Kevin Smith SaysClerks'Began My Career' 30 Years Ago, WhileMallrats1 Year Later 'Killed' It

Mar. 15, 2025

Kevin Smith in Los Angeles on March 27, 2023.Photo:Unique Nicole/WireImage

Unique Nicole/WireImage

Kevin Smithis recalling howChasing Amyresuscitated his once-failing career.

“Clerksbegan my career;Mallratskilled my career,” the longtime filmmaker says in the newly released documentaryChasing Chasing Amy, which chronicles much of the making of and controversy surrounding his 1997 sleeper hit starringJoey Lauren AdamsandBen Affleck.

Speaking of the latter film — his third, after 1994’sSundance Film FestivalhitClerksand then the less-successfulMallratsin 1995 — Smith, 54, says, “So you got me needing to do something to stay in this business, or else we were out.”

“That’s a big part of where [Chasing Amy] comes from. And then, of course, Joey,” he continues of Adams, 56, whom he met on the set ofMallratsand was dating at the time. “Chasing Amywithout Joey would’ve been a soulless husk, like an idea.”

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Of course, Smith’s career didn’t stall again afterChasing Amy. He went on to make over a dozen more films, including his most recent,The 4:30 Movie.

Clerksalone spawned two sequels, released in 2006 and 2022. And thoughMallratswasn’t well-received and was considered a box-office bomb, the movie, with a cast that included Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Jason Mewes, Adams, Affleck and Smith, has gone on to garner somewhat of a cult following in the nearly three decades since its release.

In fact, Smith even revealed back in April 2020 thathe had finished writing a sequelto the latter film, titledTwilight of the Mallrats, during the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine.

“Thanks in part to the#Quarantine, I finally finished a funny first draft of ‘TWILIGHT OF THE MALLRATS’!” he shared on Instagram at the time, along witha photo of the script.

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Smith explained, “25 years after the original, Brodie Bruce will be back for an unnecessary sequel set against the Mallpocalypse! Rene, Willam, Gwen, Brandy, T.S., Trish, Mr. Svenning, LaFours and the rebooted@jayandsilentbobare the returning ‘Rats in an Askewniverse imagining about what happens when the sidewalk sales end, and ‘happily ever after’ is easier to say than live!”

He added that whileJay and Silent Bobis some of his “favorite conceptual comedy” that he’s “ever written,” the script forTwilight of the Mallratsis “silly, sentimental and sweet.”

“At 98 pages, the story moves like a brakeless bullet train!” Smith wrote.

Chasing Chasing Amy, from filmmakerSav Rodgers, is in select theaters now.

source: people.com