Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Last week, I had the fairly lengthy first part of my marathon interview with the great and always enlightening Kevin Smith, and today we'll wrap up our zesty session. We kind of go all over the place in the second half of our talk, including a few more words about his upcoming Warner Bros. film A COUPLE OF COPS/DICKS, his history and legacy as a writer and filmmaker, his recently released book "Shooting the Shit"--a collection of the best SModcast transcripts, his relationship with and place in the online community, and his GREEN HORNET screenplay being turned into a comic book.
And for those of you who question why Smith belongs in a column called "Legends," the answer is simple. For better or worse, he changed the way films were made with CLERKS, simple as that. And beyond that little achievement, he changed the subjects that films were made about and the conversations that characters had in said films. I'd be willing to venture that more would-be filmmakers of a certain generation were inspired and influenced more by Smith's works than any other filmmaker that came out of the 1990s, including Tarantino, for the plain and simple reason that Kevin made it look easy and it was a lot easier for young filmmakers to seeing themselves in Kevin than anybody else.
And for those of you who think that I did this "kiss-ass" interview so that we can get scoops on future Smith films, you've got to be fucking kidding me. There is literally no such thing as a scoop about anything Smith does. The dude writes about everything he does on his own web site and on Twitter. What fucking scoops could you possibly be referring to. Okay, on to Part 2 of the AICN Legends interview with Kevin Smith…
Capone: Does the fact that you’re so bloodthirsty to make HIT SOMEBODY put more pressure on you to have A COUPLE OF DICKS do well?
KS: Not at all. Oh, god, no. I mean, look, if my career has done nothing, if it has proven nothing, it’s that I can make little amounts of money and still continue to work. I’ve never made a movie that made more than 30 million bucks, but, based on their budgets, they’ve made people lots and lots of money. People are always, like, Why, why, why? That’s it, dude. I’ve made people money. And, not every filmmaker can say that, but I’ve made people money every time out. Even the one that fuckin’ everyone thought didn’t make money, I still was able to fuckin’ clear a profit for them.
Look, people love big profits, and that’s why they make stuff like TERMINATOR or TRANSFORMERS or HARRY POTTER, ’cause those are just cash cows. But, everyone likes to make money, period, and all film is risky, so they’re happy with any return. And, a return on a movie that doesn’t cost that much money is a really healthy return, particularly when your video is as strong as mine has historically been. So, that’s why they kept letting me do it and whatnot, because they’re, like, Well, look, he may not fuckin’ kill at the box office, but the dude earns fuckin’ money, time after time.
So, I’m used to it. If A COUPLE OF DICKS withers on the vine and dies, it still can’t fuckin’ stop my career, dude. I mean, I’m kind of…'ensconced' is not the right word, but I’m there, I’m here. I’m one of those people that you know their name and shit like that. And, I’ll always work. I mean, I may not always get hired by studios and shit, but I can self-generate. I mean, that was one of the reasons I found it easy to kind of go forward with A COUPLE OF DICKS, because somebody said to me…It was a brilliant piece of advice. I was just, like, "I don’t know, man, direct somebody else’s script. That seems weird." And, they were, like, "Well, Kevin, you can always make a Kevin Smith movie. You can’t not make a Kevin Smith movie. You can do that anytime you want. Why not go try make somebody else’s flick? See how that feels." And, I was, like, "You’re right! I could go away for a thousand years and come back and write a Kevin Smith movie in my sleep. You know why? I’m fuckin’ Kevin Smith." [Laughs] I have no choice, dude. That’s all I can do.
So, it’s there. It’s always going to be there. I’m not connected to the material I used to write anymore. Not in the way where I’m like Leonard Nimoy, “I am not Spock” and shit like that. It’s just I can’t do it anymore. And, if I do it, it’s disingenuous, and you’re going to smell it. And, people have been smelling it for a few years. Look, my favorite work that I’ve done of everything thus far is CLERKS II. And, that turns a lot of people off, because they’re, like, "Well, clearly, he’s an idiot, if you think that." But, that movie meant the most to me. And, that one was the bellwether. Watch that movie, and tell me that this didn’t predict the end, you know. It was just me sittin’ there, going, like, "These guys are growin’ up, guys. They don’t have much left for the world of fuckin’ ‘Who shot first? Greedo or fuckin’ Han Solo?’ because it’s just…they’re not in their 20s anymore." So, it was kind of a way of slowly saying good-bye to that which gave me everything I have.
