Kevin Smith reflects on a changing industry, and takes his new movie on the road

In Kevin Smith’s new movie ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’ the title characters naturally find themselves with pot problems right off the bat, after authorities storm their makeshift growhouse.

To make matters worse, Jay, played by Jason Mewes, and Silent Bob, played by Smith--have accidentally signed away the rights to their own names. They go on a road trip from New Jersey to a fan convention in Hollywood to stop a new movie about them from being made.

Fans of the Kevin Smith cinematic universe will recognize familiar faces from his earlier movies: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Rosario Dawson, Craig Robinson and more.

With Smith getting ready to start a 60-city, mostly sold-out tour to promote his latest movie, it seemed like a good time to catch up with him.

Before we talked about Smith’s new movie, we asked him about Harvey Weinstein. Smith sold his first movie, ‘Clerks,’ to Weinstein out of Sundance in 1994 and went on to make 6 more movies with him through 2008, first at Miramax and then at The Weinstein Company. Smith says he knew nothing about Weinstein’s alleged misconduct, but as soon as he heard rumors about Rose McGowan’s assault in 2008, he severed all ties with his longtime patron. Still, when the Weinstein exposes were published two years ago, Smith felt a terrible sense of guilt even though he was long gone from Weinstein’s world.

Smith also reflects about his place in the world of indie filmmaking while the industry has gone streaming, and he explains how ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’ is connected to both his recent heart attack and Jason Mewes’ decade of sobriety.