- Kevin, Kevin Smith, welcome back.
- Happy to be here, sir.
Always happy to be here.
I tell you every time, I'm gonna say it again
just so we can give you a cheap plug.
Your Instagram is one of the most
entertaining Instagrams on the planet.
You always have a rotation of famous faces coming through
and you make 'em do (beeps) up things,
(Josh laughs)
and that is impressive.
So I always like to give you props for that.
- We're gonna do the audio version of doing
(beeps) up things, saying (beeps) up things
with Kevin Smith right now.
(laughing)
In all earnestness we're so happy you're here
that you're doing well.
- I feel great.
- You've been through a lot the last six months.
- You would think, but oddly enough, like not.
Like five months ago I had a heart attack
and that sounds harrowing
and I remember in the moment,
of course there were moments of it that were like,
well this sucks,
but it was not painful.
And that's the thing like, when you're not in pain
you're like oh, this ain't a problem.
When the doctor told me like,
he's going your LAD is 100% occluded,
that means blocked up with cholesterol and stuff,
and he goes we have to go up there,
we have to go up through your groin
into your femoral artery and put a stent
in your artery if that will open it up if we can.
I said oh, okay, my mom's had one of those.
And the doctor goes, oh is there a history
of heart problems in your family?
And I said, well my mom's got
a stent in her heart, that's all,
plus my dad died of a massive heart attack at 67.
And then he's like all right, we gotta go fast.
So they went in and before he did it
he said something really cute,
He goes, Dr Leidenheim, he's my doctor,
he goes, you're a comic book guy.
I said, I am.
And he goes, all right,
that LAD, that artery that's blocked,
we call that the widowmaker.
And he goes, you know why?
I said no and he goes,
because in 80% of the cases of 100% occlusion,
the patient always dies.
He's going, but you're gonna be in the other 20%
'cause I'm really good at my job.
And he dove into my crotch and saved my life.
It was pretty fantastic.
(Josh chuckles)
So, but there was no pain.
- So many stories start that way.
- I know, you never have those.
There was no pain.
Well I was a kid in the seventies,
so I expected a heart attack to be like Fred Sanford's.
Whenever Redd Foxx was having a heart attack,
he was like it's bad,
he'd clutch his chest and throw his arm out real far.
I felt no pain whatsoever.
I couldn't catch my breath,
that was the only difference.
So it wasn't like harrowing, it wasn't bad.
Only in as much when the doctor
game me that information where he's like
you know 80% of the cases (bleep) die.
I was like well that's new information,
I've never faced those kind of odds that I know of.
You figure every day you leave your house,
50-50 you're gonna drop dead like you get hit by lightning,
hit by a car or trip over a (bleep) dog
that bites your jugular.
As you bleed out you're like but I loved dogs.
- It's probably not 50-50, it's probably more.
- A little higher on that one probably.
(laughing)
But this was definitely like the closest
that I know that I'd ever come to being dead
and there was never any pain.
So much so that I was able
to maintain philosophy throughout.
I was philosophical through the whole thing.
I was going well, if this is the end
I've had a really good life.
I wasn't sitting there going like Jesus, save me.
I figure I had no point in praying
'cause God'd be like you made dog (bleep),
go (bleep) yourself.
(Josh laughs)
So I didn't bother trying to plead for my life.
Instead I was filled with this eerie sort of calm
where I was like well, this is it and it could be it.
Like your 20% is pretty low and stuff,
so if this is the end, how do you feel?
And I felt actually pretty good.
Not like yeah, I'm done, I aced this.
But there was this weird sense of completion
that nobody ever told me about.
The only person who came close my mom,
my mom had died on the table once
while they were working on her heart.
She was gone for like a minute and change.
And so I talked to her on SModcast once after that.
I was like all right, so tell us about it.
And she said I remember I was talking
to the anesthesiologist and then (snaps)
just mid sentence I was gone and I remember floating.
I was like floating up?
She's like no, floating down a stream.
And I was like what did it feel like?
And my mom goes it felt like every
responsibility I ever had in this life
(snaps) instantly evaporated.
She's going I never felt so free in my life.
All of my worries were instantly eliminated and stuff.
So I was all right,
so lived in this best of all possible world 65 years,
you were dead for a minute.
Which is better?
And my mom was like I liked the other side.
And I was like why?
