JERSEY GIRL
 Q&A with Kevin Smith & Raquel Castro		 Search all of phase9.tv






With writer/director Kevin Smith and actress Raquel Castro who plays Gertie Trinke

Kevin, this film has been described as your most grown up to date, would you agree with this statement?

I don’t know who said that - it certainly wasn’t me. I guess whoever said it felt that because this film lacks profanity and lacks JAY & SILENT BOB that it was more grown up than any of my other stuff. But for me it was my most personal because it was the closest to who I am of all the stuff I’ve done to date, although my wife never died – thank God. When I wrote the script I handed it to her, and I told her it was a valentine to her. She asked how this was a valentine to her as I kill her character off in the first 15 minutes and then wind up with Liv Tyler. It didn’t quite make sense. But she saw it for what it was, which was kind of a valentine to me and my kid.

And yet JERSEY GIRL is something of a departure from your previous films, is it a change you were comfortable with?

I was comfortable, absolutely. Probably more than doing any of the other flicks I’ve done because I wasn’t raised watching movies like CLERKS or MALLRATS, or CHASING AMY or DOGMA, or JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK. I was raised watching movies like this because my mother was a big sucker for drama-dies. I had to sit through LOVE STORY about a thousand times when I was a kid. That stuff kind of stays rooted with you. This movie was always swimming beneath the surface for me, I knew sooner or later I would get to it.

Raquel, did you know Kevin’s work before you were cast in JERSEY GIRL?

I didn’t know because usually his movies are not rated for my age. But I did see part of DOGMA because I had to go to the bathroom one night and had to go past the TV my parents were watching it on. My mom told me about Kevin and the movies he made, but I didn’t see a whole movie of his.

SMITH: That’s how most people see my movies, on the way to the bathroom.

How did you come to cast Raquel in the film?

SMITH: Usually when someone casts a kid you read that they saw 10 000 kids and the one they chose simply rose to the top. We saw about 100, 200 tops, in Los Angeles and New York. Of course we were kind of drawn to Raquel because she bears a striking resemblance to Jennifer Lopez, so we said ‘let’s bring her in and see how she is’, and thank God she turned out to be a great actress as well. So not only did she look the part, but she also played it insanely well. That old adage about not working with kids or animals is only true to some degree. I could work with this kid again. But I worked with a monkey in JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, and I would never do that again. Raquel I could work with, not the monkey.

What qualities do you identify in Ben that have made him such a big movie star since you first started working together seven or eight years ago?

SMITH: When used correctly he’s kind of charming. The problem is when [some] people cast Ben in movies they tend to put a gun in his hand, and have him save the world. I don’t know that he’s necessarily best served by that. I think he’s best when he’s playing someone closer to himself. That’s what I do, when I write a part for Ben I’m kind of writing it, as Ben, and people seem to like him more in the stuff that we’ve done together. That’s because he’s playing himself. I can’t even take credit that I got a great performance out of him, it’s just I know I’m writing to him and to his character, so he winds up playing it better than when he’s running from a space rock or something.

What was it like for you Raquel, having Ben as your screen father?

I liked working with him, he was fun. He was like a big kid, a very big kid.

Continued on page 2


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