Jason Mewes Interview: Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back 20th Anniversary

Jason Mewes looks back on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the View Askewniverse to celebrate the buddy comedy’s 20th anniversary.

You Are Reading :Jason Mewes Interview Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back 20th Anniversary

Before they were rebooted in 2019, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob set off on their own adventure in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The buddy comedy saw the duo on a cross-country journey to Hollywood to put a stop to the production of an adaptation of “Bluntman and Chronic,” a comic book in which the heroes are based directly off of the titular stoners. Hitting theaters in 2001, the film was a modest critical success and scored mixed reviews from critics, but as with much of Smith’s View Askewniverse has since garnered a cult following.

As the film celebrates its 20th anniversary and comes to digital platforms, Screen Rant caught up with Mewes to discuss his long tenure as Jay, the journey taken since making his debut in Clerks, and returning for the in-production Clerks III.

Screen Rant: You know, it’s still crazy to me to think that Jay and Silent Bob, you guys, got your own movie and it got to be this huge, fun adventure. What is it like for you looking back on that film?

Jason Mewes: You know, looking back, especially now because we’re filming Clerks 3, it’s just surreal each time that I get to do a movie. Because we did Clerks 1 and it’s like, I didn’t plan on doing a movie. And even after we did that movie, it was like, “Oh, cool. We made a movie. That was cool. They asked me to be part of it.” I went back to roofing and doing my normal 9-5 job. Even after Mallrats, I went back to delivering pizza and doing construction during Chasing Amy all the way up to Dogma I worked 9-5.

So each time we get to do the movies, man, it’s so much fun and so surreal to me and especially now like, each time we [hit a milestone] like Mallrats hit its 20 years and then Chasing Amy and now we’re at Jay and Silent Bob and now we’re filming Clerks 3, which is crazy. Because, you know, that one was done 30 years ago, almost, oh my goodness gracious.

The great thing is now is, as time has gone on, it’s a family affair. Because of course Kevin and I are like family, but not only that, my wife now is producing. She produced Reboot, she produced Yoga Hosers, and her and Kevin are business partners. So we got to come out together, me, her, my six-year-old, and my mother-in-law all get to come out and work together and it’s just amazing.

One of the things I especially love about Strike Back is how, sort of like Mallrats, it had that mixed reception upon initial release, but then it’s gone on to be one of the more celebrated of the whole bunch. What’s that like for you looking back on that?

Jason Mewes: For me, each time we did a movie, not so much Mallrats, but like after Clerks, I didn’t think anything of the movie. I just was like, “Oh, cool” and I went back to the job like I said. Mallrats was a little more real because it was a studio movie and stuff and I was like, “Wow, this is crazy. I just got to work with Shannon Doherty.” All the movies just didn’t really register for me and especially that part of it. Of course, I hope for the best, but where I really got to see it is Kevin. I remember we were like, “Oh my god, it’s a studio movie.”

I wasn’t a big movie guy who read reviews and watched box office numbers and all of that didn’t really make sense to me. But the reason I did follow along and paid attention somewhat is because of course, Kevin. Kevin would get me hyped up like, “Bro, if this does well, we could maybe do another one and people are gonna want you to do another” and that was exciting to me. But also it was so heartbreaking for Kevin and I remember it used to break his heart. It matters to everyone, everyone wants their movie to do well, but I remember him watching weekend box office reviews and numbers and being bummed out and I remember being like, “Mallrats is amazing, why didn’t it do great? Why didn’t the whole world see it?” Then after it came out on TV, it really did well.

One of the ones that stood out to me the most [in comparison] was Strike Back. Will Ferrell’s in it, Judd Nelson, [Ben] Affleck at that point and Matt Damon were huge and all the cameos – it blew my mind that it didn’t do better. Throughout the years, I’ve never thought of that for me like, “Oh my God, this is gonna make me rich” or anything like that, because I don’t think any of that matters. I don’t think if a movie does well anyway, I guess unless it’s an Avengers movie, you start getting huge residuals. But it wasn’t so much me as much as how disappointing I remember it was for Kevin. It used to hurt my heart to see his heart broken and that was a real bummer to me.

It was weird, but it was great [too], because back then I remember when it would hit DVD, it seemed that people loved the DVD and they would start talking about it and review it. People would just start saying, “Oh my gosh, I saw that movie on DVD.” It’s crazy now because of course, it’s a different world, now you don’t see DVDs, now it’s Netflix and all the other different places that movies can go on the worldwide interwebs.

