Finally bought and watched "An Evening with Kevin Smith" last week and the very next day I ordered "Evening 2". I find his films to be quite patchy ('Dogma' was pretty good, 'Mallrats' not bad the rest of what i've seen I can take or leave) but he's a really entertaining, witty, forthright speaker.

And wasn't there a kerfuffle a while back because he'd said he wasn't into 'Firefly' despite Jason Mewes insisting he watch it ? Looks like he might've finally caved ;).

(also, i'm sure I remember Joss saying "You're a dick" was one of his too. Shows how a Whedon line works when it's delivered properly)

Saje | May 15, 16:42 CET

KS talking about his experience when hired to write Superman makes me wonder what Joss went through during the WW job. Did she have to fight a giant spider in act three?

(It's on Youtube if you haven't seen it)

zz9 | May 15, 17:03 CET

I was under the impression Kevin Smith was not a fan of Firefly or Buffy for that matter. This is interesting.

I had no idea that line was a Whedon line. It was probably one of the worst lines of the entire first X-Men. I literally wince every time I see that scene.

war_machine | May 15, 17:32 CET

It's the delivery that really sinks it though. It's meant to be a throw-away. Imagine Buffy saying it: it would be light, as if she couldn't be bothered with coming up with a better line. She might even acknowledge it isn't her best bantering with an eye-roll or shrug. But Halle put so much DRRRAAAAAMMMMAAA into saying it, it came off cheesy, over-the-top, and just bad. And yes, the "dick" line was Joss' too.

And I don't think Kevin activly hated Firefly... wasn't it that he had never watched it? And wasn't he put off by Mewes pushing it so hard?

Dizzy | May 15, 17:57 CET

Exactly. The stentorian delivery sinks the line under about a hundred weight of cheese. And, likewise, it's the off-hand casualness of "You're a dick" that makes it funny and cool.

And yeah, that was my impression, that 'everyone' (or maybe just Mewes) telling Smith how great it was and how much he'd love it made the contrarian in him rebel.

Could be he's relented and watched it or (reading it again) it could be he's just talking in general terms (e.g. he doesn't say "Firefly deserved to stay on because it was so good" he basically says "Firefly deserved to stay on because Joss Whedon has a proven track record" which doesn't require him to have actually seen any of Joss' shows).

(and the spider story was hilariously baffling zz9. I'd heard about the 'No flying' rule but the third act spider was new. Simultaneously funny and chock-full of 'WTF ?' moments ;)

Saje | May 15, 18:35 CET

Kevin Smith...bleh.

kerfuffle | May 15, 19:00 CET

Thanks for the link, Simon. Smith is always a good interview and that was a great read.

TamaraC | May 15, 21:21 CET

There was, there was indeedy... October, 2006: Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) has not seen Firefly/Serenity.

Later on in this interview, Kevin talks about trying to find roles for *sigh* Alan Rickman in his productions, and mentions Our Eliza in the same breath:




ET: fix typo.

[ edited by QuoterGal on 2007-05-15 21:56 ]

QuoterGal | May 15, 22:08 CET

Yes that was a nice thing he said about Eliza. She's a very underrated actress.

Simon | May 15, 22:39 CET

Heh. Was that the Kevin Smith mangling that earned Eliza her "duckshoot" nickname?

jclemens | May 16, 00:04 CET

Huh. I've never been a Kevin Smith fan, but he just earned some points with me. I too was under the impression that he wasn't a Firefly fan. So whether he changed his mind or he's just being supportive of another artist, that was a pretty stand up thing to say.

Samantha | May 16, 02:25 CET

I think Tim Minear would kill for two months.

That looks like a fantastic interview, but way too long for me to get through right now.

Kiddo | May 16, 10:32 CET