“I wanted to tell my heart attack story with my characters,” says the filmmaker.
“So Randal, the video-store guy [played by Jeff Anderson], has a massive heart attack.
Randal and Dante [Brian O’Halloran] essentially make their own version ofClerks, a black-and-white movie calledInconvenience.
John Bayer/Lionsgate
It’s incredibly meta.
you might put that on the poster!
She was between many galaxies onClerks III.”
The film’s recent trailer revealed that Smith’s longtime collaboratorBen Affleckwill be making an appearance inClerks III.
So does he pop into the Quick Stop?
“Yes and no,” says Smith.
So yes, you do see Ben Affleck inClerks III, just not at the Quick Stop."
Smith shotClerks IIIat the real-life convenience store in New Jersey where he shot 1994’sClerksand where he once actually worked.
“Finally, I was grown up enough to ask the owners let me shut the place down.
I have to rent the entire place and shut it down.
I got to go work at Quick Stop again, but in the best f—ing way possible.
It was bliss, man.”
Smith admits that his wife and daughter have mixed feelings about him mining his health crisis for comedy.
And I was like, ‘Well, don’t say that to the critics, for Christ’s sakes!
It’s too easy a lay-up for them!'"
Lionsgate will be releasingClerks IIIexclusively in theaters on Sept. 13 and 15 via Fathom Events.
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