After 95 uncanny years spent imagining his way to the top of the world, Stan Lee passed
away on November 12, 2018.
It's only now that what appears to be the final cameo from the Marvel Comics figurehead
is seeing release, and the story of that cameo appearance may surprise you.
For one thing, it's not in a Marvel movie.
If you know Stan Lee, you've probably also heard of Jason Mewes - as far as fanbases
are concerned, there's a lot of overlap there.
Mewes came up as an actor in the '90s as the taller, lankier, louder half of Jay and Silent
Bob, the dynamic duo of drug dealers who helped tie together the early films of writer-director
Kevin Smith - a.k.a. Silent Bob.
After preparing for the project since 2016, Jason Mewes has finally launched his own directorial
debut feature, Madness in the Method, to be released in theaters and on-demand on August
2, 2019.
After charting an unexpected path through show business toward status as a bona fide
icon, Mewes was able to call on many other pop culture players for help when it came
time to direct his own movie.
That roster includes Stan Lee, who agreed to shoot what Mewes calls his favorite scene
in the movie - not just for the content of the sequence, but for the fact that Lee came
out to do the scene at all.
We sat down with Mewes for an exclusive interview and he described the experience of filming
Lee as being, quote, "just surreal."
The opportunity came together in a rapid fashion that required the movie's crew to rush in
three and a half hours early in order to set up Lee's shots - and for a heartwarming reason,
too.
“He had to be out of there by 5:30, because he will not miss dinner with his wife.
Every night at 6:00 he has dinner with his wife, and he will not miss that."
"Her name was Joan, and I took Joanie to lunch, and then we got married.
It was a good lunch."
To see what Stan Lee's scene in Madness in the Method actually entails, you'll have to
watch the movie for yourself.
But it shouldn't be too surprising that the sequence at least partially involves Lee delivering
a personal insult to Jason Mewes.
"Jason Mewes?
That smoochie-boochie guy?"
But that animosity is just a product of the screenplay.
According to Mewes, the real-life Lee was a saint on set, asking little in return for
his appearance in the film.
"To me it seemed such a sweet gesture for him to roll out of his house to come down
and be in our movie when he's not getting paid a bunch of money.
And just be like, 'Hey, we're going to do this favor for Mewes.'
So to me it was literally a favor.
Just, 'Hey, we want to be in Jay's movie.
He's a nice kid, we've known him since Mallrats, since '90-whatever.'
It just will always be a special, awesome moment for me."
One aspect that makes the experience so special is the distinct likelihood of it being Lee's
last cameo, unless some hidden material in the Disney vaults sees release someday in
Avengers 9.
"I don't know for sure, but what it seems like, my movie is the last movie he shot.
it's just really amazing that he did that."
Mewes met Stan Lee for the first time back when "Stan Lee cameos" weren't really a thing.
It was 1995, on the set of Mallrats, Kevin Smith's second movie, and the first to be
produced by a major studio.
“Clerks was the first movie, but to me, Mallrats is my first movie, because it was
like it became real.
Like I'm in Minnesota, staying in a hotel, and there's wardrobe, and there's stunt guys,
and I get to hang from a grappling hook, and I get to meet Stan Lee for the first time."
It would probably have come as a surprise to the younger Mewes to learn that he would
go on to meet Lee over and over again in the years to come, as the two toured the same
circles at comic book conventions and movie sets.
But that doesn't mean he's not still proud of his poster for Mallrats, signed by Lee
himself.
"When I first met Stan, I think I got something signed, way back in '95 or so when we made
Mallrats, because I was so excited."
That first piece of memorabilia got unfortunately misplaced, but no matter - they'd meet again.
"I saw him many, many times after that at different comic book conventions.
We did an Audi commercial.
Kevin directed, Stan was there."
Their relationship came full circle when Lee made an appearance reading the script for
Mallrats in 2019's Captain Marvel, effectively immortalizing the movie, and Mewes himself,
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Though Mewes may have had the privilege of directing Stan Lee in his own movie, that's
not necessarily his favorite of Lee's cameos.
"My favorite.
I don’t…
He does so many awesome ones."
Some fans may love the one in The Amazing Spider-Man in which Lee appears as a librarian,
blissfully arranging books with headphones on while Spider-Man and the Lizard tear up
the room behind him.
Others may enjoy the moment in The Incredible Hulk in which Lee accidentally drinks a soda
tainted with Bruce Banner's radioactive blood.
But the one that comes to Mewes' mind as a favorite cameo is from another movie helmed
by longtime collaborator Kevin Smith.
"I really liked his cameo in Kevin's movie, Yoga Hosers.
He picks up the phone, and he's like…
I forget what he says, exactly.
But it was really sweet."
Specifically, Lee is seen picking up the phone as a police dispatcher in the teen horror
movie, listening to the protagonists' stoned-sounding ramblings about little sausage men that look
like Adolf Hitler – in Lee's book, one of history's worst villains.
"Well he sure is a nasty camper – worse than Dr. Doom and Darth Vader combined."
He then provides the movie's titular line as an insult.
“G--damn Yoga Hosers."
When it comes to Stan Lee cameos, it's harder to tell what the future holds than you might
think.
Footage may exist that we don't know about, planned for use in future films in ways we
can't predict.
But for now, it sure seems like Madness in the Method is set to be Lee's last role.
Not that people haven't been wrong before.
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo have implied in the past that Lee's cameo for Endgame was
the last one he shot - but that's an assertion contradicted by the fact that Lee's cameo
for Captain Marvel was actually filmed after that.
Of course, Captain Marvel was released before Endgame, and both films came out months before
Madness in the Method, even though the Madness cameo was probably shot first.
It's confusing.
When it comes to footage we don't know about floating around, it's entirely possible that
Madness in the Method may just feature the last Stan Lee cameo to come out this year.
But for now, as far as anyone can tell, Jason Mewes' directorial debut holds the last bit
of cameo footage to be released of a media magnate who became a surprising, applause-worthy
presence on the silver screen.
"Have you seen this cameo yet?”
“Yes.”
“You have?
I haven't seen it yet!
Is it any – the only reason I came was to see my cameo!"
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