NEED TO KNOW
Kevin Smith is recalling the sweet way Ben Affleck showed his appreciation for him when they made their first movie together.
Smith, 54, took PEOPLE all the way back to 1995’s Mallrats, his first collaboration with Affleck, 52, while recently discussing the 25th anniversary of his and Affleck’s 1999 movie Dogma before it re-releases in theaters on Thursday, June 5.
During the conversation, Smith revealed that Affleck left him thank-you notes multiple times during the production of Mallrats when Smith allowed Affleck to leave the movie’s set when he was not filming to work on Good Will Hunting, then an in-development script he had just sold to Castle Rock Entertainment with his friend and cowriter, Matt Damon.
“He would come over and be like, ‘Hey, I’m not shooting for three days. Can I fly back to Los Angeles to work on the script with Matt? We got a meeting with Castle Rock.’ I said, ‘Oh my God, absolutely man, just come back before you have to shoot,’ ” Smith says. “He didn’t work every day. So otherwise he’d be sitting around Minnesota. So when he would leave, and he did this like three times over the course of the shoot, he always left me a thank-you note on my desk.”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
“I’d go in my office and there’s an envelope that said ‘Kevin,’ I’d open it up. And it was from Ben: young Ben Affleck going like, ‘Hey man, thanks for letting me go back to Los Angeles for our script. I just want you to know I’m having a real good time in this movie. It’s fun to be around young people. You’re cool and blah, blah, blah.’ ”
“Just very polite. Not in a ass-kissy, obsequious way at all,” Smith adds. “Just like, I don’t know, maybe like today you would text a f—— person, but this was 1995 and the man put f—— pen to paper and sealed it in an envelope.”
As Smith recalls, Affleck auditioned for Smith’s second movie Mallrats simply because he liked 1994’s Clerks, and told Smith: “I thought [Clerks] was pimp.”
Affleck costarred with Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes and Smith himself, among others, in Mallrats; Affleck also worked with Smith on 1997’s Chasing Amy, and Smith proved instrumental in helping Good Will Hunting get made before Affleck and Damon costarred in Dogma.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Gramercy Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
Smith tells PEOPLE that he was “predisposed to like” Affleck from the moment they first met. “Ben is like one of the funniest f—— people on the planet. [He doesn’t] get enough credit for that,” Smith says. “He’s honestly one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. So over the course of [Mallrats], he’s just charming as f—, man, became a dude that you liked being around.”
The filmmaker adds that Affleck is probably “the performer I’ve worked with the most across my 31-year career,” aside from Jason Mewes, who plays stoner icon Jay to Smith’s Silent Bob in many of the director’s movies.
“Then and now and always I just remain a fan,” Smith says of Affleck. “He is talented, don’t get me wrong, but as a human being, he’s just one of my favorite people on the planet and I’m glad that he can act ’cause it makes it easier to put him in movies, which is something I would do anyway. Just ’cause I like being around him.
Dogma is back in theaters on June 5.