And she's going I've never felt that free.
No concern, no worry.
Like Jacob Marley said,
we wear the chains we forge in life.
My mom realized she forges a lot of chains and stuff.
So it always stuck with me.
And I don't if it's because she said that
or because I genuinely experienced this,
but when I was on the operating table,
that's what I had a sense of.
Like this weird sense of like oh, this ain't bad.
I've been trained to believe this is the worst
thing that will ever happen to me, of course.
'cause we all wanna live, nobody wants to die
and we don't know what's on the other side.
But I had this weird feeling of like oh, I'm done,
like I'm finished.
And it wasn't like oh, I'm done, I'm sad.
I was like oh my god, I got to the end,
like there's an end game,
like I should be happy, it's done.
And I felt a sense of accomplishment
and also a sense of like oh man,
I'll never get killed in my sleep by a home intruder,
like I was listing,
I won't get eaten by a shark,
that was a big deal for me.
So I was like if I die here this works out.
And then (bleep) Leidenheim saved my life.
So I'm here is my point.
- Does it reorder,
'cause I would imagine that kind of thing
can reorder personal priorities,
but apropos to comicon and your career,
does it reorder the list of projects
and the kind of things that like you know what,
I wanna get certain things, shit done?
- There is a bit of that.
Like if you've ever paid attention to my career,
you could look at it from the outside
even not being deep into it,
go oh he just fuckin' does whatever he wants.
Like I saw that walrus movie, he's out of his mind.
(Josh laughs)
So I've never been the guy that's like man,
if only one day I was brave enough
to do the movie that I wanted to do.
I've always left it on the table professionally so to speak.
Whether people like it or not
I can't do anything about that.
But professionally I've always gone for it,
'cause you get once at this life.
Personally, I never treated myself the same way.
Personally I was sedentary,
personally I was like well, I accept this
and this is what I am and that will never change.
Which is weird,
because one day I was a guy
that worked in a convenient store and I didn't accept that
and I changed it and became a filmmaker.
But when it came to my physical health,
I just accepted it.
I was like oh well, I'll never see
my high school weight again or something like that.
So after the heart attack
there was a nutritionist in the hospital
and they were well what's your next step?
And I was like I dunno,
I mean obviously I don't wanna come back here again.
And the nutritionist said like
have you ever thought about changing your diet?
I said I diet all the time.
She said no, not changing your diet,
like not dieting, change your diet.
And I was like what?
And she's like well, people that eat
vegetarian or vegan diet,
they tend to have lower cholesterol.
My kid has been a vegan three years at that point,
she's in the hospital with me
and she hears the nutritionist go vegan.
She's like yes, tell him he has to do it.
(Josh laughs)
One of us.
She wanted me to join.
And so I said 'cause I talked to Leidenheim, the doctor,
and she said when I was leaving that day,
'cause I was in the hospital for less than 48 hours,
so I was leaving I was like I feel great.
He goes that's bad.
I say why is it bad?
He's going because, he's going you feel great,
look how easy we've made this.
He's going back in the day
if you had this same heart attack,
like we'd have to crack your chest open,
saw open your bones, open your heart,
and then the mend time on that alone
is something like three, four months.
So you'd know you went through something
and you would desperately change your life.
He's going but look at you,
you're out in less than 48 hours.
He's like you know what happens to people that do that?
They go this is easy and they go back
to their same (bleep) life.
And he's like if I'm lucky,
I will see them in here again before they die.
But if I'm unlucky, (snaps) they'll (bleep) go.
So he's like it's in your court.
So at that point I was like all right,
maybe it's time to do something healthy.
And I figure I ate any way I wanted
for like 47 (bleep) years,
so I was like I'll try one year
of going vegan and see if it works.
Now I'm a terrible vegan 'cause I (bleep) hate vegetables,
I don't eat any vegetables.
So that makes it difficult right away.
- [Josh] Right, yeah.
- But peanut butter and jelly, vegan.
(Josh laughs)
You have to find the little places.
- You've got that sweet spot.
- Exactly.
So I don't eat the greens,
but I still smoke those, I don't eat them.
But I won't eat the animal food products,
the cheese and milk, none of that stuff.
And oddly enough, weight just starts
kind of coming off when you're eating plant-based.
It's been crazy.
So that was the big change was professionally,
it was like I went vegan, drop some pounds and stuff.
