Director Kevin Smith Hated Making His Movie 'Cop Out' Thanks to Bruce Willis

[Brian Damage]

Kevin Smith was recently on Marc Maron’s podcast where he discussed, among other things, Cop Out. From the sound of it, working with Bruce Willis wasn’t the peach basket filled with ticklish kittens you might expect. In fact, to hear Smith tell it, it was a downright poop-covered porcupine bath. Full exchange is after the jump, but here’s the condensed version:

Bruce Willis wouldn’t sit for the poster
“Everyone knows who it is. Remember the really funny guy in the movie? It ain’t him.”
“Were it not for Tracy, I might’ve killed myself or someone else in the making of that movie.”
MARON: “Honestly, you were given the gift of not having to tell your dad that Bruce Willis was a d_ck.” SMITH: “I wish he could’ve just communicated it to me from the afterlife.”

Here’s the full exchange:

SMITH: [on why he took a lower salary to make Cop Out than he did for Dogma] “I needed to see marketing from the inside for some sh_t I got comin up.”

CopOut-movie-billboardMARON: “I might make an argument that marketing of Cop Out diminished your ticket sales. That billboard was everywhere, and I gotta be honest with you, Kevin, I looked at that billboard and thought, ‘I’ve already seen that movie.”"

SMITH: “Yeah, of course. There was nothing about that poster that screamed, “holy sh_t, this is gonna be original.” But to be fair, nothing about it was. The whole movie is an homage picture. We just wanted to make an 80s cop movie. It had to look like something you had seen before. At least, that’s what I hoped they were thinking. Look, I know the real story. One guy wouldn’t even sit for a f__kin’ poster shoot.”

MARON: “You don’t want to mention names all of a sudden?”

SMITH: “Everyone knows who it is. Put it this way, remember the really funny guy in the movie? It ain’t him. He’s a f__king dream. Tracy Morgan, I would lay down in traffic for. Were it not for Tracy, I might’ve killed myself or someone else in the making of that movie.”

[...]

Cop-out-Bruce willis-Tracy morgan

MARON: “Honestly, you were given the gift of not having to tell your dad that Bruce Willis was a d_ck.”

SMITH: “I wish he could’ve just communicated it to me from the afterlife. It was difficult. I’ve never been involved in a situation like that where, one component is not in the box at all. It was f__kin soul crushing. I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to blame the movie on him.’ No, but I had no f__king help from this dude whatsoever.”

MARON: “The sad part is, as a kid who grew up in New Jersey who loved Bruce Willis, and you get this big opportunity, and you get disappointed by your hero. And that’s probably something that you’re going to have to deal with again.”

SMITH: “No, but he changed everything for me though. Because now I’ll never meet anybody. That was it. I’d rather like people from a distance.”

http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2010/02/...cop-out-willis

[isiahthomas]

LOL@Bruce Willis being a tough person to work with hahahahahahahaha. He does seem like he's difficult to work with. I liked Cop Out movie. I was glad Kevin Smith made it.

[JamesG]

I didn't care that much for Cop Out.

I didn't find it funny at all.

[Dr. Thong]

Because he didn't write it, the movie had none of Smith's flair or sense of humor, really. Even Zack and Miri Make A Porno, while not a great movie, still had his style and humor in it.