Working with Kevin Smith
When Seth Rogen was in high school, he remembers overhearing his friends singing the “Berserkers song” and asked where that was from. They told him they had just seen the movie CLERKS and that it was filthy, and real, with guys who actually spoke like them, and not some made-up, phony Americanized suburban language. It was a precise portrayal of the real thing.
Seeing Clerks for First Time
“It's the first movie that anyone had really seen that was like that,” said Rogen. “I mean, I guess movies like DINER started that trend in a way, but CLERKS was the first one where the guys really talked how we talked to one another. We would just have a ten-minute conversation about blowjobs, you know”
“And I remember seeing it and just thinking, 'Holy shit! This is crazy,'” said Rogen. “'This guy just actually did it. He made a movie about guys like us.'” Ironically, CLERKS is what inspired Rogen to start writing the first drafts of SUPERBAD, riffing on CLERKS' conversation style. But coming to set was a different story.
Being an improvisation whiz, Seth Rogen is used to winging scenes, adlibbing and not sticking to the script religiously, or even memorizing lines. So, working with Smith, a filmmaker who is notorious for sticking to his script, was a lot different than what Rogen is used to.
A huge fan, Rogen knew that Smith doesn't like improvisation, and that's the one thing everyone warned him about going in. So as two adults, it was one of the first things they got out of the way, and one of the first conversations they had. They agreed to meet in the middle, promising to both try a more flexible approach.
“Kevin's style is a lot different,” says Rogen. “Visually there's a lot more going on, so I think as an actor, part of your job is to understand what's actually usable on film, and how the movie's going go be edited.” Smith let Rogen loosen up the dialogue and add little jokes here and there, but when Rogen would get nervous about adding something into the script, he would mention it to Smith during other actor's time, just to test the waters and see if Smith would laugh at it.
“I'm happy whenever any of it's billed,” says Rogen. “I've actually been really surprised at how much of it has made it in, just the kind of the little tags that we come up with throughout the scenes.”
Banks on Smith
Elizabeth Banks' experience with director Smith was new to her. She went to his house and they spoke, but there was never any major audition process. “He kind of just said, 'do you want to do this' I didn't really believe he was offering me the part in that moment, so I was like, 'yeah I want to do it.' But really, I didn't know what was happening,” says Banks. “The next thing I knew, it was official. I was Miri.”
“We built a good rapport,” says Banks. “I love his films. I've read a lot of comedy scripts, and I can honestly say that Kevin writes real, hilarious women better than just about anybody. He finds that balance between raunchy and daring yet feminine and genuine which is rare and a true talent.”
Lords began reading the script and burst into laughter. “It was some of the rudest shit I've ever read,” she says. “It was really funny. One of the things about the film that I think is surprising, endearing, and really works is that, you've got this very explicit, provocative dialogue, like in SUPERBAD. The characters, these young kids would say stuff and you were just kind of like, 'whoa!'¬óthe way that they said it.”
Lords was hooked and accepted the job, heading to Pittsburgh with her 4-month-old baby and her husband, an undertaking unlike anything the 15-year-old runaway had “ever done before,” she says.
Shooting Nudity
Smith admits “shooting nudity and simulated sex could've been off-the-charts uncomfortable, but since it was with folks like Mewes and Katie¬ófolks who're inordinately comfortable with their bodies either dressed or not¬óit wasn't Hell on Earth for me. The two of them didn't seem to mind wearing next to nothing during the scenes.”
“This is a dirty movie,” adds Rogen. “There's literally assholes in this movie. A lot of people figuratively say their movies have assholes in it¬ólike actors or grips who behave like assholes. Our movie actually has an asshole in it.”
“It got real the day that we went to the strip club,” said Banks. “When we were sitting there staring up into this girl's voluptuous¬Öum¬Ö you could see her brains I think. Uh, and her pierced clitoris.”
One day, Lords came into work and was told that Mr. Smith wanted to speak with her. He had decided that a scene he'd written was a bit repetitive and he wanted to do something different. He asked her how she felt about strapping on a certain appendage and pretending to mount Barry (played by Ricky Mabe).
“It takes a lot to shock me,” she says. “But I was rather taken aback. I was stunned, and then I said, 'you know what That sounds really interesting.” Lords says “thought, 'well this could be quite funny if it's done quickly, and I think the way Kevin set it up, and the way that David Klein shot it, and the way that Ricky Mabe¬óhis reaction was so brilliant, it was hilarious. So, I'm glad that I was brave at that moment, and that I went with it, and that I had a fabulous costume, and I'm glad that it all came together, because it's really unlike anything I've ever done in a film before. It actually ended up being alright.” But Rogen couldn't help but feel mortified for his friend.