Obviously, you said the movie was fun to make, but when Kevin first approached you about it, did you feel any sort of apprehension over the fact that it was going to be you and him getting a whole movie instead of just being supporting characters?

Jason Mewes: I believe I felt that, of course, I was nervous because I knew that it’d be a lot of pressure on me, but there was no hesitation. Anytime I get to work with Kevin, it’s awesome. When I did Clerks, I was so nervous being in front of the camera and when I went to do Mallrats, man, I remember being terrified every day I had to be on camera. It would be my turn and I’d be so nervous about choking, because when we did Clerks, I couldn’t even act in front of people. I’d be like, “Dude, can you ask everyone to go inside, I don’t want anyone watching me.” Back then, because it wasn’t a studio movie, I could drink a little bit – plus I didn’t know at that point that I was a drug addict, alcoholic. That didn’t really start happening until Chasing Amy and Dogma was when I was in pretty bad shape.

Jay & Bob, I had just gotten sober, so I had to really focus, I was very excited because I’m like, “Alright, man, I’m sober, I’m healthy, I’m gonna really focus on this movie and I need to do a good job.” But I knew it was gonna be a lot of work and pressure. I shot every day, I was in every scene, just like Reboot. Where the last one there was no downtime, it was literally like I wake up at 6 AM, I’m going to work, at night I have to come home and have to be up for two hours at least trying to memorize my dialogue for the next day because I had so much dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It was awesome, I’m just saying like what a difference now, but Strike Back I remember being the same way.

The difference was I didn’t have a six-year-old kid and I wasn’t married at that point, so it was a lot of time just me hanging with Kevin and memorizing my dialogue and we’d take walks every day, go do fun stuff. I still lived in Jersey, so for me, it was awesome because I’m from Jersey, I live in Jersey. Then I was staying in L.A., it was a guest house then that we rented, and hanging out in California was amazing. I had so much fun on Strike Back, it was so surreal, we were on the CBS Radford Lot and it was awesome, because we all had our own golf carts, because everything was sort of far away, so we would race each other from one studio to the next studio. It was amazing, man, it was so much fun.

Did you ever use that time to also sort of peek in on other sets while you were there?

Jason Mewes: Oh yeah, I would always try to peek in on other things filming, but they’re usually pretty locked down. But it was cool. I honestly don’t remember what they were filming at that point in what studio, but I remember if they weren’t filming that the security would let me peek in and I get to see some cool sets that were set up like, “Oh, this used to be that show, or this is that show. They just haven’t [broken] it down.”

One of my favorite scenes from Strike Back still is yours and Kevin’s fight with Mark Hamill and the fact that it literally just named him Mark Hamill. Looking back on that fight, what was it like for you getting to recreate that Star Wars moment?

Jason Mewes: It was really awesome, so blown away and surreal to me, but not only at that point was I getting to work with and meet Mark Hamill, but then I also got to do something that, I would imagine many people in the world would love to do – a lightsaber fight with him. It wasn’t lightsabers, they were Bong Sabers, what have you, but it was so surreal man, it would give me butterflies.

Over the years, the people I’ve gotten to work with and meet and stuff has blown me away and it still does, like meeting Stan Lee for the first time — even every time after. It’s funny because we’ve worked with Stan a few times and then I would see him out at cons. Even though it’d been 20 years of knowing him and running into him and saying hello to him, each time, I’m not kidding you, when he would say hello to me, it would give me butterflies because it would remind me of like, “Hello, Spider friends.” Like a 12-year-old kid that watched Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends would remember that and it would like come rushing back to these memories.

But yes, meeting all of them, you know, Princess Leia/Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock — now going to cons, it’s so much fun, because I get to go hang out in the green room and I still get nervous. Like, I’ll go in the green room and there’s Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi and the cast from Game of Thrones, and I’ll be like, “Oh!” and they’ll be like, “Do you want to sit down and have a sandwich here?” and I’m like, “No, I’ll be out there, I’ll be waiting out there.” I don’t even want to sit in there because I’m so nervous about sitting next to someone and they start talking to me and I say something silly.

But I love it. I kid you not, 30 years of doing this and I’m constantly reminded of how lucky I am and [how] surreal this is. Every time I go do stand-up comedy and it sells out I’m like, “Wow, all these 400 people came to listen to me talk about my ball bag.” [laughs] You know what I mean? It’s so surreal.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/jason-mewes-interview-jay-silent-bob-strike-back-20th-anniversary/