Inspired by Smith’s feelings about becoming a father, the film stars Smith regular Ben Affleck as Ollie Trinke, a high powered publicist who cracks under pressure after his wife dies and leaves him raising the baby alone. Settling into small town life, Ollie learns to be a father to Gertie (Raquel Castro) while trying to make a new life for himself. Jay and Silent Bob do not appear, and the film’s humor is derived from situations rather than people talking about pop culture (although popular music icons do play a major role in the plot, as Ollie is a music publicist.)
Smith sat on the floor smoking a cigarette (in a nonsmoking hotel room no less) while we did the interview. He wore a Jersey advertising his Movie Poop Shoot website, and shorts, showing off his newly trimmed figure thanks to the Atkins diet.
When Ollie walks in on Gertie and a boy playing doctor, how do you have kids drop their pants in a movie? What are the rules?
You have to ply them with candy. You tell them that it’s a normal thing, that all kids do it. And thankfully, you’ve got their parents going, “Do it, do it.” That really helps. But it was weird because you have to go through all sorts of caution measures. Like both of them are wearing underwear under underwear under underwear, so they’re fully protected. There’s no chance of a naughty bit getting hit by the air or anything like that, but it’s tricky. It’s tricky because remember, Bryan Singer got in trouble on "Apt Pupil" when they did the shower scene. There were people complaining afterwards, who were in the cast, that they had to disrobe and jump in the shower and sh*t like that. So you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to have people crying foul after you wrap and sh*t like, “You f*cking prostituted my child.” So you’re very careful and there’s a ton of people standing around, child safety monitors, sh*t like that. You go through more effort than you would do if you were actually throwing a kid off a roof in a stunt.
Was Jason Mewes supposed to have a role in the film?
Jason Mewes, when I started writing it, I wanted Jason to play Jason Biggs’ role. And then Mewes got knee deep in the heroin and that wasn’t going to be happening. So I scaled it back and then I wanted Mewes to play the guy who delivers the diapers who Matt Mayer played. And then Mewes couldn’t do it because he couldn’t come shoot in Jersey because there was a bench warrant out for his arrest. So Mewes wound up missing the boat this time.
Who was your backup celebrity if Will Smith didn’t agree?
It wasn’t written for Will Smith. It was written for Bruce Willis. He was the first guy. So Will Smith wound up becoming the backup celebrity because Bruce Willis never called us back. And the movie was then set from 1986 to 1994 and the press conference was a big Bruno press conference when Bruce Willis became Bruno. I guess he didn’t have a sense of humor about that, so we lost out on him. Freed us up to move the second half of the movie in the present, then I kind of counted back seven years, Gertie’s age, to see what was going on in the pop cultural musical landscape at the time. And I noticed that Will Smith wasn’t Will Smith at this point. He’d done Fresh Prince and he’d done "Bad Boys" but he hadn’t done "Independence Day." And to me, at that point, he was always D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. So I wrote that scene and then we got in touch with him and he liked it and boom, he was onboard.
If the film is autobiographical, is there a woman like Liv Tyler’s character – the openly sexual video store clerk - in your life?
I wish, right? That’s the problem. I’ve been to many videostores, nobody like Liv Tyler working at a video store. They all look like me and there’s no romance to be had. No, unfortunately Liv Tyler is a very fictional character.
PAGE 2: Smith on Making Affleck Cry and DVD Extras
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"Jersey Girl" Photo Gallery
Kevin Smith's Statement on Making "Jersey Girl"
"Jersey Girl" Trailer, Credits and Movie News
