GreenCine | article

The names Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson may not be instantly recognizable to the average film buff, but the characters they created in their screen debut have become icons of indie cinema: Dante and Randal, the clerks of Kevin Smith's Clerks. It's like they can't escape these alter-egos - they have reprised them in cameos (both official and unofficial), a short made for The Tonight Show, and in an animated series that was cancelled practically before it aired (all six episodes are available on DVD). Now, twelve years after the original Clerks connected with a generation that understood all too well the mundane nightmare that is customer service, they have once again reunited with Smith and returned to the source for Clerks II to update the adventures of Dante and Randal: thirty-year-old underachievers still slaves to customer service.

They came to Seattle early in their press tour. In fact, my interview was scheduled for the day after the final day of the Seattle International Film Festival, and lo and behold, there they were in the VIP suite of the SIFF closing night party. They weren't part of the festival, merely guests at the blow-out event, and as no one seemed comfortable enough to approach them, I decided my informal introduction to Brian from the lovely and talented Miss Ginger Chan, their local PR handler, was enough to start a conversation.

"Okay, but you can't ask any questions," joked Jeff. "You save them for tomorrow. I'm holding you that." So between drinks (Jeff was drinking gin and tonics, Brian stuck with beer), they told me about their press tour - this was their first and, after four cities in five days, the glamour had already worn off and the monotony of the same questions over and over was beginning to grate. Brian was already sick of what had become the obligatory: "What it was like kissing Kevin Smith's wife?" I made a note of it, then proceeded to slip it in to my question list.

It was a relaxed, easy-going way to approach them, just a couple of Jersey boys who happen to be actors, but it also answered one of the questions I wasn't allowed to ask. These guys really were, in a somewhat subdued, laid back way, Dante and Randal. Those characters are reflections of the actors' easy rapport and sense of humor. And while they don't actually talk in Smith-speak, there is a certain quality in their rhythm and timing that takes those words and turns them into characters. As you read the following interview, just imagine Dante and Randal speaking in place of Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson and you'll come close to the capturing the atmosphere they create.

Brian O'Halloran and Rosario Dawson
in Clerks II

I was going to ask what it was like kissing Kevin Smith's wife, but then I heard you've been asked that before.

Jeff Anderson: Ahhhh, you remembered!

Brian O'Halloran: (mock enthusiasm) It was great!

No, it was weird and you'd think Kevin had some sort of fetish. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, he had his wife kissing other chicks, so he filled that fetish, and now it's like, "I've got to have her kissing one of my friends. Ah, O'Halloran! Perfect!" I think the next thing is going to be something totally odd.

We probably don't want to go there.

BO: We won't want to go there, but knowing Kevin, he'll want to write about it going there.

Here's a better question: What was it like kissing Rosario Dawson?

BO: Like butter, baby, like butter.

No, that was also nerve-racking. She's such a gorgeous and high profile woman and it was terrible that it was on screen as opposed to a street corner to start some buzz instead. Like, "Some hideous, fucking chud is kissing Rosario Dawson. News at eleven."

Surely you suggested that as a promotional gimmick for the film.

BO: "We need to warm up, just to get comfortable with each other, you know." She was a great pal, she jumped right in. From the very beginning, just within our first day of meeting her for our first reading, she was just so cool and relaxed and just like a guy's guy-girl. You know what I mean? She collects comic books... she's like a regular guy. If she wasn't so gorgeous, you wouldn't see her as being, you know, such a hot chick. "You like sports, you like comic books, you like science fiction." So she was really cool and she was really putting everybody at ease, so to speak. So kissing her was a dream.

JA: She fit in there nicely, too. When you're getting Rosario Dawson, you're kind of wondering, "How is this going to work out?" But the minute we met her and did the first read through, it was a nice fit.

Well, since you didn't get to kiss Rosario Dawson, Jeff, what was your motivation for doing Clerks II?

JA: Just to watch Rosario Dawson.

Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran
in Clerks

After hanging with you guys last night, it made me start to wonder about the dialogue in the movie. I always assumed it came strictly from Kevin, but you talk like Randal. How much of those characters comes from you guys?

JA: Randal's pretty close to me. That's what made it easy. It's like the first time I read the Clerks script, Kevin came to my house and we sat on the couch just read through it. We went through the entire script, and when it was done, he was like, "That's your role. I didn't have to tell you, coach you on anything." But it's a credit to Kevin's writing. The writing just comes through. If it's there on the page, it's easy to get out.

BO: I think, being that this is another incarnation of dialogue for these two characters after going through the first film and popping up as cameos in other films and doing the six episodes of the cartoon, I think he now knows how to write our voice, so to speak, our innate voice of these characters, and just puts his subject matter to it. It becomes second nature for us just to kick into these characters and this type of banter, to make it feel like that it's coming out so natural.

How long had you two known each other before you made Clerks?

BO: Not long. I auditioned as an extra. Jeff knew Kevin from high school and graduated with him, and actually, his best friend was going to audition, so he went along for the chicks, to see what these actor chicks were like.

JA: That brought me there.

So the chemistry between you guys wasn't anything that came out until the movie happened?

BO: Pretty much, yeah. I mean, even to this day, I've been living in New York area and he's been living in LA for the past ten years.

JA: It's probably the oddest thing when somebody happens to know who I am, they always assume I should be sharing a car ride with him and it's like, "Where's Brian?" I'm like, "I have no idea. You tell me." Maybe people expect us to be doing our grocery shopping together at this point.

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