Kevin Smith on fatherhood & Johnny Depp

Kevin Smith was the undoubted king of this year's Edinburgh Film Festival, and the highlight of his visit was an epic In Person chat in which he preached to the crowd on subjects including Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, and Bruce Willis being a dick

Feature by Michelle Devereaux | 27 Jun 2016

For someone whose onscreen alter-ego is known as “Silent Bob”, Kevin Smith sure can talk. In Scotland for screenings of his new film Yoga Hosers at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Smith kept a largely enraptured audience captive for three hours at his other main festival gig: Wednesday night’s sold-out “in person” event at the Traverse Theatre. After taking the stage, he joked that two hours (it was actually supposed to be only 90 minutes) was enough time for him to answer “one and a half questions”. He ended up taking somewhere in the neighbourhood of six. As he said himself: “It’s a little bit of Q and a metric fuck tonne of A.”

Holding court on topics ranging from TV series The Flash, his love of comics, Prince, Alan Rickman, George Carlin, his daughter, the joys of podcasting, Ben Affleck and Johnny Depp (“the world’s most eloquent texter”), Smith spent almost as much time talking about people he loves and their accomplishments as his own, although he did share intel on his upcoming Mallrats TV series (his daughter will appear), his possible series adaptation of ’80s cult movie Buckaroo Banzai (he should know if it's a go by next week) and some choice behind-the-scenes bits from many of his films – as well as some hate for nemesis Bruce Willis, who he unceremoniously called a “dick”.

In general, though, Smith was his usual funny, engaging and affable everyguy self, downplaying his filmmaking skills with self-deprecating humour (“I direct like a Baptist preacher on coke”) while sharing his enthusiasm for following dreams, or “pushing whimsy” as he repeatedly called it. About halfway through the event, he seemed to morph into the world’s most foul-mouthed motivational speaker, or perhaps an upbeat stoner preacher.


Kevin Smith and his daughter Harley Quinn Smith at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Dropping endless casual F-bombs, Smith pleaded with the audience to find their own forms of self-expression: “A non-writer is just someone who hasn’t written yet. Your voice is your currency in life.” He spent long stretches of time proselytizing on the democratic nature of the podcast, of which he runs several. “There’s no gatekeepers, no laws,” he beamed, before urging the crowd to go out and start their own (around the two-and-a-half-hour mark, most of the crowd probably just wanted to go out and pee.)

Kevin Smith on Prince & Alan Rickman

While his enthusiasm for making personal, democratic art was genuine and infectious, his celebrity anecdotes delivered with signature comic, irreverent bluntness were likely what the crowd really came for. If so, they weren’t disappointed. Smith, refreshingly, is not afraid of coming off badly in his own stories. After getting laughs by mentioning that Prince used to chastise him for his “potty mouth”, Smith referred to himself as a “Judas” for broadcasting an unflattering story about the Purple One – who apparently wore clothes from the “boy’s department” when playing basketball – when he was just starting to do Q&A appearances in 2001. “I sold him out for a fucking anecdote,” he grumbled, while lamenting the permanent rift between them that it caused.

The tone of the evening was sometimes oddly elegiac. Unsolicited, he brought up Alan Rickman, who starred in Smith’s gleefully profane 1999 religious parable Dogma. Launching into a serviceable Rickman impression, Smith recounted how the late actor made a point to stay in touch over the years, even though the pair never worked together again. “I’d come here [to Britain], and he’d find me. Every time I was here that phone would ring, but it’s not going to ring this trip,” he said, as his eyes started to well with tears. “Fuck, let’s go to a different question.”

 Our review of Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers

 More coverage from EIFF 2016

Smith seemed most excited to discuss his serious man-crush on Johnny Depp, whom he convinced to appear in his 2014 bomb Tusk. The director still seems incredulous that he actually got to work with Depp not once, but twice. Depp reprises the role of Guy Lapointe in Yoga Hosers, which stars both Depp’s and Smith’s teenage daughters (Lily-Rose and Harley Quinn, respectively).

Calling Depp the “anti-Willis”, he cooed about his acting chops, his humility and his ability to be up for anything – it was Depp who came up with the character’s prosthetic nose and who convinced the director to make another Guy Lapointe film because he loved doing the “dumbed-down” version of his French-Canadian accent so much.

Kevin Smith on Yoga Hosers and daughter Harley Quinn

Smith took loving pot shots at long-time collaborators Jason “Jay” Mewes and Ben “Batman” Affleck, calling the latter the “world’s biggest Ben Affleck fan” and recounting his misguided attempts at ad-libbing scenes in 1997’s Chasing Amy. Above everything, it seems, Smith considers himself a writer, and you don’t mess with his words unless you really know what you’re doing. It’s the one sticking point in his otherwise “I’m just lucky to be doing what I’m doing” ethos.

The most illuminating moments of the evening came when Smith talked about Yoga Hosers, not so much because of the film’s greatness (it’s not great) but because of the reasons Smith expressed for making it. Yoga Hosers, Smith joked, is “the movie I wanted to see back when I was a 12-year-old girl.” He recounted taking his daughter to various comic book movies over the years – Batman, Superman, Iron Man. When his wife informed him his daughter wanted to see these films only because they meant spending time with her dad, he realised she should have the chance to see herself better reflected onscreen.

“Taking a little girl to a bunch of movies about men, that gnawed at me,” he said. So Smith came up with what he calls “Girl Clerks… but different.” He talked repeatedly about how having a daughter has changed him in untold ways, and it’s clear that Harley Quinn, regardless of her comic book moniker, has caused him to gain a serious dose of grown-up sensitivity.

“I’m a middle-aged stoner, so everything touches me,” he joked. Still, he hasn’t given up what makes him him: a goofy, juvenile sensibility that revolves around having a good time. “Who’s the real Kevin Smith?” an audience member asked. Pointing to his gigantic, ever-present hockey jersey, he quickly deadpanned, “I take this off, and I’m ripped.”

Kevin Smith being the King of EIFF

EIFF ran 15-26 Jun http://edfilmfest.org.uk