Brian Damage
05-14-2009, 10:53 PM
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/05/kevin_smith_on_zack_and_miri.html
I kind of dropped out of society. I just kind of wrapped myself in a weed-infused cocoon … a coma, if you will. And it was great. It was really, really wonderful, man. I don't want to be one of those people who's all, "Let me tell you about legalization!" But, my God, I don't think I've ever been happier in my life. And after years and years of … you know, I used to literally fight with people online. I would waste days online, talking to total strangers, some of them probably children. I was a joke. And I made a movie where at the end they beat up these guys, and still … you'd imagine that would be therapeutic, but, no, I still kept doing it.
I really feel like I grew up in the last year, and it wouldn't have been possible if Zack and Miri hadn't done what it did. Which wasn't, like, a colossal failure, but it underperformed severely. We were all expecting double of what it did — not even 100 million bucks, but everything was pointing to an easy 60. And after being told that by, like, everybody, and then seeing what it did, it was just so ****ing disillusioning. And I know it sounds like, "Oh, rich man's problems. Oh, poor baby, you got paid a ****-ton of money to make your dopey little dream of yours come true, and now you're gonna complain that it didn't make enough money." But you know, I'm sorry, but it bugs you. It's just about, especially when you write and direct, it's about like, ****, what you have to say isn't important to me, amusing to me, or relevant to me.
"You wake up on a Saturday morning, and you’re trying to avoid the grosses, not taking any calls and **** from the studio, so the first time you’re gonna find out what the movie did the previous night is pretty much when the Internet finds out. You’re gonna go to Box Office Mojo and look it up. The morning after it came out, I came out of the bathroom, and my wife was sitting in the chair, she had this face on, and I said, what is it? And she said, do you really want to know? And I was like, "Uh, yes." And she was like "2.2." 2.2 million for a Seth Rogen movie on a Friday night? Doing the math, that’s less than a ten million opening — that means it opened less than Clerks 2, which did not have the guy from Knocked Up in it. We wound up doing ten million [opening weekend]. But ten million dollars? I mean, Seth had just opened with Pineapple Express with like 30 million dollars a few months prior. It was depressing."
I kind of dropped out of society. I just kind of wrapped myself in a weed-infused cocoon … a coma, if you will. And it was great. It was really, really wonderful, man. I don't want to be one of those people who's all, "Let me tell you about legalization!" But, my God, I don't think I've ever been happier in my life. And after years and years of … you know, I used to literally fight with people online. I would waste days online, talking to total strangers, some of them probably children. I was a joke. And I made a movie where at the end they beat up these guys, and still … you'd imagine that would be therapeutic, but, no, I still kept doing it.
I really feel like I grew up in the last year, and it wouldn't have been possible if Zack and Miri hadn't done what it did. Which wasn't, like, a colossal failure, but it underperformed severely. We were all expecting double of what it did — not even 100 million bucks, but everything was pointing to an easy 60. And after being told that by, like, everybody, and then seeing what it did, it was just so ****ing disillusioning. And I know it sounds like, "Oh, rich man's problems. Oh, poor baby, you got paid a ****-ton of money to make your dopey little dream of yours come true, and now you're gonna complain that it didn't make enough money." But you know, I'm sorry, but it bugs you. It's just about, especially when you write and direct, it's about like, ****, what you have to say isn't important to me, amusing to me, or relevant to me.
"You wake up on a Saturday morning, and you’re trying to avoid the grosses, not taking any calls and **** from the studio, so the first time you’re gonna find out what the movie did the previous night is pretty much when the Internet finds out. You’re gonna go to Box Office Mojo and look it up. The morning after it came out, I came out of the bathroom, and my wife was sitting in the chair, she had this face on, and I said, what is it? And she said, do you really want to know? And I was like, "Uh, yes." And she was like "2.2." 2.2 million for a Seth Rogen movie on a Friday night? Doing the math, that’s less than a ten million opening — that means it opened less than Clerks 2, which did not have the guy from Knocked Up in it. We wound up doing ten million [opening weekend]. But ten million dollars? I mean, Seth had just opened with Pineapple Express with like 30 million dollars a few months prior. It was depressing."