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Kevin Smith

Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is a screenwriter, film director, and the creator of View Askew Productions. He is also known as a comic book writer and actor, although he has criticized his own acting ability on more than one occasion. Smith's films are often set in his home state of New Jersey and are filled with pop culture references, particularly to comic books and the Star Wars movies. Many of Kevin's films take place in the "View Askewniverse" and feature appearances from small-time play-marijuana-dealers Jay and Silent Bob, the latter portrayed by Smith himself. Although sometimes criticized for crude humor and technical amateurishness (which Smith himself frequently makes fun of at Q&A's), his films are also known for their distinctive vision, dialogue, and characters
In 1995, Smith wrote and directed Mallrats, the second film in the so-called "Jersey Trilogy". Mallrats chronicles the romantic difficulties of two slackers (played by Jason Lee and Jeremy London) who spend their days hanging around a shopping mall. The film also featured a post-Beverly Hills 90210 Shannon Doherty and a pre-fame Ben Affleck. A more typical Hollywood comedy than Clerks, Mallrats was a failure with critics as well as at the box office, and Smith later found himself haunted by a tongue-in-cheek apology he made at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards. Universal had said that they wanted it to be a "smart Porky's". Smith later remarked in his question and answer session, "An Evening with Kevin Smith", that Universal executives pressured him to cut scenes, including especially a section where Silent Bob (Smith himself) masturbates over Gwen (played by Joey Lauren Adams) while she changes clothes, and he ejaculates over the partition into her hair. According to the scene, her hair would be altered as a result (as famously seen two years later in There's something About Mary), but the executives claimed that the gross-out factor was too disgusting to be comedic.
The movie...