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CINDY PEARLMAN
NYT Syndicate
"I'll tell you a secret," Kevin Smith said."For 22 years people have been telling me what I do is stupid."
That would extend back to his first film, the ultra-low-budget, critically lauded comedy Clerks (1994).
"The Internet didn't exist back then," Smith recalled,"so people had to say the (garbage) to my face. I heard, 'Kevin, it's a terrible film. What's next?' I said, 'I have something called Mallrats. It's Clerks in a mall.'"
Not all the reaction was negative. Clerks won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival and another at the Deauville Film Festival. It took Independent Spirit awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay, and a Filmmaker's Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival. Still, there were people who wanted to put down the film and its writer/director/co-star.
"None of the hate matters," Smith said."All I ever wanted to do in life was tell stories and get things off my chest. I figure it this way: The human race runs in only one direction. Eventually I will stop and drop. I just don't want to ever look back with regrets."
Smith's latest film is Yoga Hosers, opening on September 2. Set in the Great White North of Canada, the film revolves around characters who debuted in Smith's Tusk (2014): They're 15-year-old best friends, texting, tweeting convenience-store clerks and yoga enthusiasts Colleen Collette (Lily-Rose Depp) and Colleen McKenzie (Harley Quinn Smith).
Their adolescent world kicks into gear when two older guys (Austin Butler and Tyler Posey) invite the sophomores to a senior party where they accidentally uncover an evil presence.
"In a world where it's hard to make an original statement movie, there's nothing like this movie," Smith said."I like to think of it as (totally) crazy."
Johnny Depp reprises his Tusk role as the bumbling French-Canadian detective Guy Lapointe.
Nepotism in casting? You bet. Harley Quinn Smith is Kevin Smith's 17-year-old daughter, while 17-year-old Lily-Rose Depp is the daughter of Johnny Depp and French singer Vanessa Paradis.
Except for the atypical thriller Red State (2011), Smith had been absent from the big screen since the failure of his big-studio debut, Cop Out (2010). The idea of having his daughter as his star brought him back.
"I was kind of out of the game," he recalled."I thought that I would just do my podcasts and let the next generation of filmmakers do their thing.
"Then, in 2014, Tusk brought me back," he continued."I thought, 'This is fun again.' Then I thought, 'If I could just make weird movies, then I will be fine.' I said, 'I'm going to make three Canadian rubber-monster movies called my 'True North' trilogy, including Tusk, Yoga Hosers and Moose Jaws, which will basically be Jaws (1975) with a moose."
Why Canadian movies?
"Artists have different periods," Smith said."You know how Picasso had a blue period? Kevin Smith is having his maple period, where all his movies have been set in Canada."
It wasn't the first time working with his daughter for Smith, who had cast her in smaller roles in Jersey Girl (2004), Clerks II (2006) and Tusk.
"When I did Tusk, I started cutting the scene with the Colleen girls and I really dug on it," the filmmaker said."I thought I could make a whole movie about these girls and follow them on their own adventure."
He consulted his wife, actress/podcast host Jennifer Schwalbach Smith.
"I asked Jen," he recalled,"and she said, 'Do you really think you can do this?' I said, 'Yes, I'll write a script for the kids. I just don't know if we'll be able to do it, but I'll try.'"
His next call was to Depp, an old friend who hadn't quite shaken off his Tusk alter ego.
"After I said, 'Are you free to talk?,' he proceeded to do his entire monologue from Tusk," Smith said."It was a perfect rendition of it, and I didn't interrupt him. I was just smiling the whole time. He said, 'I can't stop doing this voice. Everyone in my life hates me, because I do it all the time.'
"I said, 'If you liked that film, then you're going to love this new one.'"
Of his films, Smith said, Yoga Hosers is closest tonally to Mallrats (1995).
"People say to me, 'Oh, it's like Clerks," he said,"but it's not like Clerks at all. It's madcap and goes for the laughs. The only thing was, I couldn't do cursing. I was writing this for my kid. The two main characters are teenagers, I couldn't have people screaming the F word in their faces. I decided, 'Maybe I'll just try going PG-13.'
"The last time I did that was Jersey Girl," he joked,"and that was also a horror movie!"
Speaking of horrific, the film features live Nazi bratwurst sausage: Brazis, or small bratwurst with Hitlerian features that are dressed like red Mounties and terrorise the small town.
Casting the sausage roles was problematic. Initially Smith turned to Jason Mewes, who has played Jay to Smith's Silent Bob in seven films and assorted other vehicles since Clerks.
"Jason was going to play one," Smith said."I said to him, 'Dude, you've got to play this role. Everyone knows you as Jay from Clerks. Once you play this, they'll stop calling you Jay.' In the end he couldn't wear the makeup, so he couldn't do it.
"I finally said, 'I'll do it,'" Smith said."I buried myself in the makeup and became a sausage dude. It's just me running around and getting killed over and over again."
He felt energised on the set, he added.
"My daughter was in Tusk, and she was the bridge for me returning to a movie set," he said."I thought, 'I can get my head around doing this again, because my kid is interested in acting.'
"She used to be into the guitar," Smith continued,"and basically I couldn't do anything but buy her a guitar, support her and take her to lessons and shows. When she became interested in acting, I knew that my job had something to do with that and I could really help, which is an awesome feeling as a parent."
A native of Red Bank, New Jersey, Smith grew up as the son of a postal worker who was nonplused when his son decided that he wanted to make movies.
"My parents ” and I love them deeply ” were baffled," he admitted."They were like, 'Kevin, you are the guy who ate all the butter at breakfast this morning, and now you want to be a filmmaker?'"
Soon, though, the Smiths came around.
"In the early days they helped by giving me the money to rent movie equipment," Smith said."Now I feel like it has come full circle with my daughter, because I can help her early on. In turn, it makes me excited to do my job."
Making the movie together did produce some odd moments for the father-daughter duo, though
"I went to a Batman panel at Comic-Con where my dad started talking about him and Mom having sex," Harley said, obviously disgusted."I said, 'Bye, I'm leaving now.' I couldn't look at Mom for a while."
"That's the reason I love to look at your mom," Smith said with a laugh.
That wasn't even the worst of it.
"Later that day at Comic-Con, I came up from behind and went to hug my dad," Harley added."This man turned around, who wasn't actually my dad, but someone dressed up to look like him.
"I was like, 'Oh, this is bad.'"
Smith could barely stop laughing.
"It's so weird," he said."She came from something that came out of my body. Now she's saying words that came out of my mind."
Smith's filmography also includes Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008). He also stars in and executive-produces the series 'Comic Book Men' and is developing a television series, 'Mallbrats', which will serve as a sequel to Mallrats. Also in the works is Clerks III.
None of them is likely to be mistaken for the work of any other filmmaker.
"Your voice is your only currency in life," Smith said."The only person in this world who can tell your stories is you. Your stories are unique and precious. It's what sets you apart."
Fans often ask him how they can break into the movie business.
"I tell people, 'Someone is dying to hear your story, and your story will save a life one day. Someone will say,"I saw your story and it made all the difference in my life. It helped me."'
"I love when I hear, 'Hearing your voice, Kevin, sparked my voice,'" Smith concluded."So, if you want advice, here it is: Follow your own voice to the ends of this earth."
