Pretty much. The first thing I wanted to do was make sure none of our movies were in the video store, which would’ve been easy but I just didn’t want to cross the streams like that. So I made sure those weren’t there, and then we had to make sure that nothing current was there. So we wound up going to a video store in the area and buying their collection, renting it for the day really to fill out the store, so we bought old titles. But if you look at all the videos on the rack, it’s tons of movies from different studios, but the posters and the boxes that are really highlighted are Miramax titles, which is a little creepy.
Was Ollie based on your publicist?
No, not really. My publicist is single and nowhere near having a child yet, so no. It was just more based on Affleck really.
How does Ben cry on cue?
Very well and it’s kind of a weird process that you feel bad for him afterwards, because he goes someplace really dark. I’m not quite sure where it is, but he is able to do it, to summon it up and be authentic. I think that’s one of the toughest things in the world for an actor to do. I don't think it’s that easy to sit there and call up real emotional sh*t. Like when Silent Bob had to cry in "Dogma" they just blew this menthol sh*t into my eyes that makes your eyes water. He doesn’t do it. He just goes to that place and f*cking gets emotional. So big props to him for being able to do that. I’m sure he probably thinks about all the terrible press he received this year. Now he’ll be able to do it much more easily than he did in the past.
Nah, that doesn’t make him cry. He laughs at the press.
You think so. I’m sure inside he might be the sad little clown because it’s tough to read that much bad sh*t about yourself, I don’t care who you are. Even if you’re sitting on top of the world making 15 million bucks a picture, nobody wants to open a paper and read a bad review. And this went beyond bad review. This went into let’s dissect the dude’s personal life on a regular basis.
Were the scenes of Ollie and Gertrude romancing each other cut into a montage from longer, full length scenes?
Some of them. Some of them were longer than they were [in the current cut]. Some of them are exactly the same length they are in the montage. But with the exception of lifting out the wedding scene itself, or the wedding shot, it’s only 12 seconds, nothing was cut because of that. It was just cut because the movie was chunky and it took a while to ramp up and get going. So, when you edit a movie, you just pull sh*t out. There’s as much stuff from Liv and Raquel and George as there is from Ben and Jen.
For the DVD?
All there. At least a half an hour of cut stuff on the DVD.
Could you give up film if it was between work and your kid?
Absolutely. Because I’ve done it enough now where I feel really fulfilled. We had a really good run. So if somebody was just like, “You can’t do it anymore. It’s between your kid and this.” It’s easy to pick the kid because I’ve had the experience many times of getting to make a movie. I’ve gotten to tell every story I’ve wanted to tell thus far, so I feel like if it was taken away, I’d be okay.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"Jersey Girl" Photo Gallery
Kevin Smith's Statement on Making "Jersey Girl"
"Jersey Girl" Trailer, Credits and Movie News
