Mewes is here to talk his new movie, the Clerks legacy, and the future of Jay and Silent Bob.
JM: Honestly. I haven't been following it. I will actually vote however my wife tells me to vote. So that's gonna be what it is. I hadn't voted up until a couple years ago. Because I had a felony, I was told I was not allowed to vote. I just assumed they were right and I never did any type of research about it, so I just never voted because I thought I wasn't allowed to. My wife researched it and it was somewhat true. You can't vote while you're on probation. But after you're off, you can vote. So, I just started voting when Obama came around. So, I had never voted before and I was like 'Who am I? Am I democrat or am I Republican?'.
TMS: I think you're a Democrat.
JM: My wife gave me some input about what's what and this year it's the same thing. I'll listen to what she says. I guess I should know a little bit more and should be more supportive about that stuff but I think I'm playing with my baby too much and traveling. When I am home and I have downtime, I read comic books and play video games. Maybe I shouldn't be doing so much of that.
TMS: So, how is it being a parent? Seems crazy that Jay has a baby!!!
JM: I had no idea how much time a baby takes. I knew but I didn't know. I didn't know that when she started walking I'd be literally chasing her around the house because I'm so petrified that she's gonna fall and hit her head or something. So, I literally chase her around. She wants to go up her slide and down her slide in the living room. She wants to get on her scooter which she's just learning how to get on. It's a blast. I love it.
TMS: What's up with Vigilante Diaries? Where can people see it? And what do you want them to know about the movie?
JM: This Friday it'll be out on VOD, iTunes, and in some theaters. I'm very excited about it. It started out as a little passion project that my friends Christian and Paul made as a web series. We shot it and put it out there. Someone saw it and really dug it. They said 'Hey man, we wanna make this into a movie'. They gave Christian and Paul some money to make it into a movie. I think they did a great job. So here we have it. I went back and shot some more stuff for my character. They went somewhere like Belize or Brazil, somewhere awesome that I didn't get to go. But the production value turned out fantastic. I was super stoked.
TMS: I know it was a seven episode web series. Did they reshoot the entire thing or did they put the scenes they had already shot into the movie?
JM: They just shot and they intertwined the web stuff into it. I feel the way they did it worked very well. They used the web footage to keep the flow of the movie which I thought was genius. It wasn't like 'Hey look, this idea is genius, let's scrap the web series!' to start over. They shot the movie and pieced in the web series and it works really well.
TMS: I don't wanna spend too much time on the Kevin Smith movies because I'm sure it gets tiresome. But, how do you deal with fans that are incessantly quoting movie lines at you?
JM: I dig it, man. I'm flattered. Twenty years later people are still quoting stuff from the movies. And watching those movies. People are coming to our podcast that we do. It's been awesome. I never expected that Jay and Bob would be around twenty years later doing stuff.
TMS: Well, Clerks started it all, man. What can you tell us about your experience making that flick?
JM: After Clerks I went back to roofing. It's funny cause if you watch Clerks, Jay's not even on the poster. We shot the movie with a couple of friends. I didn't know anything about the world of trying to sell....'like hey, we're gonna bring this to film festivals, people watch it, they can buy it and put it in theaters'. I had no clue. I just thought we shot it. We watched it in the video store with like 15-20 of us. I was like 'Cool. That's awesome. That was fun. We made a movie.' Then all of a sudden Kevin was like 'Miramax bought it. It's gonna be in theaters. I got a deal where I'm gonna make a couple more movies and I'm gonna throw us into the next movie'. So again, I had no idea that I'd do more than one movie and that we'd still be doing it.
My point is that I don't mind if people drive by and are like 'Snootchie bootchies'. People come up and show me tattoos of Jay and Bob. I think it's fantastic. I don't get sick of it at all. It's flattering and awesome that people enjoy us.
JM: Oh totally! He definitely planned on us being in the movie. Hopefully all goes smooth and as planned with the tv show. I don't know how he's going to convert the storyline of the script. I'm curious. But I do not that Jay and Silent Bob will be in it. Then hopefully we get to shoot Moose Jaws, part of the True North trilogy. Kevin did Tusk and Yoga Hosers. The third part of that trilogy will be Moose Jaws, which is basically Jaws with a moose.
TMS: That's awesome!!! Comic book movies are huge right now. So, why not a Bluntman and Chronic movie?
JM: Believe me, I would love that. Honestly, it's Kevin's stuff. If Kevin is willing to make it or wants to make it, I would love to make it. I honestly would. I think if we were gonna make it, we'd need stunt guys running up the sides of a wall, roundhouse kicks, some really cool stuff. But you're right. It could totally work as a superhero/comedy. I'm down with it. If Kevin could write it, it would be amazing.
TMS: What's the best comedy of all time?
JM: House Party is one of my favorites. It's old school. And Do The Right Thing. Those are two that stand out to me and I watch a bunch. Do The Right Thing is something me and Kevin have been watching for twenty years and always quote between each other.
The Movie Sleuth thanks Jay for talking to us. It was definitely an experience!