I mean personally.
Professionally, it reordered things.
Like we had this pilot for Hollyweed
we shot like two and a half year ago,
right around the time of Yoga Hosers.
So right before we went to Sundance with Yoga Hosers,
we were shooting Hollyweed.
Then we went to Sundance with Yoga Hosers
and Yoga Hosers happened.
And then right after that on the heels of that,
Freemantle, the people we made the pilot with,
they were like hey, we tried to take it out,
nobody's interested.
So all of January 2016 was the suck for me.
I was like this is the worst it'll ever be
and then I had a heart attack two years later.
I had no idea what the worst was.
(Josh chuckles)
So there I am with this pilot that nobody wanted
and I loved it.
I thought it was fun, it's like Clerks in a weed store.
And I'd written the role of Randall
in Clerks to play myself,
which is why it has all the best jokes.
And the closer I got to the production
I was like I'm no (bleep) actor,
I can't do this.
Why did I write a part for myself?
I will take a part with no speaking lines
and that was Silent Bob.
And oddly enough I didn't ask myself
like I'm not a director,
why do I think I could direct?
That one I can get my head around.
- For whatever reason the acting part--
- The acting one was tough.
Critics years later would be like you can't direct (bleep).
(Josh laughs)
But in the beginning of my career--
- You were right. (laughs)
- Yeah, you had no idea how close you were to right.
So I scared myself out of acting in the flick
and then it went on to be what it was
and I was in it as Silent Bob and that was fun.
But I always look at that Randall role
and be like (bleep).
Like if I was in charge, if I was Randall in Clerks,
we would be up to Clerks 29 right now.
Like that many (bleep) sequels.
- (chuckles) So this is the way to get at that a little bit?
- This is.
To do Hollyweed is for me to do Clerks in a weed store.
And it comes full circle where it's like
two roads diverged in the yellow wood
and I chose the one path and boy it was great.
But now I get to come back to that same point
and be like well what happens if you would've went that way?
What happens if you did trust enough
in yourself to make pretend with words
as opposed just using your face
and goofy expressions as Silent Bob?
So Rivit TV came along,
it was a guy, Marcus, that we knew from working
on something at Fox back in the day.
And Marcus was working at Rivit TV
and he had this interesting platform
where he's like what we're gonna wanna do here
is take pilots that didn't go anywhere,
put them up in front of an audience,
and if they really like them,
they can provide the funding and you go forward from that.
They can pre-buy a season of the show.
So I was like oh my god,
like I'd be way down for that.
'cause I enjoyed making Hollyweed
and then I remember when we made the pilot
I was at my then adult thinnest.
So my logic was always like if we were working on that show,
I would have to stay relatively thinner.
I would have to stay on the thinner side
so I look the same.
So that was the reason to do it.
I was always sitting there going it will keep me thin
and I'll get to act with words.
And then when we wound up doing up a PS to the pilot
for releasing when we released on Rivit TV,
because Frankie Shaw was one of the characters in the pilot,
she played one of the characters,
she went on to do SMILF.
She got her own show on Showtime,
she's doing incredibly well.
So we can't be like come back here and be in our weed show.
So we had to kind of write a conclusion to her story,
which included putting me on camera
like thinner than I was when we shot the pilot.
So when we did it they were like what are you gonna do,
how are you gonna address it?
I was like I'll just make up a joke on the spot.
And so while we were shooting,
Donnell goes Pete, that's my character's name,
Pete, you look thin today.
I was like do I?
Thank you, I said I felt bloated all day yesterday.
I said but then I got up this morning,
took a huge shit, feel like I lost 40 pounds.
(Josh laughs)
And so it's kind of fun, even on the freak value,
even if you're like I don't
wanna watch that show about weed,
to watch me go from one weight to another in it.
- It's your Castaway, basically. (laughs)
- A little bit.
Oh my god, I'm stealing that line, Josh.
(laughing)
It is my total Tom Hanks, man.
It's my Castaway moment.
- So where are you at in terms
of directing comic book stuff?
Obviously the last few years you got a chance
to get involved in Flash and Supergirl.
Is there a show out there that you'd like to explore?
Berlanti keeps making like three more
shows announced every day.
- Greg Berlanti will not (bleep) stop
making these amazing comic book TV shows.
