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The Ultimate Chasing Amy FAQ

Is the song Joey Lauren Adams sings at "Meow Mix" available to buy anywhere?

You can’t buy the track, but you can read the lyrics AND view the guitar chord right HERE.

Was any footage cut for the home video release?

This question has been asked quite a bit, and Vincent gave us an answer:

"The version of Chasing Amy that is out on video is exactly the same as the version that was released to the theatres. Not a frame or cut was changed, unless you happened to see the film during its’ first week of release in New York or Los Angeles, in which case you saw different end credits. That is all that was changed.

However, the version that was shown at the Sundance Film festival and at the Chasing Amy Gala (more on this later) in New Jersey DID have some footage that did not make the final release. This footage contained the following:

When Hooper calls Holden to invite him to the club, there is a guy (played by Robert Hawk) who is reading Hooper’s comic and laughing during the scene. When Hooper hangs up the phone with Holden, the scene holds on Hooper as the guy starts laughing out loud. