Exclusive: Jason Mewes Speaks Up for Silent But Deadly
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Jason Mewes has been on the scene for a long time. It’s hard to believe it was nearly 20 years ago that we first got a look at Jay and Silent Bob in the classic comedy Clerks. Dread Central recently had the chance to talk with this veteran actor about his new horror/comedy Silent But Deadly.
Mewes started by giving us a brief overview on the film. “It’s about a dude who was misunderstood because he’s not the smartest guy around and he sort of just loses his cool,” Mewes said. “Also he loses his best friend. I won’t give that away right now, but he loses his best friend, his only friend, and he loses it upon losing his friend and being mistreated and goes on a sort of killing spree. I know that doesn’t make it unique, but…I never want to give away too much…when he’s going around killing, there’s some different aspects than the normal killer and it’s fun. It’s a fun movie.”
Ironically, Mewes, who spent years being the mouthpiece of Jay and Silent Bob while Kevin Smith played the mute character, speaks very little in this film. He spoke about the challenges that type of role presented. “It was actually awesome,” Mewes said. It was nice to try to bring across what was going on with facial expressions. Usually in the movies I’ve done, mainly with Kevin, Kevin’s always the silent guy using the different facial expressions to get points across. Standing next to someone doing that for 20 years almost, I got a few tips from him. It wasn’t hard at all, I have to say. Definitely there were a couple things I had to do I found a little challenging. Certain things you want to get across with the facial expressions isn’t the easiest thing to do and I didn’t want to keep doing the same thing, so if I had to look scared, I tried to look scared without screaming or doing whatever, just for an example. I didn’t want to do that same thing three or four times. So, at times, it was a little challenging to figure out just what to do to get it across without doing the same thing. But overall, it was nice for a change not to have to sit and memorize five pages of dialogue for a scene.”
Viewers will indeed agree that the full ensemble cast of Silent But Deadly click so well together. Mewes spoke on his fellow actors. “All of them were awesome,” he said. “I had a blast with them, but William Sadler I was stoked about because he’s been in some fantastic movies and TV shows and it was nice that I got the geek out. I’m a fan of the show “Roswell” and he was on that show and I was like ‘Man!’ I didn’t want to annoy him or bug him about it, but I was like ‘Why did the show end?’ It was nice. I had a lot of fun with him and we got to do the scene in the beginning and he was fantastic. Kim (Poirier) was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. We were out in the middle of nowhere in Chatham (Canada) out on this farmland and we all just messed around and had some fun.”
Mewes spoke more on veteran actor William Sadler. “It was an honor for me. It was fantastic for me not to just be in a movie with him, but to get to play a role, play his son. That was really awesome.”
Although he’s dabbled in horror a bit, Mewes is known mostly as a comic actor. He spoke on working in the horror genre. “It’s been fun,” he said. “I’ve done a couple horror films and it’s always fun to me. The only thing, and this isn’t a bad thing, just me being a baby, but the worst thing is sitting, if you have to get a prosthetic put on, or if you have to get a lot of blood and the blood gets in your mouth and it tastes like crap. But I wouldn’t say that’s hard. It’s a lot of fun but I’d say that’s the worst thing about it, if there’s anything bad about it.”
As a horror fan, Mewes enjoys working in the genre. “I’m definitely into horror movies, so to mix it up and be part of the genre and do some horror stuff is a lot of fun,” Mewes said. “I’ve done a couple horror films. I’ve done comedy. I want to kind of branch out and do a bunch of different stuff. I’d love to try to play a Hannibal Lecter type character or some kind of cop or something. Who knows. But it’s nice to challenge myself and see if I have the chops to do different stuff.”
With his involvement in the horror genre, Mewes has had the opportunity to participate in conventions. “With this movie and a couple others, The Tripper, and a couple other horror movies I’ve done I’ve been able to go to some horror conventions and do some Q&A’s. I love going to comic book conventions. They’re a blast. But the horror conventions are just as fun. It’s nice to see the horror genre and go to a convention and get the feel from all the die-hard fans of horror. It’s interesting.”
Mewes will be a featured guest at this year’s Rock and Shock convention which will be held October 18-20 in Worcester, MA. “I’ve done Rock and Shock a couple times,” Mewes said. “It’s been years since I’ve been to it, but I did that a couple years in a row and that show is fantastic. Not only is there the horror convention, but they have really cool bands each night after the convention is over. It’s a really fun horror convention, Rock and Shock.”
And although talks of a sequel have been hot and cold, Mewes is leaving the door open to return to the Silent But Deadly world. “I haven’t heard anything and that’s a bummer because I was really stoked and thought a sequel was a real possibility while we were shooting,” Mewes said. “It took a little time for that film to get off the ground and out and about for people to see, so I don’t know if things have changed. They were talking about it while we were shooting. Then I know there were talks that it’s definitely not going to happen. But I’m hoping now a bunch of people see Silent But Deadly and like it and that’ll push the issue to make another one.”
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