Elizabeth Banks enjoyed working with Jason Mewes, who played sex maniac Lester, mostly for the fact that his penis is an “amazing character” in the movie. “I mean it just has taken on a life of its own,” she said. “He's a little fella, but he gets the job done, and Mewes really brings a lot of spirit to his role.”
In a scene within the faux porno movie, called “Swallow My Cockaccino,” Mewes takes on Stacey (played by adult film icon Katie Morgan), a “whorista” behind the counter of “Ween and Dong,” a faux espresso joint. “God, it was awesome,” says Morgan, who counts this as her first mainstream movie, after starring in over 200 adult porn movies. “Wow. I don't even know quite how to put it into words.”
Rating and Other Problems
USA Today ran an article saying, “Will people go see this movie” which initiated a conservative argument about the title and whether the younger generation should be exposed to such material.
“Okay, people seemed to be verklempt about the title, bent out of shape about the title of the movie,” says Rogen. “I think it's weird that people would be so up in arms.”
Banks admits to doing “way worse things in movies than I did in this,” and said “it was kind of fun and tame,” actually. Rogen also said that he's done “unquestionably more graphic stuff,” especially compared to the explicit sex scenes he did in KNOCKED UP. “My ass isn't even in this movie,” he adds. “I shaved my back for nothing.”
“The movie is very light,” he explains. “Is there anything in this movie that you haven't seen in other movies The answer is no. I really don't think there is. And is there anything in this movie that will really be damaging to anyone who saw it Again, the answer is definitely no. I mean, I think it's way more damaging to see, you know, a movie like 'Saw,' where someone is tortured for forty-five minutes than it is to see people having sex.”
Smith explains “We shot a scene one day that was about as dramatic a scene as I've ever shot in anything I've ever done. And Seth tuned around and literally said 'this is in the same movie as all that other stuff'”
The director had a formidable task explaining to others, including the MPAA that the film was relatively tame. “There's nothing erotic about the sex in the movie,” says Smith. “We're lampooning porno sex, which is over-the-top to begin with. So we had to go more over-the-top. But in our film, it's for comedy, not for titillation.”
Smith submitted the film to the MPAA three times. On each submission, it was slapped with an NC-17. Uncomfortable with cutting any further, he elected to take the film through the appeals process, in an effort to overturn the rating without making any cuts. “This was our third appeals screening,” Smith says, referring to two previous run-ins with the MPAA over CLERKS and JERSEY GIRL. “Even though we were successful at flipping film ratings twice in the past, I felt like this was the one appeal I only had a 50/50 shot at winning, based on the skin factor. Mercifully, the appeals audience agreed that we didn't take the material into NC-17 territory and they overturned the rating to an R.”
Vintage Kevin Smith
It is vintage Kevin Smith. There is filth and raunchiness and sexually explicit material, but his films have all¬óat their core¬óbeen about loving relationships either between best friends or romantic interests. In this film you get both: best friends who become love interests.
The cast confirms that it's not just another porn movie or a movie about porn. The film is fun and quite silly. It has dirty language and a pure heart.
Audiences will hopefully get a kick out of seeing SUPERMAN's Brandon Routh whose gay porn star boyfriend is played by actor Justin Long and also watching Jason Mewes, dressed up as Lube Skyballer, runs around with goofy sex toys, slapping them against people's cheekbones.
And then there's quite a touching love story between Zack and Miri. “In terms of the stuff I've done in the past, Smith admits, it's probably closest to CHASING AMY. It's very direct and dirty but it's very sweet.”
“It is a love story,” says Lords unequivocally. “It would seem that it would be such a fine line to have a film with a subject matter being porn, and to have this really explicit language, and yet have characters that are so completely endearing,” says Lords. “Seth and Elizabeth, the way that they work together, and their vibe and their chemistry, and the way that Kevin has written this and put it together, and dressed it all up, and all the people merge¬óyou absolutely love them all. There's nothing icky about it,” she confirms. “There are shocking things about the film, but I wouldn't say that anything is vulgar about this film. It's got that sweetness to it. The heart of it is really, really special.”
Katie Morgan concludes that while the movie does have R-rated porn in it, it's not really about porn at all. “It's about two people who actually didn't know they loved each other and then find out they do,” she says. “See, it's a good, happy movie. The boobs are just for, you know, looking at. A little bit extra.”
