(note: the recorder started recording after conversation had already begun, so hence, we begin this transcription in mid-sentance.)

MIKAEL C. FRITTS: At least you live in Jersey, I got transplanted.

KEVIN SMITH: Really? What part of Jersey?

MCF: Newton. Right near Hacketstown.

KS: Right.

MCF: So I'm a little kid in New Jersey and everything's all fine and one day, may parents up and bring me down here.

KS: Where down there?

MCF: Charlotte, North Carolina.

KS: Ahh. Wow. NC.
 
MCF: Yeah, my parents were like, "Oh, it's okay. We're moving to the biggest city in North Carolina." So I'm like, "It can't be that bad..." Well we get here and there are two buildings over ten stories tall and a whole pack of people that use their blinkers before switching lanes and say "y'all". Talk about a culture shock. I think I'm still jaded.

KS: Charlotte. You guys have a lot of comic shops.

MCF: Yeah, we do. Actually, we have some pretty good shops.

KS: Isn't that a college town?

MCF: Sorta, Sorta. We have one of the best community colleges and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, but this city isn't all that thriving. So, yeah, in a way this is a college town. This city has a lot of people, but no nightlife downtown.

KS: Really???

MCF: Just a bunch of drunk preppie kids; 21 year old high schoolers. Even if there was a "nightlife", I'm to much of a loser to enjoy it.
But uh, basically what I wanted to do was call and talk to you, not like an interview per se, but like a conversation. Just ask you a couple of questions and stuff. Shit, I don't even know how to start this off.

KS: Just go for it man.

MCF: Actually, I wanted to say congratulations on "Amy"...

KS: Thank you!

MCF: Because I've been a big fan since Clerks and I'm sure you've heard all this crap before...

KS: That's not crap. Complements are never crap.

MCF: You know what I mean.

KS: Yeah.

MCF: One thing I saw that grabbed my attention was the cover of Filmmaker Magazine, I think it was Spring of 97 issue, I didn't get to read the article but I remember seeing a close up of you on the cover and under it in big yellow letters the word "Rebound".

KS: Yeah.

MCF: And I don't know how it made you feel, but it pissed me off. What did you "rebound" from? Mallrats? I thought it was great and so did a lot of other people, now the critics... you know. But I didn't consider Chasing Amy a "rebound".

(during this part the recorder started to pick up a lot of outside noise, so almost all of Kevin's response to this question was lost. But what he basically said was that the article was good, and that Amy was in some ways a "rebound" from Mallrats. I hate cheap electronics!)

MCF: Like I said, I just saw the cover and it got to me. Because when I went and saw Mallrats in the theater I thought it was fucking hilarious. Even though it was toned down a little, due to the studio, big budget thing...

KS: Right.

MCF: Still though, and then Jason Lee just kicked ass!

KS: Jason Lee is tremendous.

MCF: What about when you made the move from the $6,000 Clerks, that went on to blow up world-wide and then to the, what was the budget on Mallrats?

KS: Six million bucks.

MCF: So how was the jump, the transition, going from the small time Clerks, to the bigger Mallrats scenario?

KS: How was the transition for me?

MCF: Yeah.

KS: Didn't even feel it.

MCF: Really?

KS: Didn't feel it because, I mean I felt it as much as my wallet because I was getting paid regardless. I was just doing what I had done before, this time there was just a lot more people standing around. Now, I'm sure if you asked someone like Mosier, Scott Mosier my producer, he could tell you different.

MCF: From stuff I've read off the View Askew Board, there always seems to be a post asking when you're going to go back to the dick and shit jokes of the Clerks era.

KS: Right.

MCF: And while I was watching Amy, I noticed that, I don't know if it's just me or through Jason Lee's character (Banky) he seems to be criticizing, well not criticizing, but trying to suggest that the dick and shit jokes have worn themselves out, like that was a Clerks deal.

KS: Um, well, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's over, it may pop back up, but Chasing Amy was really our first straight drama.

MCF: So you mean as in "may pop back up", like in the Ultimate Jersey Flick? The one that no one will talk about.

KS: (laughs) Yeah...

MCF: Well, I didn't mean to say that you were over with that, just that, I don't know it always pisses me off that people are constantly asking when you're going to go back to the Clerks style...

KS: Right.

MCF: I mean in a way, it seems that as you've gone from Clerks to Mallrats to Chasing Amy, it's like I've got more into your stuff.

KS: Yeah...

MCF: It's like I've started to flow, becoming more intimate with your characters, their stories to me have almost become personal to me. As in I can believe this is going on in "real life" somewhere. Especially New Jersey!

KS: We has a screening of Chasing Amy at Rutgers and there was a  kid in the audience, and he couldn't have been more than fifteen and he asked me, "Why wasn't this movie like Mallrats." And you could just see the confusion in his eyes. A story about Lesbians?