That’s the other scary thing, too, dude. It’s one thing to face, like, the notion that I can’t write like that anymore, like, "Ohhhhh, poor me, the artist." And, I put my fuckin’ hand to my forehead, and I walk away sadly. The other thing is, like, that’s my fuckin’ vocation, dude, like, that’s how I earn. If I can’t make those movies anymore, holy shit. How the fuck am I going to feed my kid? So, that was frightening, too, but, then you just got to go, like, Look, you’ve lived on no money, you’ve lived on lots of money. You’ll be able to do both. What you can’t live with is fuckin’ some movie that you’re just doing for a paycheck or some movie that you’re doing that you’re really not interested in, or something like that. So, if it means taking less money to do the gig, do the gig. And, that’s kind of where A COUPLE OF DICKS came from.
But, also, it came at a good time, too, because those movies were all about me trying to talk to the audience, trying to talk to people. But, by virtue of the fact that I could do that through a SModcast or fuckin’ Twitter now, or any number of other things that I’ve always done, Q & A’s live on stage, I don’t need to put it into the work anymore. So, I don’t need the work to communicate with the audience the way I did. Now, I can treat the work like work. For years, the people were, like, "Fuck him, man. He don’t make movies, he makes blogs. His movies are just blogs. It’s all too personal. He’s not working cinematically."
And, they were absolutely right. But, they were absolutely fuckin’ wrong, too. I mean, that’s thing: everyone thinks there’s a hard, fast rule on what it is, what film is. And, there’s not. It’s something to everybody. That’s why you’ll meet people who are, like, "My favorite movie is JUWANNA MANN," and you just wanna be, like, "What the fuck?" But, guess what, he’s right, or she’s right. It’s so subjective. It’s, like, everything that surrounded them…I mean, that’s the thing…The cineasts, the chilly, cold cineasts just want you to ‘judge the work,’ but, it’s, like, you can’t just judge the work. Nobody just judges the work, man, like, you know, you’re informed…The reason JUWANNA MANN is your favorite movie is not because it’s a great film, but it’s because the night you saw it, man, was when you found out, like, this girl that you really liked did like you back. Or, omigod, that was when we found out we were pregnant, when we saw JUWANNA MANN. Or, omigod, my dog died that day, and then I saw JUWANNA MANN. It took my mind off it. And, plus, it was funny, and the popcorn was so fuckin’ good that night. And, I’ve never had a better blend of soda. So many factors go into it, dude. It’s ridiculous for people to be, like, "I’m going to divorce myself from all of these outside other things, and I’m just going to concentrate on the art."
It doesn’t work like that. Moviegoing has never been that. And, all the staid critics in the world can’t turn it into that. It’s everything. It’s that fuckin' piece of shit that cut you off on the way in to the fuckin’ movie theater. It’s the fact that you had to park in the back row, and it was fuckin’ drizzling, and so you get in there wet, and you’re fat and you’re sweaty, like I do when you walk, ’cause you sweat when you fuckin’ breathe. And then you sit down. The fuckin’ trailers, you couldn’t even hear ‘em, looked like it was projected through a glass of milk, and you had to get up and tell the motherfuckers, "Would you fuckin’ project it right…or, the sounds not up." And, you sit down and finally watch the movie. And then, it washes over you. But, all this other stuff informs it as well.
And, that’s the way it should be. Just judging the film itself, it’s like, why bother? Film is communication. It’s me talking to you. It’s the filmmaker talking to the audience, so I don’t know, man, I’d much rather hear from the filmmaker, rather than kind of just look at the work itself. I’d rather know what was on the filmmaker’s mind when it was going on--not through some fuckin’ press kit notes, you know.
Capone: Well, you just described the birth of Ain't It Cool, I think.
KS: Exactly, dude! I mean, that’s why, like, it’s been a great time to be alive, because it was, like, around the same time…like, I did CLERKS, and Robert [Rodriguez] did EL MARIACHI right before me. And, Quentin [Tarantino] did RESERVOIR DOGS before him. And, Harvey and Bob [Weinstein] were doing exciting things, you know, daily with fuckin’ Miramax. And, then, out of nowhere, this fat dude in Texas was just like, "I’m going to talk to people about movies." Such a brilliant idea, so simple. And, he had the benefit of being the guy who kind of did it first. And, now, everybody does it. But, he was the first guy--and, it was born out of passion. It was born out of, like, "Hey, nobody else is doing it, I wanna do it, ’cause I wanna talk about fuckin’ movies."
