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September 1, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Clerks II stars on on record, off topic with Thresher

Clerks II stars on on record, off topic with Thresher

By Evan Mintz | Thresher Editorial Staff

Clerks II, Kevin Smith’s most recent directing feat, hit theaters July 21 to a largely apathetic box-office response. While the bloggers and cult-movie buffs of the nation were busy preparing for the release of certain other, more Samuel L. Jackson-filled films, the Thresher sat down with Clerks II’s Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, who reprised their Clerks roles as Dante Hicks and Randal Graves, respectively, to talk about their careers with and without Kevin Smith, the return of the Clerks cult to the public eye and the merits of cusswords in college newspapers.

Thresher: What have you guys been up to between the two films?

Brian: I was frozen in carbonite. I was a stage and theater actor beforehand and continued afterwards, and I was in pretty much every other Kevin Smith film besides Jersey Girl. I’ve been in four other independent films and just continued as a working actor.

Jeff: The past few years has been strictly writing. I wrote and directed Now You Know, which the Weinstein company is putting out, and just finished another script that I hope to just direct.

Thresher: What is it about?

Jeff: It’s about a guy who’s trying to kill himself, but he doesn’t have the guts to go through with it. He meets a girl who needs money, so they strike up a deal whereby they’ll get married and pretend to be married and then she’ll kill him for the insurance money. But he just doesn’t want to know when or where it’s going to happen. And obviously they can’t just get married and then [have] her kill him, because the insurance company would notice, so they have to pretend to be married. During that time he falls in love with her. And she’s like, “No, this is a business arrangement,” and she’s trying to kill him.

Thresher: I think I know a couple marriages like that. So, how did you guys feel about doing the Clerks cartoon series?

Brian: Best time I ever had in a production, although [Clerks II] is coming in close. … My heart broke, I mean broke, when we found out they cancelled it, ‘cause I was thinking, wow, this could be a Simpsons career — working on this until I’m like 80, just doing the stupid voice and collecting a check. … The only thing we didn’t get to do is we wanted to [record] an episode entirely in our underwear.

Jeff: The animated series is like one of those jobs you can’t believe you get paid for. In one of the episodes we had showed up for, they had changed the times, so I had to come in and record just my lines. I was in and out in like half an hour.

Brian: People had tried to save it through Cartoon Network, but at the time Cartoon Network was still very young and budget-wise. I mean, the episodes of South Park, before the renegotiation, were very cheap to make. But for some reason our episodes cost like a quarter million dollars each. So now that people are craving for it, it’s interesting to see if [Cartoon Network is] going to pick it up.

Thresher: Correct me if I’m wrong, but Brian, you made out with Kevin Smith’s wife for Clerks II.

Brian: Kevin cast his wife as Dante’s fiance and there is a long make-out scene, which was made longer because of the technical camera shot that starts that scene … We had like 13 takes, something on the rail. So we were making out and making out and making out.

Jeff: That was me bumping the camera. That was funny. Do it again, pucker up!

Brian: And you’re a little uncomfortable because you’re thinking, “She’s straddling me on the swing set,” where you don’t want the “launch sequence” to start and then get even more uncomfortable. But we talked it out and we were fine. And Kevin had come over to me at some time when he was watching what was going on and was like, “You know, you’ve made out with my wife longer than I’ve ever made out with my wife before my pants reached my ankles. Because after two minutes making out with my wife I’m like, “Oh you’re going to fuck me right now!” And I’m like, “Really, thanks for the details.”

Jeff: Can you say “fuck” on the page?

Thresher: It’s a college paper and we’re quoting you, so yeah, but my editor may not love me for it. How do you feel about playing the characters that you do? Do you think you’re stereotyped by people on the street?

Brian: It’s not a negative thing. It can get a bit daunting — like at Comic-Con, where you’re getting a whole bunch of, “Dante! Dante! Hey, Dante,” but for the most part it’s a character that’s kind of allowed.

Jeff: It’s not an issue for me either. I rarely get recognized on the street, and when I do it’s usually nothing but good things. People want to talk about the movie or tell me about their favorite line. It’s nice. It’s always been a good thing, never had a bad experience with it. Except for when I’m dating a chick and she realizes I’m Randal and then runs like hell. But other than that its been nice, and that’s sort of why I didn’t want to do Clerks II and make a really bad sequel, so all the sudden instead of getting nice compliments now you’re getting, “Man you guys fucked that up.” And that’s why I didn’t just jump on board and want to open myself to changing the dynamic I had.

End of article

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