Posted on Fri, Jul. 21, 2006

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Men at work: 'Clerks II' catches up with Dante and Randal 10 years later

BY SARA FREDERICK

sfrederick@MiamiHerald.com

MIRAMAX

TWO CLERKS: Jeff Anderson, left, and Brian O'Halloran are the lovable, cranky slackers.

More photos

• Review | More polish, still blessedly crude

When filmmaker Kevin Smith made his debut in 1994 with Clerks, a black-and-white movie shot on a budget held together by credit cards, he created a set of characters that spoke directly to the early 20s generation of which he was part. Quasi-slackers Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) worked at a Quick Stop and video store, and spent their time talking about girls from high school, weird customers, porn and Star Wars movies. Stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith) danced and sold drugs in the parking lot out front.

Jay and Silent Bob went on to star in several other Smith movies, including Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. But fans never saw what became of Dante and Randal. Now, Clerks II finds them 10 years later, still working mindless jobs and having the same conversations. We sat down with the two actors at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach as they made their final stop in a 12-city, 16-day tour.

Q: Had you ever talked about doing a sequel to Clerks before?

Anderson: It just didn't make sense to me to do a sequel to Clerks. It was so long ago. A large part of the success for the movie was from the backstory. It was the $28,000 budget, it was the black-and-white thing. I felt like we had a better chance at screwing it up than improving on it, than taking a step forward.

Q: So how did the sequel happen then?

Anderson: Kevin was coming off of Jersey Girl, the reviews weren't so hot, and it was sort of like, ''Well, you said you weren't going back to Jay and Bob, why are you sort of going back?'' And I don't know, just to me, it felt like there was just a much better chance of putting a bad taste in everybody's mouth by screwing it up.

Q: Well, you didn't.

Anderson: No, it was good. You can thank me for that, because the first scripts were just . . . (trails off)

O'Halloran: (laughs)

Anderson: That's gonna be the whole article: Jeff Anderson responsible for Clerks II.

O'Halloran: (imitating Smith) Why is The Miami Herald saying that you wrote the script? What's that about?

Q: Comparing the sequel with the original, Randal stays the same but Dante has changed. Randal's tone and attitude are the same -- maybe raunchier -- but Dante is less whiny.

Anderson: Whiny -- that word comes up again.

O'Halloran: As a younger person, you tend to be less in control of what you're feeling, and it just comes out. I guess as we mature characterwise it becomes less apparent, that whininess.

I think the growth of both of them actually is equal . . . we finally reveal to each other ''Look, I can't let you go, you're my best friend, I have nobody,'' yet the subject matter stays similar, if not pushes that envelope even more.

Q: On the Clerks X DVD commentary, you say you don't get recognized if you're clean-shaven.

O'Halloran: For the most part, yeah.

Q: (to Anderson) And you aren't recognized without the hat.

Anderson: No, I never get recognized.

Q: When they do recognize you, what do people say?

O'Halloran: Well, if it isn't subpoenas, it's ''Are you even supposed to be here today?'' That type of thing.

Anderson: You get a lot of clowns up in your face.

O'Halloran: Where's Randal, where's Jay.

Anderson: I just get copious hours of Star Wars questions.

Q: So what have you been up to between now and the first Clerks movie?

Anderson: I wrote and directed a movie a couple years back. [The Weinstein Co.] is gonna put it out. It's gonna go straight to DVD alongside this. I'm just finished setting up a production company, and I'm gonna direct my next film. It's hysterical.

Q: Your next one is about a wedding, right? Wasn't your last movie about getting married too?

Anderson: Yes, all my movies are going to be about marriage. Ah, no. Yes. Next question (laughs).

Q: Jeff, you married Lisa Spoonhauer, the actress who played Caitlin Bree (Dante's sometime girlfriend in Clerks), right?

Anderson: I did. [They've since divorced.]

Q: And Kevin Smith's wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, plays Emma, Dante's fiancé, in the sequel?

O'Halloran: That's right.

Anderson: Yes, it's crazy incestuous.

Q: So, Brian, you get to make out with all of your friends' wives?

O'Halloran: Well, I guess. It's kind of weird when your coworker-slash-boss says, ``OK, I want you to kiss my wife numerous times for looong sessions while I watch and film.''

Yeah, it was interesting. I've obviously known Jen for many years as Kevin's wife, and to be told that you gotta make out with her is kind of, like, weird. You don't have those type of thoughts, but you want to have it somewhat believable.

I also get to make out with Rosario Dawson. So, you know, that's actually where you want something to happen. I'm just kidding.

Q: This movie follows the same basic order of things from the first film. What's different?

O'Halloran: [For the] first time in film history -- we are now, after the first week of release come July 21 in a theater near you -- issuing a podcast which you can pick up for free on itunes.com or clerks2.com. Download this podcast, go back to the theater and watch the movie again with your iPod while listening to a behind-the-scenes commentary. That's where a lot of the questions that people really want answered will be answered.

Q: There were three music montages in this movie that I counted, which strikes me as post-Jersey Girl Kevin Smith. How different was it to work with him this time, aside from the whole having-a-budget thing?

O'Halloran: The first soundtrack was a local friend of his in a band. Once we got distribution, they added to it. But it's something I think works well for this one. Then there's the dance sequence that just comes out of the blue -- and it's meant to just come out of the blue. It's not in the script. It's sort of like an homage to The Blues Brothers.

Anderson: This time around, we saw a lot more of [Smith's] filmmaking abilities that have grown over the years. Blocking Clerks, he was like, ''Stay between here and there. Don't move.'' This was a lot more walking with the cameras and things like that. So it was an interesting and different Kevin.

But at the same time, although he did have that, you got to see him where he would get rattled if there was too much movement. He didn't care for the scenes like the donkey show. He wasn't a big fan of that because of all the different setups and shots. He would have rather shot it just straight. And you know, he was bummed about having to do all that -- the work of the actual filming. The film itself looks much better than a lot of the stuff he's done.

O'Halloran: This is like a best-of. Like he took the best aspect of each film and used it.