‘Clerks III’ Interview with Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes
"Clerks III" stars Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson and Trevor Fehrman chat about the third "Clerks" movie in this interview with CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb at San Diego Comic-Con. They chat about everything from View Askew’s history to Jason Mewes’ dream of becoming a wax figure.
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00:00 We made this whole plan to go see Cats and take fans.
00:03 - You and him?
00:04 - Yeah, me and Mews.
00:04 We never did it, though.
00:05 - We never did it.
00:06 He ignored my texts after that.
00:08 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:09 - I think it was that one selfie of me on my shirtless.
00:11 I was like, "Let's go to Cats."
00:13 - This hole, interestingly enough, also has buttholes in it.
00:16 - Yeah.
00:17 (laughing)
00:18 - Clerks Three, the asshole.
00:19 (laughing)
00:21 (upbeat music)
00:24 - It is kind of funny, though,
00:34 that the year that Comic-Con comes back,
00:37 you have something else to promote.
00:39 It's like you're planning it that way.
00:41 - There's no accident.
00:41 - Yeah, not at all.
00:42 And even when Comic-Con wasn't happening,
00:45 we had stuff going on.
00:46 The key is to always have stuff going on.
00:48 And sometimes, pop culture lines up nicely
00:51 where the focus falls on you and people are like,
00:53 "Oh, you're doing the thing."
00:55 And then sometimes you kind of do it in relative obscurity.
00:57 Being here with something would have been either way,
01:04 even if there was a con or not.
01:06 There's always kind of something going on.
01:07 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:08 I mean, especially for you.
01:10 - Well, I'm desperate to remain relevant.
01:12 I'm so fucking thirsty, as the internet says,
01:15 for relevancy that I have to create new shit all the time.
01:19 Otherwise, they're like,
01:20 "Oh, he's that guy that did that thing once."
01:22 So I've done that thing a number of times,
01:24 including this, three times.
01:26 This is the third iteration of Clerks.
01:28 - Well, watching the trailer,
01:29 I mean, I haven't had the privilege of seeing it yet,
01:32 but I'm a big fan.
01:33 And I was a little surprised
01:36 that I thought it would have been Dante
01:37 that had the heart attack.
01:39 And I only say that because--
01:41 - Whoa, whoa.
01:42 - You're stressed, bro.
01:43 You're stressed.
01:44 - Everybody's trying to be killing me.
01:46 What's happening?
01:46 - You're not even supposed to be here today.
01:48 You're stressed out.
01:49 You know what I mean?
01:50 So, but I was glad that it didn't go in that direction
01:52 because it kind of went against my expectations
01:54 a little bit.
01:55 And it's cool to see Randall in that like,
01:56 really like inspired mode.
01:58 So was that ever something that crossed your mind?
02:00 - Oddly enough, no.
02:03 Like it never occurred to,
02:04 I knew that I was gonna use the heart attack
02:06 as the storyline.
02:08 When I fell upon that idea, I was like, "Oh, perfect."
02:10 But it always seemed like a Randall thing to do,
02:13 which is so strange
02:14 'cause Dante is literally based on me.
02:17 So figuratively, I've always been Dante.
02:20 He's the way in to the "Clerk" stories
02:22 and that's 'cause I used to work there.
02:24 But, and it sounds weird to say,
02:27 I just didn't think Dante would ever make a movie,
02:30 which is weird 'cause I was Dante and I did make a movie.
02:33 But that's where me and the character really splits.
02:35 And I always loved "Clerks"
02:37 because it's kind of like my way to be like,
02:39 let me check in on the life I might've had
02:42 if everything hadn't worked out, so to speak,
02:44 if I didn't become a filmmaker or something.
02:46 So jumping back into that world,
02:48 you would imagine since Dante has always been
02:51 kind of my way in,
02:52 that he would be the one to make the movie.
02:53 But for some reason, I could not get my head around that.
02:55 I'm like, that just doesn't seem like a thing
02:57 Dante would do, but that's in a weird way saying like,
03:00 well, why would I ever make a movie?
03:01 And I did.
