I was just like wanting to really put that up there onscreen and so I was thinking about new characters and new situations and how I was going to get that thought across. Then I was like, 'Well, wait a second. Clerks was a story about what I thought it was like to be in my twenties. I can use Dante and Randal again as my proxy, as my stand-ins, as a way into that story.' Suddenly it all just kind of clicked.
From “No Cameos” to a Couple of Big Name Ones: At one point early in the production, Smith let it be known on his website that he didn't want to include any cameos in the Clerks sequel. What made him change his mind? “It was just something that kind of organically grew,” explained Smith. “I knew that I didn't want it to be like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back where it felt like you were Adam West and Burt Ward going up the side of the building and it was like, 'Hey, it's Sammy Davis Jr.' I knew that I didn't want to do that, but that being said, the movie had some roles that were quick parts and it's like you can cast complete unknowns or you could cast some cats that you know.
Ben [Affleck] and Jason [Lee] were no-brainers to me. It's like of the seven movies I've made, they've been in six. It's kind of weird to do something without them at this point, although we came close with Affleck. I called him up and asked him if he wanted to do it and he was like, 'You know what, dude? I'm trying to lay low right now. It hasn't been a good two years. I don't know if I want to be in a movie right now.' He's like, 'I'm preparing to direct a movie and I'm going to concentrate on that.' I said, 'I get it. I totally understand. It's just weird that this will be the first movie in 10 years that I've made that you're not involved with in some way.' He was like, 'Well, that is weird. Maybe I should do it.' He said, 'Alright. I'm going to come down, but I just want to be a guy in the restaurant eating. I want no lines, the camera can go past me. I should be there, but I don't want to say anything.' I said, 'You're telling me that you're going to come to the set of my movie and you don't want any dialogue?' He said, 'I'm telling you, dude, just put me on camera with a reaction shot or something, whatever, but I don't want to do dialogue.' I said, 'That's fine, but you know when you get here you're going to want to do dialogue.' 'No. I promise. Nothing.'
We get there and we shoot his two reaction shots, and I'm like, 'That's it. I got it. Let’s just check the gate.' And he rushes over to the monitor and he said, 'I just feel like I should say something.' 'Alright, dude. Here's a line.' So that was just kind of like me needing someone in that shot and it might as well be Affleck wearing his cumcatcher mustache that he had on.
And Jason Lee, we got lucky because Jason was able to make time in his very busy Earl schedule for that scene. That was something that originally Matt [Damon] was going to do, but then Matt was off shooting a Robert De Niro movie, and so Jason stepped in and thankfully pulled it off. Wanda [Sykes] I had met when I was doing some 'Get Out The Vote' shorts about two years ago, around the time of the election, for Norman Lear's Declare Yourself Organization. We just got along well. I had known her a bit through Chris Rock, as well. So it was kind of cool to have something for her to do. And then Earthquake came in too, but not a lot of people know who he is. He's just this really funny comedian.”
The Answer to What Came First: No, not the chicken or the egg but rather the script or letting his stars know a Clerks sequel was in the works. Smith said, “I needed to tell them before I even started writing it because it was a 50/50 proposition. I knew that Brian [O’Halloran] would kind of be onboard, but Jeff [Anderson] has kind of gone through… After 12 years I think that he finally had gotten used to the fact - or settled with or come to peace with the fact - that he is Randal because Jeff is not a dude who's like, 'I want to be an actor.' He was a dude that I knew in high school. Suddenly he's in this movie and the movie had a modicum of success, but for the next few years people were like, 'Dude, you were in Clerks, man. How come you don't act in movies?'"
Page 2: [http://movies.about.com/od/clerks2/a/clerksks071306_2.htm]Is Kevin Smith Randal or Dante?[/link]
