“It was the King Lear of Clerks movies” he laughed to Zavvi. “It didn’t take place at a Quick Stop, so had moved away from what made that movie work, that it was just my life with the names changed.
"Clerks was a boots on the ground account of working in retail and because it was so successful, it ensured I never had to work in retail again – even Clerks II could never match that same lived-in experience that made Clerks great.
“My original take on Clerks III was a Waiting For Godot-style tale set in the parking lot of a movie theatre, as they await the midnight screening of Ranger Danger.
"The script ended with a shooting there, as I’d written it in the aftermath of the 2012 Aurora shooting – we've done some charity readings of that draft and it’s been very emotional, but I’m glad it wasn’t the one we made.
"My Twitter mentions would just be full of angry fans asking if I’d even seen Clerks, so I’m glad that I made something that resembles the first film, up to the point of the characters effectively remaking it!”
The challenges that Smith had long had with repeating the Clerks formula didn’t just end with his ascension to celebrity status, but also with the invention of the internet: any gross-out sex gag he wanted to write would likely “already be a subcategory on PornHub”, so he had to change his approach for 2006’s sequel to maintain the element of surprise.
He now describes Clerks II as “fan fiction”, akin to protagonists Dante and Randal (Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson) being given $5 million to make a movie, due to it not resembling his life in any way – which means that, no, Smith has never seen a “donkey show”, and if you don’t know what we’re talking about, don’t look that up on your work laptop.
The turning point came in 2018, when Smith suffered a heart-attack dubbed the “widow maker” due to how it only has an 80% survival rate for those who experience it. During his recovery, he not only switched to a healthier vegan lifestyle, but realised that to recapture the spirit of the first Clerks, he’d have to make the film about his own near-death experience: his life with all the names changed, just like the original.
“I’d been telling stories about my heart attack for the better part of the year afterwards, and I suddenly realised that this was the device that cracked it open, to replicate the personal formula of the original. Plus, I could use comedy to tell a bunch of people to go and get their hearts checked out, so I could be saving a few lives in the process!”
In addition to Dante and Randal, the three-quel welcomes back Jay and Silent Bob (once again played by Jason Mewes and Smith himself), characters the writer/director initially had no intention of including, stating: “As a young twenty-something, I remember saying if I’m still spinning that baseball cap around backwards at 50, somebody please f*****g shoot me”.
However, the process of making 2019’s Jay And Silent Bob Reboot – a post-heart attack shoot he has previously dubbed a “big f**k you to death” - made him realise these are characters that shouldn’t be retired.
“I mean, I obviously love Jason as a friend and as a fan, and they’re a special part of this world, so it made sense to bring them back. I initially tried to use them in the same way as before, as this Greek chorus commenting on events, but I realised it would be much better to have them become involved in making Randal’s movie. It’s the biggest joke in the world to make Silent Bob his Director of Photography, because I have no idea what the f**k you’d do with a camera to make a movie look good”.
Yes, in this film, Randal recovers from his own widow maker heart attack with the dawning realisation that he’s pushing 50 and still working in the same convenience store he was decades before, even if he’s now a co-owner. So, he writes a screenplay called Convenience (which like Clerks was for Smith, is Randal’s life with all the names changed), and aims to shoot it in the shop with help from his co-workers.
In one throwaway line in the screenplay, Randal jokingly describes himself as the “Richard Linklater of retail”, a nod to how Linklater’s directorial debut Slacker was a key influence on his own first feature. After a nearly thirty-year career that’s taken in everything from romantic comedies to body horror, does Smith still view himself in this light?
“I don’t think what Kevin Smith became is anything like what Richard Linklater became – I could never make something with the same ambition as Boyhood. But for Randal at the beginning of his career, his films are an obvious influence: Slacker was the movie that made me get off my ass and make my own, as if something like that counted as cinema, then I could make it too.
"But of course, there’s a vast difference in the quality between what me and Richard both put out: he may still inspire me, but I never did become retail’s Richard Linklater!”
Randal isn’t the only character experiencing an existential crisis, as Dante is facing up to the death of Becky (Rosario Dawson), which took place offscreen following the events of Clerks II. This was a controversial decision, but Smith insists that he wasn’t just “fridging” her to move his central character’s narrative forward.
“Rosario is one of the most in-demand actors on the planet, and if I wrote her something as big as I did in Clerks II, she’d say no – she's in Star Wars, it’s impossible for her to give me a month of my life! So, I wrote her character as a ghost that keeps visiting Dante, so she could be back and used effectively, and she wouldn’t have to be on set for more than two days.
"It was entirely strategic: I wouldn’t have been able to make Clerks III if I had written a bigger part for her, as we’d still be sitting around waiting for her to be free”.
Getting her back on board proved to be an easy yes, with the actress quick to passionately tell Smith about her love for the screenplay and how it was a perfect distillation of the first two films – which to the director, ensured she was already on board as a fan, before she even signed up as an actor.
As for how the rest of the fan base has reacted, Smith has said his Twitter mentions have shown that the movie has been successful in moving audiences to tears in ways they’d never expect from one of his lowbrow comedies.
“But now, my only goal is to make British people cry with this movie”, he concluded. “British tears are the hardest ones to get!”
Get your copy here to read the full article.Clerks III is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on Monday 26th December.
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