MCF: About Chasing Amy, the story and just the way you wrote it, was phenomenal, and it just seemed to be so personal. Like there was no way this could have been 100% fiction.

KS: Well, Chasing Amy is a very personal story. I've never fallen in love with a lesbian, and Joey (Joey Lauren Adams/ Allysa) wasn't a lesbian. But I was like Ben's character (Holden McNeil) I was defiantly the kind of guy, who would get stuck on girlfriends prior sexual relationships. Out of all of the characters that I've written, I would have to say that there is more of me in Ben's character then there is in any of the other characters in my films.

MCF: One thing about the video release for Chasing Amy, is that I didn't like the poster. The photo they used hardly resembles Joey.

KS: Yeah, well. I didn't like the video poster as much as I liked the theatrical poster but it's nice to have as many different posters hanging in the office. But Miramax always changes things for it's video releases, they seem to go more for the sexier images.

MCF: Yeah, I've noticed that. I just saw the video release poster for Brassed Off and it's completely different from the theatrical poster.
Now, to a different level. What do you think of Greg Araki? I don't know if you've ever been asked about him before.

KS: Well, I really liked Totally Fucked Up.

MCF: I can't find that anywhere, I've seen everything except for Totally Fucked Up.

KS: I don't think it's out on video. I got to see it at a festival.

MCF: Have you seen Nowhere yet?

KS: No, not yet.

MCF: Oh really? See, right now I would have to say that, that is my favorite Araki film so far. His subject matter is just so, homo/hetero erotic... that it sort of captures you.

KS: Right...

MCF: Like I was watching it with my DP and we made my girlfriend watch the first five minutes of it, and she went into the "I'm not watching the whole damn thing, after five minutes we're going to do something useful" phase, and we ended up watching the entire thing.

KS: Right.

MCF: But I was just wondering because there are a lot of people that hate his films, for example the "world renown" Dov S-S Simeons, bashed on Greg pretty hard recently.

KS: I'm interested in seeing what Greg will do once he gets out of making his teen angst films. But I would defiantly recommend trying to find a copy of Totally Fucked Up, but like I said before I don't think it's out on video and I got to see it on the festival circuit.

MCF: That's one thing about being down here in the South. We really miss a lot of great films, because of the lack of festivals. That's one reason I wish I was still up North. We have two festivals in North Carolina, one in Greensboro, which is the North Carolina Film and Video Festival, which you get some good stuff...

KS: And the Charlotte one...

MCF: Yeah, but it's so much of a hassle to get into the screenings you want to get into and overall it's more of a mess then anything.
The opportunities to see "un-known" stuff down here is just so unbelievable.

KS: Yeah.

MCF: One thing I did get to see last year was an NYU graduate student's (Josh Apier) thesis film, The 53rd Calypso. A great twenty minute short. It won an NYU student academy award I believe, and it has Edward Norton in it before Primal Fear and the Academy Award nomination. So I called this guy up and told him that he had made a really good flick and how impressed I was and shit, so he sent me a copy of it. He's really a terrific guy. I still talk to him every couple of months.

KS: Wow! Really?

MCF: Yeah, the last time I talked to him, he was crewing on some production in New York. I think he's trying to raise money to shoot his first feature; like the rest of the world.

KS: (laughs) Yeah...

MCF: So, what's going on with Dogma? Do you have a set principal photography date yet???

(Dogma is the movie that was supposed to be made right after Clerks. "Jay and Silent Bob will return in Dogma" <--- that's the last credit on the final credit roll in Clerks. "Jay and Silent Bob will return in Dogma...we promise"<--- last credit on Chasing Amy.)

KS: Looks like we're starting in early March. We'll be filming in Jersey and Memphis. Actually, we may shoot some scenes in the Carolina's.

MCF: Really? We'll if you need some crew members...

KS: Yeah since you guys are right there, you never know.

(At this point Kim, Kevin's secretary broke into the line.)

KIM: Kevin, Mike, sorry. Kevin, I've got Miramax on line one.

KS: Thanks.

MCF: We'll that's the big wigs.

KS: Yes, this is where I must say my good-byes.

MCF: Well, it was cool Kevin, thanks for taking the time.

KS: Oh God! No problem!

MCF: So I'll see you on the net.

KS: Later.

MCF: Later.
 

And that was that. Short and sweet. I must say thanks to Kim (for being like CNN and the Weather Channel.... giving me constant updates), and most importantly Kevin, for giving me the time out of his day to listen to my questions and answering them the best he could. For more information on any and all View Askew Productions visit them on the web at http://www.viewaskew.com .
 
 
 
 

 
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