Kevin Smith. Such an ordinary name for such an extraordinary man. For nearly 30 years, we’ve sought him out for comedy, podcasts and comics, while admiring his acting and filmmaking in movies like Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the movie that started it all. . , office workers.
Kevin may have become a smoker later in life, but the wisdom he has about it reads like a positive affirmation that we should all ingest. His friend Seth Rogan turned cannabis use on its head for a greater good, but Kevin’s stoner lifestyle gives us all the more reason to admire this multi-talented, everyday guy.
On the heels of Comic-Con, and before Clerks 3 makes its long-awaited debut on September 13ththewe tried to get some spoilers (Spoiler: we didn’t), discussed the sweetest coin, his strains with Caviar Gold, and cannabis as a recurring theme in his life, even when it was just for show.
Have you ever sat at Comic-Con and reveled in your head like, oh my gosh, I did this?
Kevin Smith: Like, literally. Revel is the right damn word. I’ve been going to Comic-Con since ’95 and when I first came here the dream was that this is where I want to be accepted. I want to be as integral to this institution as Stan is. This is worth all the effort. Some people got lucky early on, like I did with my career, and all they wanted to do was party, do drugs, and get fucked. All I wanted to do was become the King of Comic-Con. It took decades, and I don’t know if I’m king, but I’m definitely Comic-Con royalty. So, I revel in that because I think of the conscious effort I put in to get here. Kids today would call it “thirsty.” I’m sure the kids would say that was embarrassing too, but whatever. I delight in that. It’s so gross to admit it!
Come on, get to work. You deserve the love.
I think it helps that they were never obscene amounts. Ben Affleck is world famous. I’ve seen that shit up close and it’s crazy. He goes to a mall and gets shit saturated. I go to Comic-Con and I can be with the general public. It really all boils down to a series of knowing smiles. I meet people who maybe don’t come like, I want to take a picture or can you sign this? Instead, they look you in the eye and then a smile crosses their face. That feels fantastic. That means they’re associating me with some fucking memory pleasurable enough to make me smile. I love that shit. That’s the sweetest coin that spends the most in my world.
You started smoking weed pretty late in life. What kept you away from that? Nancy Regan?
Yes! That was it! I grew up in the “Just Say No” era, when drugs were stigmatized. And that’s fine when you’re talking about cocaine or heroin, but they stigmatize weed quite a bit. I had an internal bias from childhood that accompanied becoming a stoner. I was like, oh my gosh, you’re going to become one of those lazy people who eats and watches TV. I made this commitment like, hey, obviously you’re into this getting high thing and obviously at 38 years old, he’s doing something for you. If you’re going to do this, it’s forever It has to be tied to productivity. So you can smoke, but you always have to be creating. Smoke and record a podcast, smoke and record a movie, smoke and write; never smoke and watch things unless you’re watching something you’re editing. Sure, sometimes you need to inhale a little to invite joy. But kids, it’s not just for parties. It’s for progress, it’s for productivity, and it removes inhibitions and allows you to think about dreams in a very real way.
Where did you adapt this “productivity only” mentality from?
seth rogen turned me into a middle-aged stoner. I worked with him on Zack and Miri make a porn and Seth is one of the most stoned people I’ve ever met. However, I can make him beat him now. He was always productive and, although he smoked weed, he was not “the stereotype.” He was shooting my movie, improvising three funnier versions of my movie between takes, and working with his friend Evan Goldberg on a script he was working on for after Zack and Miri. This guy was building an empire and he introduced me to the notion of “the productive stoner.” There are a lot of us in Hollywood who smoke weed and do stuff. Seth broke the stereotype, so I decided to go ahead even though he had a built-in bias like, if you do this, you’re screwed! I had to make peace with that and slowly came out like a stoner. Which is really weird because I did all the Jay and Silent Bob movies that had so much weed in them. It wasn’t until I became a stoner and rewatched all my movies that I thought: now I get why stoners like these movies!
Welcome! Let’s talk about Caviar Gold. Word around town is that it’s quite powerful.
These joints will knock you out, but I put them into my heart and lungs, several times a day. The brands I make with Caviar Gold are full of distillate, so periodically I’ll give someone a joint and three days later they’ll be like, Did you drug me? Like, oh, I should have warned you that they are pretty high in THC. I was just a big fan and when we were doing Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, that’s what I was smoking exclusively. They did this “caviar challenge” where it was something like, smoke a joint of caviar in 15 minutes and we’ll give you 1k in product. I’m not too rich to be like, no way! I took the challenge and failed but then I met Caviar Mike through a friend and he is a genius. I sat down and said something like, in the movie Jay and Silent Bob We make three varieties of weed: Snoogans, Berzerker, and Snootchie Boochies. I love your product, would you make weed for me? And he did. We’ve been in business since 2019, the product is amazing and it’s allowed us to travel to legal states to weed for shows and stuff. It’s great for me because I never run out of weed. It’s also great because when people come I can say, hey, have a joint with my face on it!
Moving on to joints, in the Clerks 3 trailer, you and Jay are smoking a giant joint and I’m trying to imagine how much weed?
Raw makes those papers and accessories for Raw because it’s not just a great stoner company, it’s one of the best American companies out there right now. The guy who runs it is a perfectionist and artist. So, they made those giant butt cones. Did they work? They definitely fucking work. Is a wise use of grass? If you’re one of those people who grows and has access to massive amounts of weed, I’d say this is a once-in-a-lifetime party experience. Great visual for social media, and it was phenomenal for our fucking movie. It seemed ridiculous that you were in the Willy Wonka factory, for God’s sake. If you are going to try it, I tell you to save it for a special occasion. A birthday or a party where you will have 30 trusted people around you. Talk about a communal smoke!
Becoming a stoner rewrote everything for you.
It really changed the perspective for me. It allowed me to wear my heart on my sleeve. It would do the job, but I felt like it had to be the “Kevin Smith” they thought they knew or suspected was based on the movies. When I go back to the previous interviews, I just want to hit that guy. The whole world is a burden and he’s projecting this nonchalance to try to match the vibe of the first movie he did. But that first movie he did blew him away because he made all his fucking dreams come true. How do you feel and still maintain that the world is a shitty place when it’s not? Because you and your friends took a step towards art, all that changed. That narrator is incredibly shy and worried about what he has created. East The narrator is a smoker and realizes that “worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due.” I stole it from David Mamet’s. the spanish prisoner, but it is absolutely true. I was so happy that becoming a stoner allowed me to be me. In person, in public, whether you’re working or not.