Kevin Smith Reminisces About Hitting It Big With 'Clerks' at the Sundance Film Festival

It’s been 23 years since Kevin Smith went to the Sundance Film Festival with a low-budget black-and-white comedy about two convenience store employees goofing off at work. Clerks launched Smith’s career and defined the voice he’d continue developing in numerous subsequent comedies. And in our video interview with the writer-director, he reminisces about his first trip to Park City, Utah, in 1994.

In the above interview, Smith remembers how he received the phone call notifying him that Clerks had been accepted into Sundance while he was working behind the same counter that Dante (Brian O’Halloran) mans in the movie. That momentous occasion was quickly followed by showings for potential studio buyers, including Miramax bigwig Harvey Weinstein, who walked out of an early screening for the movie. However, Weinstein was convinced by his VP of acquisitions, Mark Tusk, to give it another shot at the festival. The rest, as they say, is history — recounted, as usual, with Smith’s trademark pop-culture-referencing style.

A festival like Sundance always has the potential to provide an opportunity for a unique creative voice like Smith to get a foot in the Hollywood door. With the 2017 edition of Sundance now in full swing, check out our sit-down with the man behind Clerks above.

Related: Read our complete Sundance coverage

Watch Smith tell a sweet story about his daughter: