Kevin Smith had a moment of clarity not too long ago - an epiphany, if you will. He knew he couldn't be Kevin Smith anymore.
At 39, the filmmaker from Red Bank, N.J., decided he wasn't the same man he was when he made his 1994 debut "Clerks." He has lived in Los Angeles for nearly a decade and been married to the same woman for longer than that. They have a 10-year-old daughter and a gaggle of dogs.
No longer can he be that guy who makes movies about working-class slackers who riff on "Star Wars" and obscene sex acts for an entire movie.
"I was just like, 'You know what? It's not that you can't do 'Clerks' anymore. You can - you can do it in your sleep. But not from the same place, because you're not a kid,'" says Smith, on the phone from his LA home.
This epiphany was made after the paltry success of his last film, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," which had Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as cash-strapped buds making a dirty movie to score some cash. When that movie was greeted with mixed reviews and less-than-stellar box-office receipts, Smith realized his usual filmmaking formula was getting quite stale.
He also realized that Judd Apatow and his crew of ad-libbing cut-ups were doing a better job (and better box office) with the sort of raunchy-but-sweet, R-rated comedies Smith used to traffic in.
"There's nothing I can do or say anymore that matters," he says. "Like, they've got Judd now. They don't need me. And ... they must all hate me for killing Seth Rogen's career."
Then, Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov gave Smith the script for "Cop Out." Smith read it and found the buddy-cop comedy to be, well, Smith-like. "And I was like, 'Dude, I didn't write it?'" recalls Smith. "And he goes, 'Yeah, but you could have.'"
It wasn't just the script that made Smith want to get back in the game. Bruce Willis was attached to star as one of the leads, a veteran NYPD cop. Willis and Smith already worked together when Smith had a brief role as a computer hacker in "Live Free or Die Hard." Smith recalled his experiences working with Willis on his last stand-up concert DVD, "Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith." Smith made it clear that he wanted to collaborate again with the fellow New Jerseyan.
When Tracy Morgan became attached as Willis' gonzo partner, Smith seriously wanted in. "I was, like, 'What do I have to pay you guys to let me do this?' Because I've worked with Tracy [on 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'], and he was a lot of fun. And I've worked with Bruce as an actor and liked the idea of directing him in this movie. They were both such perfect fits for the script."
Smith says that he, the cast and the crew took hefty pay cuts to ensure that the movie came in under budget, as well as to make sure that the studio stayed happy enough to not interfere and turn the R-rated film into another watered-down, PG-13 comedy. The usually frugal Smith was impressed with how Warner Bros. wanted to be fiscally responsible and still get the best movie it could get.
He says, "They're now playing that game where they're like, 'Hey, man, we'd like to make movies inexpensively, too. I know we've got a reputation for, like, being a studio or being like every studio [that] just spends, spends, spends. But, you know, we'd like to pay less for something that turns into something big as well.' And, you know, with me they found a good match because, number one, I'm lazy and, number two, I've done it before for less."
In the end, Smith feels he didn't sell out to make what could be his most successful film. He simply grew up.
