My interview with Kevin Smith during the press junket for Jersey Girl.

Prior to the release and the press junket for Jersey Girl, there was a lot of noise about "Bennifer" and the box office tragedy Gigli. Then there was commotion about the director's decision to cut out a five second wedding scene from the movie. It was certainly a lot of fodder for a film about a man dealing with such life issues as losing his wife, juggling his career and becoming a single father.

Of course director Kevin Smith is accustomed to the Hollywood media machine, and he has taken it all in stride. "I wrote this as a Valentine for my wife," Smith said, "but she knows it's more about my dad and Harley (his daughter)."

"At least she thinks it's more about my dad and Harley," he said with a smile, "but I believe the genesis is with her, she was the muse on this one."

His wife may be right though, because Smith showed a bit of emotion when discussing his favorite scene with George Carlin, who plays the father. "(It was) the moment that breaks me up," Smith said, "and it always broke me up, (because it is) very poignant, and made me glass over before my father died."

"Since my father died, I can't even watch this scene any more. (It) is at the end in the bar with Ben," Smith said. "You know where he's just sitting there, and you can see the most that that guy, that that character can actually let out to his son."

He gets glassy eyed, never breaks or gets mawkish, he just gets this glaze glass over his eyes," Smith said, “and it is just so incredibly moving. Then Ben kisses his forehead. That's like, that shit's like right out of my real life."
Another funny segue way into Smith's real life was a discussion about the scene that Ben Affleck's character, Ollie, has to wipe his baby off after changing a diaper. “(It is) what definitely comes out of real life," Smith said, “and is so stupid and small, but so important that it's one of those things that you don't realize until you have a kid, a daughter in particular."

“You do have to wipe front to back," Smith said. “You know, like to me, I'm a front wiper myself when I'm on the toilet. My ass is too big to reach around, and I don't like to lean forward because the gut leans forward onto the legs. Then I'm like ‘I am too fat,' so I'm a front wiper in many ways, in every way really."

"So I wipe, of course, back to front," Smith said, "but you know there's nothing for me to wipe it into. I'm not like wiping shit on my balls."

"So when we were, um, it was frightening enough to have to change a baby for the first time when they teach you that in the hospital before you can go home with the kid," Smith said. "When I was doing it, the nurse was like ‘no, no, no, you got to go from front to back,' and I was like isn't that a matter of preference."

"She was like ‘no, if you go this way, you're just wiping the wrong place.' I was like that's so simple and makes so much sense, but I would've never known unless I had a kid," Smith said. "So that is the only thing about having a child that really came from real life that shows up in the movie."
While Jersey Girl is not your typical Kevin Smith (ala Clerks or Chasing Amy), there is one Star Wars reference to listen for. "I wrestled with leaving (it) in or not," Smith said. "I promised I wasn't going to do any Star Wars references (on his Web site www.viewaskew.com), but she sounded so cute and so far away I said f*** it."

He also offers the "wisdom dispensing video clerk" that Liv Tyler plays. Mya is a graduate student who meets Ollie and Gertie, played by Raquel Castro, while they are busy picking out movies to watch. The scene plays out nicely and leads to friendship and love developing between Ollie and Maya.
Tyler previously worked with Affleck in Armagedon, and while Smith liked her work in Inventing the Abbotts, he was not completely sure how she would play as Mya. As it turns out, he was pleasantly surprised. "I was so glad that I cast her," Smith said, "because she was one of the only actors or actresses that ever took the role on the page exactly as it was written without changing a single line of dialogue and created a new character from it."

"(It was) far different from the one I had in my head when I was writing it," Smith said. "My version of Mya was, hmm, she was more like Alyssa (from Chasing Amy) more blousy, kind of hard-edged and kind of a smart-ass."
"The way Liv plays it is more geeky and sweet," he said. "It was weird to see her do it without changing any of the words. It's still the same words, but she played it softer and more intriguing to me."

Smith also said that this was the best performance that he has seen Affleck give. "Being that she (Jennifer Lopez) was in the movie, he was laser focused," Smith said, "because she was there the whole time. Not only for the scenes she was in, like we shot her out in the first two or three weeks or something like that, she stuck around for the entire shoot. So he was always content."

Even with Lopez's short appearance in the movie, Smith feels her casting had a great trickle down effect. "First, she gave me a great performance," Smith said. "Because it was her, Ben gave a better performance than I would have been able to get out of him if it was just random actress A, B or C."

"He was really in love with her at the time," Smith said. "So it kind of works in the scenes they are together, but it really works when she's out of the movie because you feel his loss."

"Jennifer helps out because it's Jennifer Lopez, and we started looking seriously at Raquel Castro because she bore a striking resemblance to her." Smith said. "If it wasn't Jen, we probably wouldn't have cast Raquel, and Raquel turned out to be a great decision. So (I say) Jennifer gets credit for that as well."

With Jersey Girl hitting theaters, Smith is busy working the publicity trail and doing appearances on college campuses. At the same time, he is working on and contemplating new projects. He has signed on to write and direct the Green Hornet, and he is also working on a new Fletch film.

Smith wants his comic fans to know that the Spider-Man/Black Cat story will be done at some point, and he apologizes for not getting it finished sooner.

While another Jay and Silent Bob adventure is not on the immediate horizon, Smith did promise Jason Mewes if Mewes could stay clean, Smith will write another story for them. "At this point, Mewes has been clean for almost a year," Smith said. "So after I finish the Green Hornet and Fletch projects, I will look at writing another film for Jay and Silent Bob."