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Kevin Smith is bringing his 1999 religious-bent fantasy comedy Dogma back to theaters, and he’s still surprised at the amount of controversy it drew from Catholic groups when it premiered in October 25 years ago.
When Smith, 54, sat down with PEOPLE to discuss the movie’s release with PEOPLE, the actor, writer and filmmaker says he “hated when there were protests” at the premieres of his movie back in 1999.
“So far, we have not had the experience that we had in 1999, which has been absolutely wonderful,” Smith says of the nationwide tour he took the movie on ahead of its June 5 re-release in theaters. “I am no agent provocateur, so I didn’t make Dogma to thumb my nose in somebody who has faith. This was my expression of faith, man. This movie was made by a guy who believes in all of that stuff and directed by a guy who believes in all that stuff.”
Smith was a practicing Catholic at the time he made Dogma, which follows Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as a pair of fallen angels from Christian mythology who scheme to return to heaven. George Carlin, Jason Mewes, Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Alan Rickman and Janeane Garofolo, among others, appear in the movie, which takes an irreverent approach to Catholicism and Christianity at large.
“So, you know, for me, back in ’99 when people came after us, the Catholic League came after us, we got 400,000 pieces of hate mail and three death threats,” Smith recalls. “It made no sense. This is a movie with a rubber poop monster in it.”
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Smith, who tells PEOPLE that he and the Catholic Church “broke up a long time ago,” argues that Dogma “is actually a pretty reverent film,” even as he remembers tightened security at that year’s Cannes Film Festival for its premiere and “a massive protest” against Dogma at the New York Film Festival.
“Looked like about a thousand people praying the rosary. Those were trying times,” Smith tells PEOPLE. “This time around? Nothing, which is wonderful. That’s just the way I’d like it.”
25 years and several movies removed from Dogma, Smith tells PEOPLE he has been “whimsying about a sequel for the last six months,” that he is writing from the perspective of “somebody who doesn’t have that faith anymore.” But in bringing Dogma back to theaters, Smith is finding the exact reaction that he wanted audiences to have in the first place.
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“The kid who made this movie, this was his expression of faith,” Smith says of Dogma’s approach to Christian mythology. “This was his idea of church. Like imagine if church was this fun as opposed to when we go to church every week, and it sounds like we’re celebrating our faith instead of mourning it.”
“This was meant to be a party back when I made the flick and, and it plays like that for some lapsed Catholics,” he adds. “Now in 2025, that’s how it plays every night. It’s a party. The audience is very loud. Every time somebody comes out on screen, they’re howling and cheering; it’s like ‘chicken jockey’ for middle aged people, but nobody gets egged.”
Dogma is back in theaters June 5.
