Oh, you like podcasts?
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Until then, enjoy thisGood Oneinterview with Smith from 2022.
With the release of his first feature,Clerks,Kevin Smithwas right on time.
His people are his people.
Especially after his 2018 heart attack, hes content making Kevin Smith movies for Kevin Smith fans.
In the original it is the legendary conversation about Death Star contractors.
Where did it come from?Its the harbinger of the internet.
We got to that third act where Luke finally goes for it, and Vader blocks the shot.
And shes like, Well, thats not what happened.
So, the over-analysis ofStar Warsbegins with Kim Loughran.
Then, me andScott Mosiermet at the Vancouver Film School.
Scott was agnostic to the point of atheist, I was Catholic, so we start breaking it down.
Ill never forget: There was a dude in my periphery who was reading a newspaper.
And it occurred to me that,Oh, everyone likesStar Warsnow.
I know this started as something youd talk about at live shows.
How do you turn that material into a movie scene?Well,Clerks IIis an interesting beast.
Its like Dante and Randal fan fiction.
So I was like,Well, I got to create this whole cloth.What could I use?
Thats essentially me being me.
I remember showing Jeff exactly how Ive done the bit live.
Is doing essentially stand-up to credit for that?Absolutely.
If I was just a comedy filmmaker, I would sharpen my chops once every two years.
Maybe if Im lucky, if I can get the financing.
It really helps to stay in practice on a regular basis, and filmmaking is no regular practice.
Its a very special-occasion sort of thing unless youre fucking Steven Spielberg or Tyler Perry.
I didnt start as a comedian.
And from the first film, I never felt like I could wax erudite on filmmaking.
I just made one.
So, I was like,Im gonna go the Carlin route.
Then you start telling the fun making-of stories, which later on would become the spine toClerks III.
They are your three movies you did make to venture to just other people.
Sometimes you get the lesson, and then enacting the lesson takes a long time.
In the interim, I was trying to have a career.
We madeClerks IIfor like nothing I gave up my salary to make it, which wasnt that huge.
Somebody was like, What about during a script you didnt write?
And I thought,Im going to hang out with Bruce Willis every day.And I wasnt wrong!
Let me have a go at make a movie that Im supposed to make.
Let me see if I can make a fucking movie that somebody else would make.
Let me give a shot to make a Quentin Tarantino movie by way of the Coen brothers.
If I took my name off that, nobody would fucking know it was me.
And when I was done, I was like,So, this is good filmmaking.
I didnt miss anything.
That was also Soderbergh inspired, because he retired and I was like,We can do that!
We could just stop!
Okay, I guess Im stopped.
I dont do it anymore.
But that took a lifetime literally.
It took 20 years or more of my career to be like,Why are you bothering?
You did this for you.
This is an act of masturbation.
There was a time when that was so important to me.
I mean, my career was born from that.
I was always very amenable to feedback.
He never did that with me because Id beat him to it.
I was like,I dont want people sitting there any longer than they need to.
So slowly over time, you learn to listen to whats important and leave out whats opinion.
People can definitely have fucking great suggestions.
And when youre making a comedy, its very easy.
That can go.But I have always been very open to suggestions, and I listen far too much.
I think thats because I was raised Catholic and I was raised by Grace Smith.
Thats just the way it is.
Its death before discourtesy.
You would never hurt somebodys fucking feelings, even if theyre hurting yours.
So, if you are making aClerksmovie, there has to be aStar Warssomething.
Theyre going to see it as the guys talking aboutStar Warsand all is right with the world.
Ive never been like,Im better than you at this.
Im the first guy to be like,Theyre all fucking better than me.
So theres nothing threatening about me.
I dont put on airs.
I think that makes people like rooting for me, and thats worked in my favor forever.
And I was literally a working-class hero, like the people who built that mythos before me.
Like Bruce, like Bon Jovi, man.
Like fucking Frank Sinatra.
I was schlepping it.
And then my dream came true, and then everyone found out about it.
But that state is aching with credibility.
People will say, Youll be honest, Jersey.
Why do you think that?
That makes the difference as well.
If I was born in Rhode Island, my career would be over.
This interview excerpt has been edited and condensed for clarity.