03:02 So it just felt more like Randall,
03:04 particularly because Randall doesn't have as much.
03:08 Like Dante had love and family and stuff like that,
03:11 as we saw in the last movie.
03:13 So here, like Randall kind of gets to step to the fore
03:16 and somebody who's gonna pick up art late in life,
03:19 which is kind of like what the movie's about,
03:21 generally you do that once you're past responsibility
03:24 or something.
03:25 If you've got a family,
03:26 you don't think about taking those risks.
03:27 Randall has nothing to lose.
03:28 He almost lost his life.
03:30 So he's like, fuck it.
03:31 I'm gonna make an incredible life change
03:33 right here in our world.
03:34 That seemed more like a Randall thing to do than a Dante.
03:37 So that's why we went in that direction.
03:39 - More changes to make, you know?
03:40 - A little bit.
03:41 Honestly, just like, do you buy that?
03:43 Like for some reason, I'm like,
03:44 that Dante would never make a movie.
03:46 - As the characters, I totally believe it.
03:48 I mean, and if it wasn't gonna be some sort of heart attack,
03:51 it would have been definitely
03:52 either Randall murdering Dante,
03:54 burying him in the store, in the freezer.
03:57 So I think this is a much--
03:59 - Stop talking about "Plurks 4."
04:00 (all laughing)
04:01 Spoiler alert.
04:03 - That means that would be next in your life
04:04 because we'd have to base it on that.
04:06 - That's true, that's true.
04:07 I got a call from my own life.
04:08 I was like, well, now I deal with getting rid of that body.
04:10 - I think too, if Dante were making the movie,
04:14 it would be a different movie.
04:15 Like "Plurks" is a Randall movie.
04:17 - Very much so.
04:18 - It would be a drama or something,
04:20 some kind of love story.
04:21 (all laughing)
04:24 - Something real, something moving.
04:25 - What, he would remake "The Notebook."
04:26 Everybody knows that.
04:27 (all laughing)
04:29 - So my friend, Sean, you know, our managing director,
04:32 he's already seen the movie and he was--
04:34 - He came over with the "Real Blend" podcast boys,
04:37 him and Kevin and Jake, and watched the movie.
04:41 They were supposed to watch it on like my big TV.
04:43 I had my laptop plugged in, but the connection didn't work.
04:46 So they wound up huddling around a laptop like this.
04:49 And I was like, not the most ideal way to watch it.
04:51 Like, bro, we watch movies on our phone.
04:52 This is actually an upgrade.
04:54 So yeah, they huddle around and watch it at my house.
04:57 A weird, oddly stacking the deck, right?
05:00 Like if you're watching it in the filmmaker's house,
05:02 it's like, well, what'd you think?
05:03 - Right.
05:04 - Naturally, they're like, oh, it was great.
05:05 Thanks for not killing us in the house.
05:07 - No, even when you weren't around,
05:09 they said they loved it.
05:10 - And behind my back, that's a good sign.
05:12 But again, you know, like your wife served them pizza.
05:14 Like, how are you not gonna love it?
05:16 - Look, if I could do that for everyone in America,
05:18 we'd have a hit film.
05:19 - Yeah, exactly.
05:20 - So little bit by bit.
05:22 - But he's, you know, he's a UBSCU universe geek too.
05:25 You know, we talk about the connections and stuff
05:27 and how much we've always loved that.
05:29 He was talking about some appearances
05:31 from like "Litterbox Guy" and just, you know,
05:33 references to "The First Clerks."
05:35 He said it's like heavier than any of the other films
05:38 with the references.
05:39 So for you guys, was it wild
05:41 to get all these like folks back together
05:43 that you've been like,
05:44 you've almost like grown up with in this industry?
05:47 - It was, it was like a lot of surreal moments in there
05:51 where we were doing stuff that we did 30 years ago.
05:55 And we're old, but it's weird when you look at it
05:58 and it was really weird.
06:00 And seeing like some of the same people,
06:02 like you gotta remember, these people aren't actors
06:04 and they all came in, stepped in and were like amazing.