Yeah, I owe him a great debt of thanks,
because he put those shows together
with his creative teams and whatnot and their casts.
And they have allowed me those shows,
and Greg and his team themself,
have allowed me to go into a world
that I never really had much of interest in going into.
I love comic book movies, comic book properties,
I love watching them,
I love not picking them apart,
but celebrating them and stuff like that,
love anticipating the next one,
but making those things seemed,
like whenever you see those behind the scenes
they're like we're on day 200 of Spiderman
and you're like who the (bleep) could do
anything 200 times in a row, let alone Spiderman?
So it takes a lot more energy and attention
and talent most importantly than I have.
I like doing stuff where
the characters talk about those movies.
Like that's what I've been doing for years.
So I like going to Flash and Supergirl
because I get to then play in that world,
you get to play with kids wearing colorful costumes
having ridiculous powers
and showing off incredible feats of strength.
But I love those shows more so
than the comic book movies that they do,
because on TV you get to pull the taffy a lot longer.
You get to fall in love with the cast and characters,
know everything about them and what not,
dive deep into their lives.
So people always ask me like
don't you wanna make a comic book movie?
And I'm like nah, I'm not talented enough to do that.
Russo brothers, they can do that in their sleep,
they know what to do and stuff.
I'm not, I'm the guy that likes to watch that stuff
and I don't have the patience or the ability
to sit through one of those things making it.
I don't know if it would turn out very well if I did.
A lot of people are like you love this comic book stuff.
Just 'cause you love something
doesn't mean that you're gonna be great at it.
Sometimes, particularly in the field of comic book movies,
it's been interesting to watch people
who are not from the genre,
who don't touch the material, suddenly interpret it.
We saw that with Tim Burton,
one of the greatest comic book movies of all time.
1989 Batman, Tim Burton very famously
talks about like I don't read comic books.
Who was it?
Bryan Singer when he made the X-Men,
he was not a comic book guy either.
So there's something to be said
for like grabbing people from outside the medium
who have a passing familiarity with it,
not somebody who has so much invested in the game
where I'm like well Thanos would never do that.
(Josh laughs)
And they're like well maybe not on the page,
but we're making a movie here.
I'm like well fuck that.
- We've just spent three days arguing this Kevin.
We have to move on. (laughs)
- That's what it would be,
it would be me arguing on set a lot of the time.
So I like watching them,
but making them is not for me.
Closest I get is when I jump into Berlanti land.
That's fun 'cause it's nine days in and out.
And also, when you make one of them comic book movies,
you have a chance to disappoint
so many (bleep) people, so many people.
And I disappoint people on a regular basis with my own shit.
So to take something everybody knows
and suddenly disappoint them with that, who needs it?
If I do a Flash or Supergirl,
if it sucks,
just wait a week, another one's coming
(Josh laughs)
and I'm sure it'll be great.
- So Batwoman is coming apparently.
- Isn't that fantastic?
I was telling my kid yesterday,
she's like Batgirl's coming.
I was like Batgirl's coming to the movies,
Batwoman's coming to TV.
They're two different characters, let me explain.
And then I went into it.
- So do you put your name in the hopper
or do you text Greg and be like that sounds cool,
I'm available?
- Last time I texted Greg was from the,
well I had texted him few months ago,
but I texted him from the hospital
the night that I had the heart attack and stuff
'cause a lot of people were sending texts
and emails going are you okay?
And he sent one and I wrote back to him being like
I'm fine, I'm doing notes on my Flash episode right now.
'cause I was sitting there watching Flash
and taking down like cut notes and stuff.
And he's like bro, you don't even do the heart attack right.
He's like you're supposed to enjoy it and stuff.
So I would, I would totally reach out to him.
I saw the trailer for this Team Titans
that they're doing on the DC Universe app,
which you know, the buzzword of Comicon 2018
is (bleep) Batman.
- We're gonna get to that, trust me.
- (laughs) Who knew?
- It's on my list, don't you worry.
- It's crazy.
(Josh laughs)
That's where are right now.
- Always a geek, always welcome here,
we love you around here.
We're so happy that you're doing well.
- Love being here, love being above ground.
- (chuckles) We agree with that.
You're welcome here anytime, man.
- Thank you.
- Enjoy your comicon as always.
- You as well, man.
Excellent seeing you. - It's good to see you, buddy.