In the mid-’90s, writer-directorKevin Smithwas riding high.
Smith’s second movie hit many of the same beats and pop-culture-obsessed comedic tones as its predecessor.
“Movie comes out in 95,” he says.
Credit: Everett Collection
“Critics s— on it.
It died at the box office and its gone within a week.
I was the whipping boy, the sophomore slump of the year.
Everett Collection
All of that stuff.
So, for years, I referred toMallratsjokingly and jokingly apologized for it.”
Smith doesn’t apologize for it anymore.
Everett Collection
They restored it, so it looks better actually than the theatrical cut of the movie.
Its packed, man, its packed.
Arrow sent me three copies and Im not giving any away!"
Everett Collection
Below, Smith recalls the rise and fall and rise ofMallrats.
THE BEGINNING
KEVIN SMITH:Id spent a lot of time at the mall as a kid.
As a Jersey boy, weve got nothingbutmalls.
It was onTombstone, it was onDazed and Confused.Raising Arizona.
He’s been around.
I said, “Oh, that would have been great.”
He said, “Yeah, I would have let you keep 75 percent of the movie.”
And I said, “75?”
And he said, “Nobody f—s a a dead guy in a Universal movie.”
And I said, “Fair enough.”
So, he goes, “What are you doing next?”
And I said, “Were thinking of doing a movie calledMallrats.”
And he was like, “Whats that?”
And I said, “Clerks, but in a mall.”
I think it was May of 94.
And then suddenly we were off and running.
CASTING
KS:Shannen was the green-light.
They told us, “You get Shannen Doherty you’ve got a green-light.”
Shannen was the most famous person in our cast, she had just left90210.
So, getting her was a coup.
She came and read and it was instantly like, “Oh my god, shes the person.”
Universal was waiting for someone famous.
Because we saw all of young Hollywood.
Reese Witherspoon came in on f—ingMallrats, go figure.
So, for me, Shannen, Ill always love because she literally got that movie made.
Our casting director was the great Don Phillips.
Don was famous in town for castingFast Times at Ridgemont High.
He had discovered Sean Penn.
For us, he discovered Jason Lee.
Jason Lee was a professional skateboarder who had never really acted before.
I didnt know much about the skate game.
He comes in and he’s green as hell.
He’s never really acted.
Were making chit-chat and I was like, “So I understand youre a skateboarder.”
And hes like, “Well, I just retired.”
And he looked like he was f—ing 23.
So, Im like, “You retired?”
He goes, “Ive been skating at a professional level for ten years, yeah.
I want to put it aside now and I want to concentrate on a different discipline.”
He was so well-organized.
I loved his delivery.
It was so not-polished and so real and rough and funny.
Eventually, he wound up being better than everybody else.
and he goes right back to eating his sandwich, looking back down.
Eating was more exciting than being cast in his very first movie at that moment in time.
But he came out and absolutely crushed, man, and he was a delight.
I said, “Who is it?”
And he goes, “Ben Affleck.
He was inDazed and Confusedand he’s got a real potty mouth.”
So, I said, “Well, theres a lot of cursing in our script.”
I said, “Okay.”
I said, “Why are you auditioning for this movie, man?”
And he’s like, “I still want to act!”
I was like “Alright, man, lets see what you got.”
Bens a tall f—ing dude.
And then Jacks was like, “Come on, man!
Hes going to potty the movie up!”
I was like, “Too late, Jim,” and Ben joined our party.
I thought we would shoot in New Jersey.
I remember the location fee was $10,000, which wasnt bad.
I mean, I didnt have to pay a location fee onClerksat all.
Im like, What,payfor a location?
So you would just go to the mall and live there all day long.
They have people that do that.
Youre not in the union.
Put that down."
Universal wanted either Seth Green or Breckin Meyer as Jay.
They were like, “Well, thats not really acting.”
Ultimately, Jay had to come prove himself and audition multiple times.
I was like, “Okay.”
I remember Shannen had a German Shepherd that responded to German commands.
So like Schnell and s— like that.
She was a paparazzi dream, right?
She was Brenda in90210.
Everyone met at the bar after the day was done and chilled out.
We had a kick-off party and a mid-way party with a lot of dancing.
It was real good times.
I didnt know how to do the job.
Some critics would argue I still dont know how to do the job.
I said, “How did we do?”
He goes, “We made $400,000.”
I said, “On what screen?”
He goes, “That was all the screens nationwide.”
I said, “What happens now?”
He goes, “Its over.”
I remember being so sad and then he goes, “Hey dont worry about it.
We weren’t wrong, we were just early.”
I go, “What does that mean?”
THE COMEBACK
KS:He was absolutely right.
And in 1995,myworld looked like that buttheworld didnt look like that.
Nowadays you wouldnt even have to do that.
It eventually found its audience, and it’s given me and my career wings long after the fact.
It had a cool cachet because only some people knew it.
Sometimes, when youre first through the door, man, you take a lot of bullets.
Arrow video’s limited edition 25th anniversary Blu-ray ofMallratsgoes on sale Oct. 13.