06:07 It was really, it was a lot of fun.
06:09 - It would be fun on set where either the DP
06:12 or Kevin would bring up, you know,
06:14 HBO Max had the original clerks on their stream.
06:16 So we would literally freeze frame things
06:18 to kind of match up shot for shot.
06:20 And Kevin had posted on his social media,
06:22 the one shot where we're at the counter kind of thing.
06:25 And you just see that kind of flashback thing
06:27 where if someone came to me like 28, 30 years ago,
06:30 like you're gonna be right here.
06:32 You can see this exact thing.
06:34 - You're like, no!
06:35 And I'm like, ah!
06:36 That would mean I failed.
06:37 (laughing)
06:38 - I would love to go back and explain to Kevin Smith,
06:41 as much as you hate Quick Stop,
06:42 you will spend the rest of your life
06:44 trying to get back here.
06:45 - As they walk right back into a TARDIS
06:48 and then disappear.
06:48 (laughing)
06:50 - The scariest moment for me is when the acid washed jeans
06:53 made an appearance.
06:54 (laughing)
06:55 - For some of us, they never left.
06:57 I was just working them back into the culture.
06:59 - It almost made me feel like nostalgic,
07:01 like seeing the hockey on the roof in the trailer.
07:03 I was like, oh shit, you know what I mean?
07:06 Were there any moments like that
07:07 that you were trying to throw back to
07:08 that just never made it in?
07:10 - I mean, no.
07:11 Honestly, I'm trying to think if there's anything.
07:13 In retrospect, I realize like,
07:14 oh, we could have done that, we missed that.
07:16 But I feel like since we shot in New Jersey
07:18 for the first time, since the first movie,
07:22 since Clerks, we shot the entire flick in New Jersey,
07:25 we had access to most of the people
07:27 who were still alive from the first movie.
07:29 And that's pretty much like almost everybody.
07:32 We're missing a dear member of our cast,
07:33 but even the old people who were old in Clerks,
07:36 like Joe Bagnell is the guy
07:37 who's watching the cat take a shit.
07:39 He owned the First Avenue Playhouse.
07:41 He's still alive, he came back, he's like,
07:43 I watched the cat take a shit again, and he did it again.
07:45 He's married to Donna Jean, who was an actress
07:48 who in the first Clerks was, Randall gets in a fight with,
07:51 where she's like, I don't appreciate your ruse, man.
07:54 She's still around.
07:55 She was like, we've known her for years and stuff.
07:58 And she's something of a local celebrity on our local stage.
08:01 And she's known primarily, of course, for being in Clerks,
08:05 but in our world, she's known for being
08:09 an incredible, impeccable Lucy impressionist.
08:12 - Oh yeah.
08:13 - She does Lucy, and she's done Lucy
08:15 for years on stage and stuff.
08:16 So when we were making the movie,
08:18 I wrote a scene for her where she could play Lucy.
08:21 And I gave it to her, and she's like,
08:22 what am I doing in Clerks 3?
08:24 I was like, I think you'll be surprised.
08:25 And she looked at it and she was like, no!
08:28 And I was like, it's the role you've been preparing
08:29 for your whole life.
08:31 And it was even made better by the fact
08:32 that since the boys in the movie are shooting
08:34 their version of Clerks called Inconvenience,
08:36 it's in black and white.
08:38 Her being Lucy in black and white,
08:40 like really fucking worked, made her so damn happy, man.
08:43 So we got fortunate, we were very fortunate
08:45 since we shot in our neck of the woods,
08:47 where we all were the first time,
08:49 a lot of those people came back.
08:51 And that's what makes it even stronger.
08:53 When you're like, oh my God,
08:54 we were able to score cool cameos
08:55 that if we were in California shooting the movie,
08:57 we never would have went for.
08:59 Like, having your main cast, of course, that's important.
09:02 If everybody sees them, they're like,
09:03 all right, we're back in the same place.
09:05 But then when you're fucking watching Clerks 3
09:07 and you're deep cut seeing people
09:08 that you haven't seen for nearly 30 years
09:10 since the first black and white movie,
09:12 it really brings it home for you, man.
