Jason Mewes Got So Drunk Filming 1 ‘Clerks’ Scene He Was Sent Home
Actors go to great lengths to convincingly play drunks. Some prefer to indulge in the real thing to play a character, while others simply drink the night before and tap into their hangovers to play the character. Clerks actor Jason Mewes was a frequent pot smoker. When his childhood pal Kevin Smith approached him with a character with similar traits, he decided to add another layer by drinking. Mewes got so drunk filming one Clerks scene he was sent home.
‘Clerks’ launched Jason Mewes’ career
Clerks is a buddy comedy film that follows retail workers Dante and Randal on what begins as an ordinary day. While Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson’s characters are the focus, Mewes’ Jay and Smith’s Silent Bob made an impression on audiences, eventually landing their own films.
Clerks was made for less than $28,000, with the real-life convenience stores where Smith worked serving as the sets. Upon its release on October 19, 1994, Clerks became a box office hit and received positive reviews. The movie earned $4.4 million at the global box office.
Clerks has achieved cult classic status and is considered a landmark in independent filmmaking. It also helped launch Smith’s directorial and acting career. Clerks holds a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has spawned two sequels, one released in 2006 and another recently in 2022.
Jason Mewes was sent home for being too drunk on the ‘Clerks’ scene
Mewes got his start as an actor in the 1994 film. At the time, he was working toward a career in roofing, but the film’s unexpected success catapulted the star to overnight fame and resulted in him becoming identified with his character.
Mewes played Jay, one half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, the other played by Smith. The pair are drug dealers who are shown spending a significant aspect of their time selling marijuana in front of the New Jersey convenience store in the Clerks films.
Smith based the perpetually high character of Jay on Mewes, who was also a pot enthusiast. When Mewes began playing Jay, he tapped into his own sensibilities. In an interview with Metro, Mewes shared that he coupled his pot use with alcohol. “I was either drinking or smoking the whole time,” he said.
Mewes recalled being so drunk during one scene on Clerks that production had no choice but to send him home. “They had to send me home sometimes. I was drinking blackberry brandy,” he said. “I was so drunk I was slurring during a scene with Randal, so they had to send me home,” he added.
Jason Mewes’s character has changed over the years
Mewes cleaned up his act the next time he got a gig. When filming Mallrats, he was better behaved because, unlike Clerks, everything was at stake. He told Metro that Clerks was a movie made by a few friends, but for Mallrats, the studio was very strict and even had Seth Green on call in case Mewes didn’t nail the role, which he had to audition for.
When asked how he felt he changed over the years, he said, “As I got older, I got less obnoxious. For one thing I could get arrested and for another I got better at feeling people out.” Mewes is also a family man, sharing a daughter, Logan Lee, with his producer wife, Jordan Monsanto.
