Brian O’Halloran added, “You know what? We’re fans too and that’s why if he can be convinced with the real solid reasons as to why he wouldn’t want to do it, and Kevin can pull those reasons out of you and convince you, it speaks to Kevin’s writing and ability to actually then address that. I think we pulled it off. I’ve been fortunate enough to be at four screenings that were fan-type of based screenings, and they were very pleased. A lot of the majority of them, if not all of them, were very pleased.
There’s still going to be haters for haters’ sake. …I think there are going to be haters no matter what. During [our] press tour we only had pretty much two people from the press who really didn’t agree with the film at all. And even then we convinced one of them that he really did like it. He had an issue with the Elias character being Christian and that’s why people were making fun of him, and how he’s a nerd because he’s a virgin, and we were like, ‘No, he’s a virgin because he’s a nerd. You’re getting it really mixed up there, we’re not attacking Christianity.’ Plus this guy was okay with us making fun of blacks, the crippled, gays, every other ethnicity and group except the Christians. And at the end of it, it was a radio interview, a live air, we had convinced him. He’d say during the commercial breaks, ‘Oh, that was crazy funny,’ and we were like, ‘Why are you saying that now? Why don’t you say it when it’s on air?’ We convinced him and his two other monkey-boys that he had as his zoo, his radio zoo, that he actually did like the film.”
On Becoming Convinced Clerks II was a Good Idea: Anderson said, “Literally the first day driving to the set I was in a full panic, sweaty mode. One of the smartest things Kevin did was he put an editing bay… We filmed at a location that was adjacent to a Day’s Inn, so we took over rooms at the Day’s Inn in lieu of having trailers. Kevin put an editing suite in there, and was literally editing as we went. About the fourth day into it he called me into the [editing room]. I showed up to the set and I went up to the room and Kevin came out. His hair was all messed up and he looked crazed. I was like, ‘Oh my God, he finally realized we shouldn’t do this,’ and he was like, ‘No, I’ve been up all night editing. Come see what I’ve done.’ I went in and I watched the first day of filming, which was Brian and Rosario [Dawson’s] stuff. It was a scene that I’m in but I just sort of pop in and pop out. I really didn’t watch them film the scene because they were in another room, and in watching the footage together I just really got into it.”
The Essence of Randal and Dante’s Relationship: “I guess the dynamic is good Kirk/bad Kirk honestly, as opposed to Gilligan/Skipper,” said O’Halloran. “Randal is the person that Kevin [Smith] would have loved to have been when he was an actual convenience store clerk, and Dante was the clerk he actually was during most of that time. Blend the two together and that would have been Kevin in a whole way, and it’s kind of Kevin in a sense. He can be very biting in a very sarcastic way, yet you’ll laugh at it. ‘I just made fun of you, ha, ha, ha.’ And you’ll be like, ‘Yes, you did, and wow you did it so well.’ I think that’s the kind of a dynamic that I see it.”
Their Relationship Offscreen: “Actually it’s the [most-asked] question and it’s the most surprising thing, other than the fact that I know nothing about Star Wars,” explained Anderson, “the fact that I’m not Brian’s best friend is the most surprising thing to people. He lives in New Jersey still, I’ve moved out here and have lived out here for about 10 years, so we really only see each other on this sort of Clerks-type stuff."
The Possibility of Clerks III: O’Halloran joked, “Clerks III: Grumpier old clerks. Clerks III: Two Men and a Baby. You know, I think the next time you’ll probably see these guys in any type of format will probably be in an animated format in about two years. Kevin has talked about doing a straight to DVD unrated feature."