09:14 It's this weird transference between viewer and film
09:18 where suddenly you're like, you know,
09:20 you're experiencing the movie as like,
09:22 I've watched these people grow up.
09:24 And then you put it into your own perspective
09:25 where you're like, wait, these people have been a part
09:28 of my life for this many years.
09:30 If they're old, that means I'm fucking old too.
09:32 And suddenly you start thinking about your own mortality.
09:35 That's the promise of Clerks 3.
09:37 - That's, dude, that's how I feel, you know?
09:39 Like, I'm like, wait, how old am I?
09:41 Like, I remember I started playing NHL 94
09:43 because of Mallrats, you know what I mean?
09:45 Like, little things like that.
09:47 - Crazy world.
09:48 - And then I look back on it and I'm like,
09:50 how long ago was 94?
09:51 Muse, I was wondering, there's a whole bit
09:54 in the new movie where you're camera shy
09:58 when it comes to your dancing.
10:01 And given the meta quality of Kevin's writing,
10:04 I was wondering if there was a true element to that.
10:07 - Yeah, oh yeah.
10:08 That really happened.
10:09 Like, me asking people to go inside and not watch me
10:14 or go out if we were filming inside,
10:17 I was super nervous in front of the camera
10:19 when we filmed Clerks.
10:21 And I was playing myself, but it was super, I don't know.
10:26 And I feel like even during Mallrats,
10:29 the next movie we did, I started warming up,
10:32 but I still was nervous.
10:33 And even in like doing interviews,
10:35 it took years for me to get comfortable
10:37 in front of the camera making films.
10:40 - Doing the same exact shit you do when a camera's not.
10:42 (laughing)
10:43 That's why I always thought, I was like,
10:45 this is, I gave him the script on Clerks,
10:46 I was like, look, man, I think you'd be great in this.
10:49 He's like, I don't know if I could do this.
10:50 I was like, it's you, it's literally all the shit
10:53 that you say.
10:54 He's like, well, I hear you say, I say, Snoochie Boochies.
10:56 Why would I say that?
10:57 I was like, why do you say that?
10:58 (laughing)
10:59 This is our chance to figure this out.
11:01 - Well, even when I auditioned, you had me audition for Jay,
11:04 just in case Jay couldn't play Jay.
11:05 - That's true.
11:06 - Would've been a completely different movie.
11:08 (laughing)
11:10 - It was weird.
11:11 I don't know, again, I don't know why
11:13 when we started filming, like all of a sudden,
11:16 the camera would say, Kevin would say, action,
11:18 the camera would be on me, and I'd be like,
11:20 Snooch to the, oh.
11:22 (laughing)
11:23 I don't know, I just feel like the camera
11:25 was sucking my soul, man.
11:26 - We had an old reference for it,
11:28 like back in when we were kids,
11:29 there was an episode of The Brady Bunch
11:31 where Cindy Brady went on TV,
11:32 and as soon as they turned the camera on, she did this.
11:34 - Oh, I remember that.
11:35 - Jay was very much Cindy Brady for the first two movies,
11:38 'cause he'd be sitting there like, Snooch to the Nooch!
11:40 You're like, action, he's like.
11:41 (laughing)
11:43 And then you're like, cut, he's like, Snooch to the Nooch!
11:45 Timing was off.
11:46 - Same with, if you go back and watch Kevin's Q and A's,
11:49 he used to pull me up on stage during the Q and A's,
11:52 and people would be like, yeah, and I'd be like, hey,
11:55 and Kevin would ask me something, and I'd be like, good.
11:58 (laughing)
11:59 Thank you.
12:00 - They're used to seeing him be so chatty in the movies,
12:02 that when he would show up, they would be like,
12:05 here he comes, he's gonna say something funny,
12:07 and he wouldn't say nothing.
12:08 He became Silent Bob.
12:09 In real life, our dynamic is very reversed.
12:11 I tend to do a lot of the talking,
12:13 and he sits there idly waiting for me to stop talking.
