10 Weird Times Actors Responded To Online Reviews
7. Kevin Smith Replied To A Twitter Comment, Admitted His Career Decline Since Clerks II
Few actor-filmmakers have been as consistently active on the Internet throughout their careers as Kevin Smith.
Even Smith's earlier films have made frequent reference to the Internet being a massive space for people to "b*tch about movies" with impunity, to the extent that he fantasised about beating up mean online commenters in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
As Smith's made clear over the last two decades, he sure loves to respond to negative online reviews, particularly as his critical returns have greatly diminished ever since the release of Clerks II in 2006.
In 2019, Twitter user @DirttNasty said that Kevin Smith "ain't been the same since clerks 2," which Smith replied to, effectively admitting that his hunger as an angry young filmmaker abated once he started a family, and that "maybe happy people don't make great art." Yikes.
This is far from the first time Smith has publicly responded to career critique, though.
Following the brutally scathing reviews for his 2010 buddy cop film Cop Out, Smith infamously compared trashing the film to "bullying a r******d kid," and then suggested he may start charging press to pre-screen his films (which, mercifully, he didn't).
People tell me the quality of my flicks went to s**t when I got married and had a kid. If so, it was a fair trade: whatever ailed me as a piss-&-vinegar 20-something was gone, replaced by joy and contentment. Great art comes from pain - so maybe happy people don’t make great art. https://t.co/fRyCtgpJNb
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) June 25, 2019