And, what do they do for him--they beat him up. [laughs] He can’t win. You know why? Because some people don’t like to see people doing well. Some people genuinely don’t like the work, and, hence, they don’t like you. Some people don’t like you, period. I thought people would go, like, "I love his movies, but I can’t stand him." I’m, like, "Really? I mean, they’re interchangeable. That’s so weird." So, it’s born out of necessity, or born out of his desire to fill a gap that’s there.
I mean, talk to Harry. I guarantee you Harry is not nearly as interested in Ain't It Cool News now as he was when he started it, because now there’s a bunch of places out there. Now, he has a never-ending flow of people to talk to about movies, whereas, back in the day, he was a dude holed up in a bed with a bum leg, or something like that…and, "Who can I talk to about movies, except my dad?" He’ll never be lonely again, dude. All he has to do is fuckin’ sign on to his web site and put up a blog, and a thousand people will tell him he’s great, or that he’s a fat jerkoff.
And, that’s what we deal with online all the time. That’s why I’m so curious how fuckin’ somebody like Brittany Spears deals with “You fuckin’ whore,” the shit that people write to her. But, then again, she’s probably used to it. I just want somebody like fuckin’ Meryl Streep to get on Twitter, you know what I’m saying. Meryl Streep has probably not dealt with any hostility from the general public in quite some fuckin’ time. She’s beloved, our greatest American actress. But, you know by process of elimination, dude, somebody’s going to jump on Twitter if she’s on there and be, like, "You suck cock!" Somebody’s going to tell Meryl Streep that she sucks cock, and Meryl Streep’s going to have to confront it and be, like, "Omigod, who are these people?" And quickly turn off to it. But, those of us who have been online since the early days, like Harry…Harry must have a fuckin’ iron skin at this point, dude.
Capone: It took me, like, five or six years to learn to be entertained by it as I was being insulted, I'll admit.
KS: Yeah, it takes…dude, it took me, like, the better part of 15, like, 14 years. It wasn’t until I developed a drug habit that I could finally disconnect from it, you know what I’m saying? Because that’s what people don’t get, like, they think they’re just talking about your movie. But, those movies were personal. Those weren’t just movies. That was me exposing myself, so you go after the work, you go after the filmmaker. You’re not just saying, "Ahh, this really bugged me." They’re saying, "Your life doesn’t interest me." And, that’s where the personal reaction used to come from.
But now, by virtue of the fact that I’ve been doing it for this long, and I smoke as much weed as I do, and also by virtue of the fact that I’m fuckin’ 39, those days of fuckin’, like, [mock wailing] "Omigod, they can cut me to the quick" are over. You know what cuts me to the quick now? Terror, for my daughter…that, you know, she’s going to go out and get killed one day, or snatched, or some sick shit. You know, that takes over. Suddenly, it’s just, like, why do I care if some motherfucker online tells me I’m an idiot. It’s, like, "You’re right, dude, I am. You win. Congratulations! Let me shake your hand. You told me. Now, move on with your life and conquer more people."
Capone: I feel like I should address the book coming out, “Shooting the Shit.”
KS: Feel free.
Capone: What were the criteria for deciding which SModcasts or which sections would make the book?
KS: I turned it over to Ken Plume, ’cause I was, like, look, Ken Plume is the only guy who’s listened to every SModcast, probably at least three times. He gets them dry, and then he he’d listen to it to hear what we’re talking about, so he can decide what musical bed he’s going to lay under it. Then, he’s listening to it while he’s doing that. And, then, he has to listen to it when it’s all done. So, he has heard all of them and has heard every inch of them, with or without music. He’s the most familiar with them. And, I was just, like, if anybody’s going to know, it’s him.
I get e-mails from Ken every week. I send him a podcast, and he’ll send me an e-mail, saying, "I got it. I’m working on it now." And, every once in a while, he sends an e-mail where he’s, like, "I got it--Wow, this one’s really funny." And, you know, like, he’s the guy who sits there and judges them all the time, because he has to listen to them. And so, I was, like, this guy, of anybody, he’s going to know the funny ones. So, I turned it over to Ken. And also, you just wanted to keep Ken involved, because he’s such an integral part of the SModcast equation. He’s the guy who mixes the background music, but in a book, there’s really no place for that.
Capone: Was there any listener input on what they liked the most?
KS: Yeah, we put up a category once a long time ago, and it was, like, “Favorite SModquotes” or something like that. And, I think that was because Ken and Ming were trying to make a bumper sticker, and they wanted to know, like, what was a favorite quote or most-repeated quote. And, then, we just kind of abandoned the idea but kept the thread up there, so people still use it to kind of comment on their favorite bits or whatnot. And, I guess, Ken might have used that as a reference as well.