12:15 But he's become such a great raconteur over the years,
12:19 'cause he's gone out by himself
12:21 and done Jason Muses' amusing stories,
12:23 that periodically I'll be on a stage with him
12:25 and just forget that, oh yeah, you're not the kid anymore
12:28 that I have to put my hand up like a puppet
12:31 and say snooch to the nooch.
12:32 He's now, he knows how to be himself in public
12:35 and for a living when the cameras are on,
12:37 when the cameras are off.
12:38 Of everything that I've done in my career,
12:41 Jay's career is one of the things I'm proudest of.
12:43 'Cause my career is unlikely,
12:45 but his career is really fucking unlikely.
12:48 And together, we made it.
12:49 There's something really sweet about, like in 2019,
12:52 the Chinese theater had us put our hand prints
12:54 and our feet prints in the cement.
12:56 And we got to do it together.
12:57 And if I was, I was never gonna get into that courtyard
13:00 as Kevin Smith, the director,
13:02 but I got in as Jay in Silent Bob.
13:05 So I kind of got in on Jason's heels, man.
13:08 - Next we're going for the star,
13:10 and then I wanna be wax characters.
13:12 You know, the wax museum. - That's his thing.
13:13 He's like, can we be-- - And then the Pulitzer Prize.
13:16 - No, no, no, that's too much. - That's ridiculous.
13:17 - Yeah, no, there's the trifecta,
13:19 the wax museum, wax characters.
13:21 - I don't think that's the trifecta for anybody,
13:23 but I think it's adorable that you're like,
13:25 and then the pinnacle, wax figures.
13:28 - That's your EGOT.
13:29 - Exactly. - That is, that's Jay's EGOT.
13:31 - EGOT there.
13:33 - That was, I mean, that was the root of the question,
13:34 to be honest, was, you know,
13:35 I used to love an evening with Kevin Smith
13:37 when that first came out.
13:38 'Cause we get to see like a different side of you guys.
13:40 You were talking, I was like, what the fuck?
13:42 You know what I mean?
13:43 And then Jason comes out and sits in the chair
13:45 and not really talking that much, you know?
13:47 - Oh yeah.
13:48 But you took a while.
13:49 - In the beginning, it was like we would say with Jay,
13:52 it was kind of like putting peanut butter in his mouth
13:55 and pushing it in front of the camera.
13:57 - So that he'd stumble out and be like.
13:59 - And then we could just put words in it later on.
14:02 - Snooch time I mooch.
14:03 - The Mr. Ed, the Mr. Ed school of acting.
14:06 - Mr. Ed of wax acting.
14:07 - To watch him evolve as a performer
14:09 and like find his own power and strength.
14:11 Like it's incredible.
14:12 There are times, we do a lot of shows together,
14:14 him and I.
14:15 And periodically, we'll be in concert together,
14:18 not playing music, but on a show.
14:20 Like we did a podcast together last night,
14:22 Jay Insol and Bob Goodold.
14:23 And he said something that legitimately,
14:25 I had no idea he was gonna say,
14:26 and it came out of the fucking left field.
14:27 What was that fucking piece about,
14:30 oh, where he's like, he talked about,
14:31 he's like, sometimes, like I'm at Comic-Con
14:33 and I see somebody and I'm like,
14:36 oh my God, I know that person.
14:38 And then I realized I just saw him at an AA meeting.
14:40 (laughing)
14:42 And I was like, that's fucking wonderful.
14:45 Oh my God, I couldn't write a joke that good.
14:47 - It's a classic muse right there.
14:48 (laughing)
14:50 - It's true though, you know,
14:51 'cause you see people like walking around,
14:52 I'm like, I think that person's famous.
14:54 I think she's on that show.
14:55 Oh no, she's from my age.
14:56 (laughing)
14:58 Even sometimes I forget Brian's name and stuff.
15:00 I'll be like, Dante.
15:01 - Did you just point at Jeff?
15:02 - Yes, he just pointed at me, dude.
15:04 (laughing)
15:05 Case in point.
15:05 - I had to coach myself not to call them Dante and Randall,
15:08 but I don't know them, you know what I mean?
