Kevin Smith is opening his new movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno today. On Halloween.
If you think about it, this is risking total commercial suicide: the built-in audience for Smith's movies would rather watch a horror movie tonight than anything else, making it harder for the movie to have a strong opening weekend. Nonetheless, if they only knew how much better his movie sounds than the tiresome Saw sequel Hollywood pumped out...
College Times has an interesting interview with the writer-director, one in which he doesn't come off as a total dick. So, that's something.
Here it is, complete with his thoughts on Traci Lords, shooting a nude sex scene for the first time in his career, and everything in between...
College Times: What inspired you to do a story about best
friends falling for each other because that’s something you’ve never
done before?
Kevin Smith: I know, generally most of the
stuff I do is like, two dudes who pine for each other but never fuck.
All that time in the trenches doing stories about dudes in love
definitely informed this script. But I’m afraid that, maybe on the
page, it read like more of the same... [see full answer in the interview, linked below]
What was it like working with Traci Lords?
Working with Traci Lords was great. One thing that maybe most people
don’t realize about her is she hasn’t made a porn film in 20 years. She
worked in porn from the time she was 16 until almost 18. When she got
out of porn she started studying acting in a really serious way. I felt
so bad, because “Okay, I know you’re a real actress, but in this scene,
you’re gonna pretend to blow bubbles out of your vagina.” I felt like I
gave her very little to do so I’m kind of hoping to use her in the next
film.
In
your movies, your characters are known for talking about sex – in this
one they actually get to have it. Were you nervous, as a director,
about shooting your first sex scene?
I was. You know, it’s
off-putting to shoot nudity. I did it once in “Mallrats” very briefly
with Joey Adams and I hated it and swore it off. It’s just
uncomfortable to ask someone to do something you wouldn’t be willing to
do yourself. The scene I was sweating the most was between Seth and
Elizabeth because that’s the scene where two people lay down to fuck
and wind up making love. I was trying to figure out a way to shoot it
where it’s not an episode of “Red Shoe Diaries.” So I told them that
morning that I’m going to play it all on your faces so you’re going to
be fully clad with no nudity. I thought they’d be like, “Oh thank you
thank you thank you,” but immediately they were both outraged. She was
just like “Why the fuck did I work out for two months if you’re not
going to show my body.” And Rogen was like, “Why the fuck did I shave
my back?” Then the relief sank in.
Read the rest of this interview here, via College Times. The above photo and a review of the film is here.
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