DOGMA, so I gave it a go. Although I had some ideas that I thought were good, in the end as I was never able to properly connect with it, so I hit a block and abandoned it.

As for RED STATE, I’m really looking forward to seeing what Kevin comes up with. The first writings of his that I ever read were always on the dark side, so for me at least this will be something of a return to that.

CG: What is “Autograph” and is it still in development?

VP: AUTOGRAPH is my “giallo” script, inspired by the early murder/mystery thrillers of my favorite filmmaker, Dario Argento. It’s basically my love letter to him, and to film as a medium. As for being “in development”, I guess in that I now have a draft of it that I flat-out love and would love to do as a future project. It took me a long time to write the first draft- 3 years!- and after that, I was kind of burned out on it. Scott Mosier gave me some great notes but I was so exhausted with just having finished it finally that I couldn’t muster the energy to impliment his notes, so at the time I asked a friend- Pete DeWolf- to do it for me. I have Pete my first draft script, along with Scott’s notes, and asked him if he could do anything with it. Pete was able to work with Scott’s notes and we did two more drafts of the script together, but it still didn’t seem quite right and maybe the time wasn’t right, so I put the script aside.

About two years ago, I dug it out again and started anew. With a couple years of hindsight I was able to approach the script from a fresh perspective and really tighten it up and make it work. I really love what I’ve come up with in these recent drafts- the plotline is basically the same as the first draft I wrote way back when, but the execution is so much better. I still think it’s too “big” for me to try to do just yet- it’s a fairly complex, commercial script, and after all, I only have one $50,000 budgeted angry indie feature to my name- but if THE TRAIL gets made and gets me some attention, AUTOGRAPH will definitely be in my future.

CG: Do you have any new projects coming up?

VP: Just the ones I’ve mentioned, hopefully something will happen with them.

CG: What is your favorite View Askew/Kevin Smith flick?

VP: CHASING AMY, so far.

CG: And finally, is there anything you’d like to add that maybe people haven’t heard yet, regarding the world of View Askew?

VP: Off hand, nothing really comes to mind.

An Evening with Kevin Smith on his Birthday

Thursday August, 2, 2007 at 7pm
Presented by: Count Basie Theater

Ever wanted to wish Kevin Smith happy birthday? Ever wonder what actor, writer, producer, director and editor Kevin Smith’s top 5 favorite movies are? Why the hero in his movies frequently has a best friend who wears his baseball cap backward? Why he references Star Wars in his films? This is your big chance. Celebrate Kevin Smith’s birthday with him (he was born on August 2, 1970) during a no-holds-barred question-and-answer with the audience. For the uninitiated, Smith’s films include Clerks (1994), which won the highest award at the Sundance Film Festival; Mallrats (1995); Chasing Amy (1997), which won two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Role; Dogma (1999); Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001); Jersey Girl (2004); and Clerks II (2006). He’s also an award winning comic book writer; a film school drop out; an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (Illinois Wesleyan University, 2000); owner of his own comic book store (Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank) and his own production company (ViewAskew), and he makes short films for the Jay Leno show. Come find out how he accomplished all this before age 37!

Tickets: $75, $59.50 $39.50 and $25

…Spent almost a month up in Vancouver, working on the “Reaper” pilot for the CW. Apparently, the show turned out well, and is testing great. The network seems to really dig it, so there’s an excellent chance you’ll be able to peep the show in the fall.

Was weird, but interesting, shooting someone else’s script. I feel I did a pretty good job (elevating, not simply executing), but ultimately, it’s not for me. I’m a writer, first and foremost; that’s where my heart lies. Still, it was a worthwhile exercise to take (and about the only exercise I’ve done in a year), and all seem happy with the results. I had a great crew, got to shoot with Dave Klein again, and worked with some actors who I wouldn’t mind taking into features…

Following the wrap of “Reaper”, I went over to the UK for a pair of Q&A’s (both really great shows), then hit Jersey for a few days to play some poker and see the Devils kick off Game One against Tampa Bay in the first round of playoffs (which they ultimately won). I’ll be heading back east again this week, primarily to do a panel on comic book movies (odd, considering I’ve never made one myself… yet) at the Tribeca Film Festival, but especially so I can drop in on Game Five of the second round of playoffs, as the Devils battle it out against Ottawa.

The big news from our camp that went public last month was in regards to View Askew’s first stab (pun intended) at the horror genre – as I finally let slip with what we’re planning. Entitled “Red State”, we hope to be shooting it this fall. Once I finish the script for the follow-up comedy we’ll be doing (I started writing that last month), I’ll dig in on the “Red State” script, with an eye toward shooting it first, then a month or so later, starting pre-production on the comedy – our ninth film. Mos and I are planning something special for our tenth flick (no – not an Askewniverse picture); more on that in the near future…

We’re Telling Springsteen Fans Where You Live

Kid #1: Yo, Silent Bob lives in that place.
Kid #2: No, he doesn’t. He’s from New Jersey.
Kid #1: No famous people live in New Jersey.