15:10 - That's true, you got an excuse.
15:12 None.
15:13 He knows the truth.
15:14 - Well, Brian, you, in the last Clerks and Clerks 2,
15:18 you were kind of doing the will they, won't they
15:21 with Rosario's character,
15:22 and now you're like developing a life.
15:25 And our managing director was telling me
15:27 that there's like some really beautiful scenes
15:29 in the new movie between the two of you.
15:31 And so what was it like, the difference in tackling that
15:34 in two and the way that it's evolved for number three?
15:37 - Two, it was, you know, she was full-time into the script.
15:41 We were there the entire movie.
15:43 This, we're seeing segments of their life
15:46 in the relationship that has traveled 15 years
15:48 and seeing where they are now as adults
15:51 as we last left them off.
15:52 There was a hideous love child on the way.
15:56 And so you see their relationship grow
15:59 in a very deepened sense.
16:00 And of course, that's incredible heavy lifting
16:03 on the Rosario Dawson part of things.
16:06 - Why is the love child hideous?
16:08 - That's the reference.
16:08 - Remember when Miranda was like hideous fucking shit?
16:10 - That's an answer.
16:11 - Oh, awesome, man.
16:12 - I got into the conversation, you're like,
16:14 wait, I really want to know why the child is ugly.
16:16 This plot point seems important.
16:19 Did I see you at an AA meeting?
16:22 So it's been really great.
16:25 It was awesome to work with her again.
16:27 We had her for a very limited time,
16:29 but the time that we had with her
16:31 was absolutely platinum gold.
16:32 - That was a big difference.
16:34 - Absolutely beautiful.
16:35 It's like it condensed it into like these moments count,
16:39 let's make it.
16:40 And so I personally really wanted them to count
16:44 and she did too and we worked.
16:46 It's like working with Jeff.
16:48 Anytime I get in proximity with Jeff,
16:51 it doesn't take long, we're back into rhythms.
16:53 It's the same thing with Rosario
16:55 and that's just a testament to her professionalism.
16:57 But there's just this kind of thing
16:58 that I really enjoy working with her.
17:00 I really love these characters.
17:02 I really love this universe that it just brought it.
17:04 - Yeah, her inclusion in the franchise itself is so cool.
17:06 But speaking of Jeff, I mean like,
17:08 Randall confessed his love in "Clerks 2".
17:10 You know what I mean?
17:11 It finally, it finally--
17:13 - That's why they fucked in "Clerks 3".
17:16 Don't give it away, spoilers.
17:18 - Was the donkey involved in that?
17:20 (laughing)
17:22 So how has that changed the dynamic between the two of them?
17:24 Are they a little more honest with each other
17:27 this time around?
17:28 - There is, it's true.
17:29 Like by the end of the last movie,
17:31 there was an emotional, you know, kind of,
17:33 like I would say, Randall lets his guard down
17:38 and shows that he's not just like a rapid fire,
17:41 joke cynical machine or something like that.
17:44 That there's a human being underneath.
17:46 And we keep going with that.
17:47 Like that was honestly the genesis for "Clerks 3".
17:49 It was my favorite moment in all the "Clerks" movies.
17:51 These two in jail fighting and Randall's like,
17:53 "I'd buy the quick stop and reopen it myself."
17:56 And I was like, I would love to live in a movie
17:58 like that for 90 minutes.
18:00 And that's, it took me a while to get here.
18:01 And that's what "Clerks 3" is.
18:03 It's about their very emotional relationship.
18:05 It's a marriage of sorts.
18:06 - Yeah, well I love the emotional trajectory
18:08 of the movies in general.
18:09 I grew up watching you guys and I'm 33
18:13 and here I am interviewing you, still watching you guys.
18:16 And this is like, this is a fucking delight, man.
18:18 - You've done it.
18:19 This interview is more about what a success you became.
18:21 - That's it, I made it.
18:22 - Like since we've been 30 years.
18:24 You came from a place and you got to a place.
18:27 - Big round of applause for him.
18:28 - Well done.
18:29 (applause)
18:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]