INTERVIEW: Jason Mewes on ‘Noobz,’ Kevin Smith, bouncing back from drugs

Jason Mewes, most fondly remembered for his iconic performances as the Jay to Kevin Smith’s Silent Bob, is venturing into new territory. His successful online projects, including “smodcasts” and YouTube videos, have earned many viewers, and hist latest movie is about hit DVD shelves.

In Noobz, Mewes plays an ultimate gamer who heads to a cutthroat competition with his closest friends to win some money and maybe find a girlfriend along the way. The director and star of the film, Blake Freeman, apparently wrote the script thinking that Mewes would be a good fit.

“I really dug it,” Mewes said recently during a phone interview. “So I was in. (Freeman) just offered me the role. He had me in mind when he wrote it.”

The leading-character role was somewhat new for Mewes, but he had a lot of research to draw on for inspiration. After all, he proudly identifies himself as a gamer. “I mean I play a little too much honestly,” Mewes said with a laugh. “I get in trouble with the old lady.”

Balancing all the projects in his life seems to be a good challenge for Mewes. The actor said he loves both the movie side of the business and his new ventures online with Kevin Smith. Of course, Hollywood is not new to the actor. His first movie, Smith’s Clerks, is gearing up for its 20th anniversary. Since then, he’s played “Jay” in a number of highly-regarded films, including Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks II, among others.

“I definitely like doing movies,” he said. “The whole going to set and being around all the different actors and actresses, and sitting there and going through scenes, and the whole process of making the movie, is a lot of fun. … It’s been awesome.”

The live taping of his “smodcasts” take place frequently in the Los Angeles area and around the world. When we talked over the phone, Mewes was gearing up for a taping at The Laugh Factory with Smith. “So we’ve also toured all over to places that I never even thought I’d know — Australia, London … Ireland, all over Canada,” he said. “It just started off as two hours of Kevin and I talking, telling stories about our 25-year friendship, 20 years of shooting movies together and doing a podcast together, and all sorts of different stuff. And it’s just been unreal.”

Even this many years after Clerks, there’s a lot to learn between best friends. “We definitely have gotten to know each other more because of it,” he said of Smith. “There’s plenty to talk about. We’ve done 100 episodes, and we haven’t had to repeat really any stories. … In the middle of the show, I tell a story, something that has happened in the last 25 years we’ve been friends, or from when I was little and my mom before she passed. But there’s definitely plenty to talk about. … And we are close enough that we do sort of know each other.”

For someone looking back at 20 years in the entertainment industry, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that butterflies can still exist. Mewes admitted that at the beginning of any film project, including Noobz, he has some nerves to overcome. “I feel like I get nervous in the beginning,” he said. “I always do when I first get there and you’re getting to know everybody.”

For Noobz, Mewes said the director offered him an “awesome job” after the first scene, which was welcome news. “Don’t want to tell me ‘bad job.’ If you say ‘bad job,’ I’m going to think about that every time I do a scene. All that sort of runs through my head, definitely the first couple of days, first couple of scenes. But, yeah, after the first couple of scenes, I feel like I get to know who I’m working with and their performance and playing off their performance. I feel like I adapt pretty quickly. But I definitely still get nervous each film, each new director, each new cast who I work with,” he said.

Noobz, in some ways, is like Mewes holding a mirror up on his own life. “Like my character works at a Game Stop sort of,” he said.”It’s not called Game Stop in the movie, but it’s that type of place. And I’m the manager, and I’ve worked in retail. I’ve worked at a video store. … There’s definitely tons of elements that I relate with, and definitely went, ‘Oh, yeah, me and my friends do that.’”

Up next for the performer is an animated Jay and Silent Bob movie, plus more projects at YouTube.com/seesmod. Plus, it won’t be long before Clerks celebrates 20 years, and that fact has made Mewes quite nostalgic. “I’m grateful and feel very blessed, and especially with the mishaps I’ve had with the drugs and stuff,” he said. “Thank goodness it didn’t either kill me or put me out of work, where people are like, ‘I can’t work with him because he’s a total mess.’ You know, I’ve gotten lucky to where I stay sober and be myself and continue to move on.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Noobz will be available on DVD on Jan. 29. Click here for more information on See Smod.