[Exclusive] Jason Mewes recently attended the Lethbridge Entertainment Expo and I had the opportunity to interview the man who is known as Jay from Jay and Silent Bob – an iconic movie character beloved by millions across the world. We talked about what delayed Clerks III, what to expect from Yoga Hosers, Mallrats 2 and geeked out over The Flash because we’re both nerds at a convention when it really comes down to it.
The Lethbridge Entertainment Expo was held November 14/15th, 2015 at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge Alberta. Guests included Jason Mewes (Jay & Silent Bob), Billy West (Futurama), Phil LaMarr (MAD TV) and Lee Arenberg (Once Upon a Time). Check out their official site HERE!
I grew up watching Jay and Silent Bob movies so Jason Mewes has been a major part of my upbringing and that character he’s portrayed in so many films is legendary. One of the coolest interviews I’ve yet to have was hanging out with Mewes at the Lethbridge Entertainment Expo and not only picking his brain about upcoming films, but just the TV shows we dig and enjoy together – like The Flash (we talk about Zoom, Grodd and King Shark), or how he digs Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Gotham but I didn’t give either of those a fair shot. Mewes is the perfect convention guest not only because he’s entertaining, extremely friendly and approachable, but he’s a fan himself.
Keven: What’s the vibe like on Yoga Hosers and what can you tell or tease me about because it sounds really weird and I wasn’t able to check out any of the footage from Comic Con this year?
Jay: If you’ve seen Tusk, I don’t wanna say it’s like Tusk but it definitely has a weird vibe like Tusk and it’s part of Kevin’s Great White North trilogy. He says it’s like Evil Dead meets Clerks. It’s a lot like Army of Darkness because it has that horror comedy aspect to it. I’m really excited for Moose Jaws which is also a part of that trilogy because Jay and Bob will be in that. I’ve read the script and it’s gonna be awesome.
Keven: Tusk was obviously a very divisive film and a lot of people either really liked it or really didn’t like it so I was curious if Yoga Hosers would kind of continue that weird trend forward.
Jay: It’s definitely strange but it’s funny and I guess people would think it’s strange compared to what Kevin’s done in the past but if you go on Netflix and I was last night trying to find something to watch and they have this movie where they go back to the future to kill Hitler and there’s another one called lady vampires and the weirdest shit is out there. So I feel like Tusk at least to me, made more sense. It’s disturbing in a cool way. The acting in it was amazing. So to anyone who says “oh god I don’t get it” – it made sense man. People out there are crazy and this dude was obsessed with making a life partner in a sense with this walrus. But it’s gotta be interesting to people who have followed Kevin’s movies over the years from Clerks and Mallrats to Red State and Tusk.
Keven: What happened with the monster make-up debacle, because you were originally supposed to play the creature in Yoga Hosers and then you wound up getting terrified during the application process?
Jay: Yeah and it’s funny because I watch this show Face-Off, it’s such a great show, and every time I watch it and I’m seeing the contestants make up the models and some of it covers their entire face and mouth and it just freaks me out. So when they tried to put the Yoga Hosers makeup on, I was gonna be the Bratzi, and when they put the make-up on it covered my ears and even though my face was exposed, I thought it would be fine. What I didn’t realize is that not being able to hear really freaked me out and I didn’t expect that.
It was a cowl over my head and when they started to glue down over my cheeks I couldn’t hear and I started to freak out and I made em open it back up. I walked around with it on for a little bit and I just couldn’t do it so Kevin wound up doing it. It was a bummer because it would have been cool to run around and be the Bratzi. But in the end Kevin was perfect because he had an idea in his head of how this dude would be animated in his face, and the noises, sounds and words he would say so when he became the Bratzi it was amazing because he was able to act it out exactly how he wanted it.
(Above – Kevin Smith in the make-up)
And I got to do one scene with Johnny (Depp) instead and that was really cool interacting with him. I get to be a cop who gets him into the interrogation room to talk with the two girls.
Keven: You’ve had your problems in the past and everything but you’re a different person now and even Kevin has updated your Jay character in Clerks II to line up more closely with how you might be in real life now. How do you see the further evolution of Jay in the next wave of Smith films like Moose Jaws or Mallbrats (Mallrats 2)?
Jay: To change it up now it would be to maybe make Jay a father but I don’t think we’ll go that far so I think it’ll be more like Clerks II because I think that’s where Jay is at now. So he’ll probably bring that into the new films saying he has more time clean but definitely more of the vibe from Clerks II.
Keven: No cameo with your actual daughter Logan in the new films?
Jay: Nah, I’d like to get her in there somewhere but I don’t know if she’ll be with me as my daughter which would be awesome — if there was some way to throw that in there, we’ll see.