Capone: Do you ever set an agenda for any of the SModcasts, or do you just get in there and start talking?
KS: Generally, we just kind of go and start talking. I mean, throughout the week, if I see links online to stories and shit that I’m, like, "Ohhh, we could talk about this," then I’ll grab those. But, generally, we don’t do that anymore. We did that more upfront where we were kind of dealing with news stories, but now, we just kind of sit down and start babbling.
But, there’s a lot more editing that goes on now than there was in the beginning, because what I’ll do now is record for three hours or something like that, however much time we feel like going, and then just let it go and not think about the time. We used to do it in, like, 52-minute increments, ’cause that’s all the card would hold. And then, one day Ming was, like, "Why don’t you just get a bigger card?" And, I was, like, "Oh, yeah. We’re such idiots." So, once you get that big a card, it was, like, we could go for hours. And, what I’ll do is I’ll take three hours and bring it down to, like, what it is you hear every week. And, it’s not always three, sometimes it’s two. And, there are long, boring fuckin’ sections that I’ll hack out, and so you just hear the best of it, and it sounds like one fluid conversation. It kind of is, but I took the shitty stuff out.
Capone: Between the Twitter stuff and the SModcasts and the tour and the books, have we heard most of your best stories up to this point, at least until the next movie? For example, you told some great Bruce Willis stories when you were here.
KS: Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. The beauty of the job is that it informs the Q&As, because with every new movie, there’s new stories to talk about. In terms of the best, I don’t know, I mean, sometimes there are stories that are way better than others. And, then, it’s, like, I think about the evening itself, not so much the stories that are told, but, like, what happens. And, each evening is unique unto itself by virtue of the fact that the audiences are going to be different each time. So, for me, I’m never, like, "Oh, man, I once told a funny story, and I don’t have that any more." The show has the chance to go to weird, wonderful places, like the Ann Arbor show that some people were writing about online. Like, with the dude asking for a tattoo…becomes a whole bit, and it’s so insanely memorable. And, it’s so memorable that people who weren’t even there talk about it, you know, "He tattooed the dude’s ass, a crack next to his crack" and shit like that. So, you know, it kind of goes out from there as well.
I don’t know. I would think by this point you’ve heard everything I’ve had to say. But, I’m still shocked that people stand up to that mike and ask me something, when I’m, like, "Huh, I didn’t know that, okay, let’s go."
Capone: What do you get out of Twitter? What do you get out of reading what people send you?
KS: I mean, it’s no different than what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years. Like, we got on line in late ’95 with the View Askewniverse when Ming, the guy who built it…I said, Ming, what I’d really like to have on this thing, this ‘web site’--’cause I didn’t know what it was then--on this In-tor-net--was to put up something where I can have a kind of Q&A every week, ’cause I like doing Q&As. So, the idea of just kind of being able to talk to people about whatever it is they want to talk about and answer their questions really appeals to me. So, Ming goes, "Well, I can do you one better, dude, I’ll put up what they call a message board, and on this message board, people will be able to post all the time. And, then, you can answer them at your leisure." I was, like, "Get out of here!"
So, he introduced me to the idea of the message board, and since 1995, I’ve been on the View Askew message board, answering questions. And, sometimes, they’re, like, three paragraphs, sometimes they’re two-page answers, and sometimes, they’re shorter. And, as time goes on and I got busier and busier, the answers got shorter and shorter. Then, all of a sudden, Twitter comes along, and it was, like, "Hey, we do the exact same thing, but we only have 140 characters to do it in." And, that means that your time…you don’t spend two hours answering one person. You can move on to something else.
And, suddenly, I was just, like, man, "I’ve had insane training for this. I have been on line training for this since, like, ’95. I can do this in my fuckin’ sleep." And, I enjoy doing it. That’s why we started the View Askew web site in the first place, so I could reach out and talk to people who actually bought tickets to the movies and shit like that. Because before that, you had to go off, like…The only way you could find out how you were doing was to see what the critics would write or how people voted with their wallets at the box office.
So, the notion of being able to, like, jump on line and talk to somebody who bought a ticket two hours ago, and they could tell you, "Hey, man, I don’t fuckin’ make much money, and I want you to give me ten bucks back, because fuckin’ that movie sucked." Or, "Hey, man, I was havin’ a shit day, and I saw your movie and ‘thank you’, because, my god, it was exactly what I needed." That’s way more interesting to me, you know. That’s communication. That’ why I got in the game in the first place: Throw a message out there. Get a response.