15. “You sly dog! You got me monologuing!” — Syndrome (Jason Lee) in The Incredibles (2004)

AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW MAHER

BY CHRIS GRAVES

1. For those who do not know, what is your background and how were you introduced to the world of View Askew and Kevin Smith?

I auditioned for Vulgar out of an ad in Backstage Magazine. My career at that point was essentially just off-off Broadway plays and that’s it. Theater has always been my main focus, pretty much, but at that time I had nothing in the way of film, no experience at all, and I knew that wouldn’t do, so I saw the ad and drove out to Red Bank. I read the script and thought it was good, really funny, but also thought, “Well, there’s no way this’ll get made.” I just wasn’t sure there was a market for a movie based around the issue of clown-rape. I didn’t realize until the callbacks that View Askew was making it, that it actually was a serious enterprise—and what’s more I got on really well with Bryan Johnson (the director), and found out that Ethan Suplee was in it too, who I thought was great in the other VA stuff I’d seen…anyway, I was excited to be cast. This was all ten years ago, but it’s still probably the most fun I’ve had on a film set. Bryan let Ethan and I improvise, come up with weird details and absurd back-stories for our characters. I know it sounds weird, but it never really bothered me, having to portray such a depraved and awful person. Despite the fact that we’re here acting out this horrible rape scene, the main difficulty was not cracking each other up on camera. From my perspective, Gino was just a 12 year-old child, fighting with his younger brother over who’s turn it was to play on the swing set. The fact that Gino was in fact in his mid twenties, and the swing set in question was a half-naked Brian O’Halloran, was entirely incidental. Good times.

2. Did you always want to be an actor? Any formal training?

I did plays in high school, but mainly to just to go to the cast parties, spend time around pretty girls even if I didn’t have the courage to ask them out, run with the cool crowd–that sort of thing. But I found I really enjoyed acting and stage work….and then after studying Literature in college, along with more acting classes and such, I started to come around to the idea that it was something I could actually do for a living.

3. How did you become involved with the film Dogma? Do you have any anecdotes about the behind the scenes action(or lack of) from Dogma? What was it like working with the great Jason Lee?

Kevin cast me from my work in Vulgar. No audition—Scott(Mosier) just called me up, which was great. The same thing happened with Jersey Girl, and with the Clerks series. I had gotten along well with everybody on Vulgar, and Kevin seems to like to stick with people he knows and trusts as much as possible. I think back then it also helped that I’m old friends with Ben Affleck–something I actually didn’t tell them until after I was cast in Vulgar. I had a chip on my shoulder back then about not using connections to get work, that it had to be solely based on my merit, no nepotism ever….whatever. It’s not an insecurity I have anymore. But anyway, I don’t think Ben ever tried to influence Kevin on my behalf—I don’t think he had to—but I do think my friendship with him made it all the more easy and natural to let me into the View Askew family, as it were.

Dogma was fun but a little nerve-racking, just because it was my first big-budget feature film and I didn’t want to blow it. Kevin, Scott, Jason…everybody was really nice and relaxed and they put me at ease–made me feel like a pro among pros. The one moment of true fear was when I was actually “shot”. They spent about four hours lining my chest with squibs, which are basically firecrackers with with blood packs in them—so when someone off camera presses a button all these mini explosions would go off on my chest. Since it was so time consuming getting the things on and wiring them up, they wanted to do it all in one take, with two cameras running simultaneously (three, if you count Jay Mewes off to the side with his camcorder) so there was no room for fuck-ups or anything, and at the very last minute, when I’m all set up behind the bar—there’s a mattress next to me for me to fall on, the cameras are focused, everyone’s ready—the special effects guy runs up me and says, “So when you feel these little bumps on your chest, be sure to throw your face and arms back, away from the popping, or else you’ll probably get third degree burns everywhere—okay, so ready? Good. Let’s do this!”

I must say, I’ve done lots of film and TV since then, to say nothing of performing large roles in classic plays—sometimes even to some acclaim—but in terms of actual recognition, all of that put together couldn’t equal the amount of notoriety I have achieved by being the guy that Jason Lee’s character shoots towards the end of that movie. I could win an academy award, cure AIDS, but still my obituary would read that I was best known as the Holy Bartender from Dogma. In literally every town and city I’ve ever visited since then, big or small, some counter guy will spot me a cup of coffee, or some kid will ride by me on his skateboard and shout “Dude! Holy Bartender!” I’m in Imperial Beach, California at the moment, which is this tiny little surfing town south of San Diego—on location for a TV series. So just a few days ago, it’s late at night and I’m smoking outside my trailer and a small crowd of Mexican teen-agers roll up on me, and before I even have a chance to get nervous one of the kids is like, “Yo man, can you settle a bet?” And without them saying anything more I know what’s coming. “You in Dogma?” he asks, and when I say yes, it’s like “Oh, shit! Holy Bartender! Oh shit man! Kevin Smith? You know Kevin Smith? Jason Lee shot you, dog! Seriously, but—seriously? That’s fuckin’ awesome, man. Hey man—seriously. Do you want to come get wasted with us?” Episodes like this cease to surprise me, but I do marvel at Kevin’s hold on the young minds of America.