Keven: I don’t know what this says about me but my favorite scene that you’ve ever done is the Goodbye Horses sequence in Clerks II – who came up with that?
Jay: Kevin wrote it but it was me. Before we were shooting Kevin and I were riding to the airport in the car and I had burnt the disc of Q. Lazzarus’ ‘Goodbye Horses’ and I was hooked on listening to that over and over. But before that – over the years because we’ve known each other for so many years, we’d just be over at his house watching a movie or something and I’d come out of the bathroom and I would just have my pants down and I would tuck but that was just me being goofy. So over the years he just thought he’d write that in there so it was his idea to write it in the script and how it played out but he was thinking, “oh he’s tucked a bunch”.
Keven: I actually like Clerks II more than the original and I can’t wait for the third one but I had no idea that one of the main hold ups was –
Jay: Jeff (Anderson). Not one of the hold-ups, it was the only hold up. Yeah and I hate to say it but everything and everyone was 99% ready to move , they made the offer to Jeff and I still don’t know the exact details and I don’t wanna say something that would upset him but as far as I know he just said he was busy and didn’t have time for the rest of the year. His agent didn’t know if he’d have time next year so instead Kevin was like let’s push that aside and let’s do Mallrats 2 and we’ll come back to it and see if he’s available and if not, we’ll shoot Moose Jaws.
Keven: I think it worked out though because I’m excited for Mallrats 2 and that first film for me was my introduction into the whole Jay/Silent Bob universe – so it’s my favorite.
Jay: Yeah that’s my favorite too. It was my first studio movie so it’ll always be the most memorable to me. Clerks – I went to work every day and at night I’d come there to shoot and I was nervous and then after we were done shooting I’d go back to work. It wasn’t until two years later until we saw it on the bigscreen and it was like some friends shooting a movie in their backyard so I didn’t think anything about it. Mallrats had wardrobe, you’re staying in a hotel for two months and you’re gonna be working with Stan Lee so it was just a surreal situation. I’ll never forget it. I’m definitely excited about Mallrats 2 and I’d rather shoot Mallrats 2 myself but I do hope we get back to Clerks III because I read the script and it’s really good.
Keven: You’re a new father this year of course and I know for me personally having three kids, one of which is 10 months old, I’m playing three-year-old videogames like they’re brand new so that time I used to have just isn’t there anymore and you’ve mentioned that as well, but how else has Logan impacted your life and in which ways most unexpectedly?
Jay: With free time I definitely wanna spend as much of it with her of course and everything just revolves around her now. So now I gotta get up in the morning like 6:30 because my wife gets up during the night and I take the morning shift feeding her. Just the routine of my daily life and stressing about stuff more. It’s been awesome – hard to explain really. Leaving is hard now.
Keven: Doing shows like this right – where you have to leave and you can only interact through Facetime that’s gotta be really tough.
Jay: Yeah and it’s been fun and I definitely like to shop too much and I get in trouble with my wife constantly but the fun thing is now I can’t shop for a new iPad but I can buy the baby this new tricycle so it’s been fun being able to buy her toys. I can’t wait for her to start saying daddy so I’m looking forward to all of those things and I’m capturing as much of it as I can in photos.
Keven: One of the coolest things for me is now I get to live vicariously through my kids and I have an excuse to watch cartoons now and I’m probably more into them than they are, but when they hit that age of like 3-4 it’s a blast because you’re living a second child-hood.
Jay: I can’t wait for the toys. Now it’s like teething toys so I can’t wait to go out and get some fun stuff.
Keven: You’re a big fan of The Flash and I am too so I have to ask you fan to fan, who do you think is Zoom – now I have a theory on this but what do you think?
Jay: Yeah I have no idea because I always thought the reverse Flash is Zoom. But then the professor was the reverse Flash and Zoom – I have no idea. He’s from the alternate universe so he could be anybody man.
Keven: You know who I think it is man? You remember the cop who died at the end of the first season? You remember how he was related to the reverse Flash? It’s totally him – they’re bringing that actor back.
Jay: Oh you’re right! You’re totally right. That could be true, that totally makes sense and it could be why he hates him so much too because you wonder if Barry in Earth 2 is married to that girl? He’s cool too because he looks more like a monster as opposed to a human. And then there’s King Shark – that was so cool but it was super quick.
Keven: I know! I’m almost mad that they teased me with him because he looked so amazing and I know they can’t afford to do a whole episode with him. Then Grodd is coming back next episode too.
Jay: Oh is he? Dude I can’t wait. It was awesome the first few times they teased him a little bit with the cage… It was amazing.