And, with the online world, we get quick responses in a way that you never have before. And, you’re getting direct responses from people that actually buy tickets to see the movie. I mean, you know, you get to write about the flicks and whatnot, and by virtue of that, you get to see some shit for free. But, you know how much shit you don’t see by virtue of the fact that you’re, like, "Alright, I gotta get dressed, and then, I got to find somebody to watch the fuckin’ kids, and then, she don’t like this kind of movie, so that means that, like, I’m going to have to go see some bullshit she wants me to go see later on as a trade-off…and, if we do this, she’s not going to fuck me tonight, ’cause she never fucks me after the movie." All those things you go through before you can be, like, [big sigh] "Okay, I’ll go see the movie."
So, I realize the decisions that go into somebody leaving the house to go see something I’ve created. And, I take that responsibility seriously. I feel like, you know, not everyone’s going to leave the house to see my shit--that’s what I’ve learned historically over the years--but, the ones that do, I’m going make sure that they have the best fuckin’ time they can. Or, I’m going to try, and maybe, it hits them one way one day and hits them another way the other day. I mean, I got people who, like, loved CLERKS religiously and then just one day they wake up and they’re, like, "Yeah, but I’m not in my 20s anymore. Like, you know, CLERKS was fun then, but, you know…" My movies are the movies that people grow out of, sooner or later. Just like the John Hughes movies. People grow out of them and shit. But, then, they remember ’em fondly and come back to them, and embrace them, and shit like that.
It’s weird. In 15 years, I’ve watched people go away and return. I’m like the Giving Tree, man, you know. The fuckers come back, and be, like, "Give me some apples." "Here you are." "I want to make a boat." "Here." "I just want to sit on you." I’m, like, "Do it. Please. That’s what I’m here for. Use me. Please. Just talk to me."
Capone: You were talking about RED STATE earlier and how it may never get made--not the first thing of yours that you’ve written that hasn’t.
KS: Yeah. No, I’ve had a wake of fuckin’ projects and things that didn’t happen. I used to, very much in the day, I just liked to talk about whatever was going to happen without thinking, hey, it might not happen. I’d be talking about shit two years in advance, and then it would never materialize.
Capone: But, do you have a favorite unproduced script?
KS: Of the unproduced screenplays right now, it would be RED STATE. RED STATE is a real mind-fuck, man. RED STATE is the flick that, if executed properly, the fuckers on Ain't It Cool News talkbacks that don’t like me, would be, like, "FINALLY, he learned how to make a film." You know, it’s just that fuckin’ obscure and not user-friendly. It’s a garage-band movie, man. And, like, they would be embraced by people who were, like, "I like the disturbing and inane kind of thing." Goth kids are gonna totally dig it. Or, though, they probably won’t. I don’t even know if Goth kids will. I don’t know who’ll dig it, but there’s a small audience for it. But, that’s my favorite unproduced screenplay right now, by virtue of the fact that I didn’t write HIT SOMEBODY yet.
Capone: Oh, you haven’t written it yet?
KS: No, no, no. I’ve got all my notes, ducks in a row. I don’t start writing until December.
Capone: Okay. But, I like the idea you mentioned when you were here that you were turning your GREEN HORNET screenplay into a comic book.
KS: Yeah, yeah. Nick Barrucci who runs Dynamic Forces, he’s got a comic book label now, I think, called Dynamite, or something like that, and they do, like, “Red Sonja” and a bunch of books, licensed books. He got in touch with me before A COUPLE OF DICKS happened--I was in preproduction still--and he said, "Hey, man, I got the license for 'Green Hornet.'" And, I was, like, "Green fuckin’ Hornet. This fuckin’ thing haunts me." And, he was, like, "Do you have any interest to work on it?" And, I said, "Honestly, dude, not at all. I mean, I got the 'Widening Gyre,' I got this movie I’m heading into, like, there’s just no time. You’d end up just waiting for scripts forever." And, he was, like, "Well, didn’t you write a script for the movie?" And, I was, like, Umm, yeah. I said, "Omigod, yeah, there’s that. And, they’re never going to make that movie. I mean, Seth [Rogen] is now making his movie with Michel Gondry, so it’s just gonna sit there. But, you wanna do that?" And, Nick was, like, "Omigod, that would be totally great. Let’s do that. Yeah, and we’ll just sell it as, like, the fuckin’ movie, the ill-fated movie that wasn’t."