4. The ill fated Clerks animated series has become a huge deal on dvd and video. You provided a voice for an episode. Over all, was it a fun time? Have you seen the other episodes you weren’t a part of and if so, what did you think?

It was a great time. Just four hours in a sound studio goofing around with Kevin and Scott—I think Bryan was there, too. Hands down the easiest money ever made. I’ve never seen the episodes, though, I’m ashamed to say. They never aired and I never did figure out how to get my hands on them. Those who’ve seen them tell me they’re good, though. Why did ABC pull the plug, again?

5. What is your relationship like in terms of Ben Affleck? Obviously you were both in Dogma and Jersey Girl, but the two of you also appeared in the 2002 film The Third Wheel, as well as your being cast in his recent directorial debut, Gone,Baby,Gone. Are you both friends?

As I mentioned, yeah—we’ve known each other since we were little and have been friends for a while. He offered me a part in Gone Baby Gone and was actually kind of apologetic about it–not because the part’s small (it’s actually kind of a great role) but because the guy I have to play is such a completely awful human being. I don’t want to give away the plot too much, but I can say it’s based on a Dennis Lehane novel (the guy who wrote Mystic River) and I play, well, a child molester. The character’s similar to Gino in Vulgar, but transplanted to the real world—in other words not funny, not absurd, just very very dark and sad. It was a lot more difficult then Vulgar, because to do it right I really had to try and imagine the mind-set of someone saddled with these truly awful impulses. But Ben’s a great director to work with—really wonderful with actors—and the little I’ve seen of the movie, which also has Casey Affleck in it, and Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman—looks pretty amazing.

6. Being a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, I have to ask what it was like being directed by the man himself in the 1999 movie, Bringing Out The Dead? Did it ever get to be overwhelming being around the likes of Nic Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, and Ving Rhames?

Scorsese’s main direction to me was to stop acting. It was a short scene—a page or two—but it was packed with melodrama, and I could have easily started chewing the scenery. But he was like, “Let the situation speak for itself; you’re a homeless guy, surrounded by other homeless guys, on a freezing corner outside port authority, and one of your friends is dying; all you have to do is say, “I think my friend is dying” and the audience will see the direness of your situation without you, or rather, me, having to do anything else.” I took his advice as best I could, although they ended up shooting the whole scene in a wide shot, so the world will never really know if I was any good.

My scene was with Nicholas Cage and John Goodman but I didn’t interact with them much. It was late at night and and it was very cold and everybody just hustled back to their trailer when the cameras weren’t rolling.

7. Being involved with all three films (Dogma,Vulgar,and Jersey Girl), First: What was your reaction to the controversy surrounding Dogma? Second: The reaction to Vulgar, mainly Howard Stern’s, and Third: The paparazzi’s ambush of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on the set of Jersey Girl?

My only reaction to the whole Ben and Jennifer paparazzi thing was that I felt bad for them. Whether they were ultimately right for each other or not, they weren’t being allowed to have a normal relationship.

The Dogma controversy thing was crazy to me. I mean, short of The Greatest Story Ever Told, I honestly don’t know of a more pro-Jesus movie than Dogma. The curse words and strippers aside, here was a movie that absolutely pre-supposed the existence of a loving, forgiving, yet all-powerful God—played by Alanis Morrisette, for heaven’s sake. What more of an endorsement can you give in the late nineties? Here’s the catholic church condemning the movie, when it’s clear to anyone who actually saw the movie that it’s about how to be a good catholic. It’s fucking advertisement for Catholicism, packed with Oscar winning movie stars, and the church freaked. I couldn’t understand it.

What to did Howard Stern say about Vulgar? I forget.

(Stern’s reaction involved watching only a small amount of the film and then throwing it in the trash, as well as ranting for weeks on air about how disgusting it was)

8. Do you have any new projects coming up?

I’m working right now on a new HBO show called John from Cincinnati, which is being created by David Milch–the same guy who did NYPD Blue and Deadwood. I have a supporting role that appears in episode six and continues on from there. I don’t know how much of the story I’m allowed to reveal, so I’ll keep my mouth shut–but I think it’s going to be pretty amazing. It premieres sometime in June.

9. What is your favorite View Askew/Kevin Smith flick (Dogma/ Vulgar/ Jersey Girl excluded)?

Since my part in Dogma is small, I feel I can still objectively say that that’s my favorite.

10. And finally, do you still keep in contact with anyone from View Askew?

I see Kevin and Scott in LA every once in a while. I haven’t seen Bryan for a long time, though, it feels like—Bryan, if you’re reading this, put down the porno mag and give me a ring.

Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith) OK, so Clerks is hands down the more important film, but Chasing Amy has always been my personal favorite of Kevin Smith’s catalogue. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and it focuses on my other passion besides film (comic books, not lesbians). Ben Affleck does some of his best work and Joey Lauren Adams is absolutely adorable, but Jason Lee steals the show as Banky. Years before America knew him as Earl, Lee had me in stitches with his way-too-candid confessions and observations here.