I don't really spend that much time at all. I haven't really done that much. [I did] more in the beginning. The college appearances are kind of [Kevin Smith's] gig. I've gone to a few just to watch if they were close by, but he was solicited by those companies that book people. On the website, I was more involved in the beginning and then sort of just fell out of doing it just because there were other things going on. The website is his baby. It's always been his baby. It was born out of him and all the arms of it and the extensions have been him. I've concentrated a lot on the film projects and all those low budget movies that we've made over the years. I tended to devote a lot of my time to those.
Does Kevin Smith know why people are so interested in what he has to say?
I think if you watch the DVD of his school appearances, I think people just...it's like going to a stand-up. There's a mixture of people because there's people who don't ask questions. They just sit there and laugh and enjoy the experience. And then there's people who have specific questions. But I think people see from his movies, they assume he's a very funny person, which he is. They see him in public, on "Leno," and all the rest of the stuff. You can see that he's somebody who's well spoken and can be funny in person. And I also think that he has always been somebody who seems accessible.
How important do you think it is to cultivate this fan base?
In our case, up to this point, it's been extremely important. I mean, "Jay and Silent Bob [Strike Back]" is completely influenced by that. It's an entire movie made based on that fan base that was created over the Internet. Not just the Internet - I think the fan base goes even beyond that. But at this point in our career, it's extremely important. Even with this movie where one could contend that it's not necessary, that we're going for a different audience, but there's still a fan base that's important. It's something that you want to carry over. We're not making this movie to disregard them. You want them to come along [even] if it's not their favorite. They all have their favorites. Some people swear by "Chasing Amy." You can go through all the fans and there are still people who swear by each individual movie. There are still people who think "Clerks" is the best thing we ever did. Some people say "Jay and Bob." There's always somebody to vote one of the movies number one. So I hope fans will come, even if it's not their favorite of the six, there will be elements. So far, the response on the website from the fans that have seen it has been pretty favorable.
Are you working on "The Green Hornet" with Kevin?
No, I'm not. I'm sort of taking a break.
Was it someone else's project?
It was my choice to make and I've been traveling a little bit in the last few months, just taking some time off. We're at the 10 year mark at this point. It's been a full decade and I just wanted to take a break and sit back. "The Green Hornet" just happened to be the movie that came next. If it was "Fletch" or something else, I would sit that one out, too. It wasn't anything revolving around the specifics of that movie.