So, I was into it, and I said, "Let’s do it." And, then, we went and asked Miramax, because they own the script technically, and Miramax was really sweet about it. I mean, this is the Daniel Battsek Miramax now, the more Disney Miramax. So, it was weird, going back to…It’s like going to your house, and somebody else moved into your childhood home. And, you’re, like, "Hey, I left a jar of marbles in this closet in the back. Can I go get it?" And, they’re, like, "Yeah, come on in."
So, I went and did that, and I said, "Can I do this?" And, they said, "Yeah, since nobody’s ever going to make the screenplay, and they’re off making a GREEN HORNET flick now, feel free." And, the only thing they asked for was to get the profits for it. Anything I would have made for it, they were going to take from it, because I had already gotten paid to write the GREEN HORNET screenplay. So, their rationale was, like, "Why should you get paid twice?" I said, "You’re absolutely right." I’m not interested in the money anyway. I just want Nick to have something to publish. And, it would be kind of interesting to see how people would have reacted to my GREEN HORNET movie. At the very least, if the book comes out, and people were, like, "This fuckin’ would’ve sucked," then I was, like, "I knew walking away was a good idea." But, if it goes the other way, and they’re, like, "This would have been bad-ass," I’m going to kick my own ass for the next 10 years.
So, that is going to happen. We’re pulling that together now, and they’re going to go forward with that. And, people will get to see the GREEN HORNET movie I would have made.
Capone: Yeah, well, there might be other scripts you could do that with. I know a lot of people were clamoring for your SUPERMAN script.
KS: Yeah, there was a dude years ago, we’re talking 1996, when I was working on it…A dude on line. It was called Project Pocket Watch. And, what he had done was take my SUPERMAN LIVES script, and he was illustrating it. And, he was putting up page by page. He has long since abandoned it, as you can imagine. That was probably a decade ago by now. But, he was doing that. He was drawing the unproduced screenplay, which I always thought was kind of interesting. Lot of free time, lot of free time. Well, eventually, he lost that free time, so he was, like, "What the fuck am I doing? What a waste of time." And, he just moved on.
As everyone does. That’s a typical Kevin Smith fan. Sooner or later, we hit a point where we’re, like, What the fuck am I doing? And, they move on. But, thankfully, there’s more behind them.
Capone: Yeah. Well, you sold out the Chicago Theatre, which is no small feat. So, I think there are always going to be people who care about what you’re up to.
KS: And, the weird thing is. I look at them now, and they used to all look like me. And, now they don’t. Now, they look like chicks, and 50-year-olds, and teenagers. It’s all over the map, man. Some of them are black, dude. What? How did that happen? I don’t appeal to a black audience at all, but apparently I’m starting to.
Capone: Does it freak you out when you see teenagers in the audience?
KS: No, no. That doesn’t freak me out. That makes me go, like, "Okay, I guess I can buy that Edmonton Oilers jersey. The next crop of fan base is there." The day I don’t see teenagers in the audience, that’s when I’m, like, "Sell the cars. We’re going to a smaller house. It’s over."
Capone: You name-dropped Harry's and the Ain't It Cool name about a half-dozen times during the show. It was a proud moment for me.
KS: Oh, no worries. I mean, I live in that world, you know. I’m in an Ain't It Cool world.
Capone: I just came back from a week in Austin with Harry for Fantastic Fest.
KS: Oh, yeah, that’s right, dude. That was last year this time. Oh god, dude. Last year at this time I was at the Fantastic Fest, and there was nothing but hope. It was just, like, "Wow, I wonder what ZACK AND MIRI will make." And, the loved it there. They loved me in Austin. They ate those movies up in Austin. I loved going to those screenings at the Paramount. Great audience there, great theater. I always go, I always kill, and invariably the movie never lives up to what everyone thought it would be. You know, it was, like, after CLERKS II, everyone was, "You’ll make 50 million bucks." It didn’t. Not even close. ZACK AND MIRI…"Oh, this movie’s going to make a 100 million bucks." It didn’t. So, I feel like maybe I’m jinxing myself in Austin, but I don’t give a shit. I like them. They’re such nice people, and they love movies.
Capone: You've exhausted all the questions I came with, but I really appreciate you taking all this time to talk. It's been incredibly fun.
KS: No worries, man. It was great, man. Thanks for spending the time.
-- Capone
therealcapone@aintitcoolmail.com
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