Ben Affleck explains the Internet to Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith in JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK
© 2001 Dimension Films

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SILENT but Deadly Part Two

In part one of CINESCAPE's Kevin Smith profile, the acclaimed indie filmmaker discussed the end of his "slacker" films or what have affectionately been dubbed the Jersey Chronicles. However, the conclusion of this chapter in his career does not come without its fair share of controversy.

After a "hit and miss" career full of criticism and hullabaloo, Smith says goodbye to the fan favorite comedic duo of Jay and Silent Bob, going out with a veritable bang in JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK. However, even with a film that centers more on mindless entertainment than social commentary, the pop culture icon just can't seem to escape controversy.

In 1999, Smith unleashed the long festering DOGMA amidst the cry of religious fanatics claiming the film was a jab at Catholicism. The Ben Affleck and Matt Damon starrer told the story of two fallen angels who, through a loophole in Church dogma, discover a means by which they can return to Heaven. However, if they succeed in re-entering the Kingdom, they will prove that God is imperfect, thus nullifying all of creation. With the Catholic League up in arms, the organization did its best to squash the budding production Smith claims to have received thousands of death threats and pieces of hate mail. Nonetheless, the cries of religious radicals had little effect on the film's ultimate outcome.

The Dogma Special Edition DVD

© 2001 Miramax

"DOGMA only cost $10 million to make and it made $31 million," says Smith. "That was domestic; overseas we made a bunch of loot and we really killed with the videos. We pushed 400,000 DVDs and that was with no extras. We just put out the SPECIAL EDITION DVD and [so far], they've moved a lot of video units as well."

Dealing with the Catholic League wasn't the only embroilment Smith and supernatural comedy had to contend with. The director also had to deal with a female lead who was unhappy with her performance a painful memory he vocalizes in the audio commentary track for the aforementioned DOGMA SPECIAL EDITION DVD.

"[Linda Fiorentino] felt that she didn't give the performance she wanted to give or that the movie deserved and that's why she didn't do any press for it," says Smith. "I was just like, 'Really, could you have got over that and maybe done REGIS because we could have used the help?' We could have used a ROSIE O'DONNELL appearance. It's weird because she seemed to like the movie. She just didn't like the performance is what she's telling me. But I liked Linda's performance. I didn't think it was terrible. I liked it quite a bit, but she was really critical of it, went after herself left and right, and I don't know, it was a weird experience, but that's two years back."

One would think that after so many negative experiences with the project, Smith would wash his hands to religion completely (the director, ironically enough, is a practicing Catholic). However, that's just not the case. As a matter of fact, the filmmaker has rather heated discussions with his wife as to the religious upbringing/schooling of their young daughter.

Chris Rock, Kevin Smith, Jay Mewes & Linda Fiorentino in Dogma

© 1999 View Askiew

"That's a point of contention in our relationship," says Smith. "I'm a real fan; I went to eight years of Catholic school and then did four years of public high school and I'm always like, 'We should send her, we should do that, man, it worked out for me.' And my wife is like, 'I'm never sending her to Catholic school. I don't want her to be indoctrinated with all the bulls**t you were.' And I'm like, 'Hey. That bulls**t pays your bills.'"

Shifting gears for his latest project, Smith ventures into what he believes to be the non-controversial world of road trip comedy. However, the director once again finds himself the under attack of a civil rights organization. This time out, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAD) has taken complaint with the film's depiction of homosexuality onscreen.

"All the movies that I've done have been very heavy with talk about sex," says Smith. "I'd rather talk about it than show it. If you want to see sex, you can watch any one of the well-made or amateur-made pornos. But I'd rather talk about it, and in all my movies I was always talking about hetero sex, and in the last two movies I switched it up and started mixing it up a bit. It just felt like fair play. In this movie, it's really kind of inundated with it. At one point, we were cutting together some of the first footage we shot and it was all the c**k sucking [jokes] all that humor. I turned to [Scott] Mosier and I was just like, 'My God, we have to re-title the movie quickly to JAY AND SILENT BOB ARE NOT GAY (OR ARE THEY?)' because that's what it was about. Thankfully the rest of the movie kind of dispersed it."

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are "wowed" by the wonders of Hollywood in JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK

© 2001 Dimension Films

However, when faced with the ultimate question of whether Jay and Silent Bob are gay, Smith has difficulty settling on a definitive answer.

"In DOGMA, there's a moment where Chris Rock [says to Jay], 'When you do it, you think about guys,'" says Smith. "And in this movie, Silent Bob looks at the camera and nods. I always like to think of them as asexual little pixies. Neither of them ever get laid and you never see it going on."

It seems that there is really only one area where the director manages to steer clear of controversy... or does he? Smith's love of all things STAR WARS is evident in his films thanks to both verbal and visual homages. However, it is that love that's led to his rumored involvement in a not-so-loved by George Lucas project.

"One day somebody sent me the tape, about two months before that story started getting out there," says Smith of the anonymous PHANTOM EDIT redux of EPISODE I. "Somebody sent me the tape with a flyer attached explaining its history and my name was in the flier saying, 'It's rumored that Kevin Smith made this.' I was like, 'Huh? Me?' So I popped it in and it looks like an edited version of the movie. Some of the edits make the movie flow a lot better, smart edits to say the least, but I don't know how I got attached to it. I don't know why my name got on it. I guess because people assume that I'm a big STAR WARS fan, but I don't have that much free time. If there were movies that I was going to re-edit, believe me that would not be the first one. I'd probably go back and re-edit DOGMA."

Leaving this phase of his career behind, perhaps Smith will finally be able to escape the shadow of controversy that always manages to engulf his films. With no lack of projects on his slate, it will be interesting to see what kind of "adult" fare the director manages to come up with next.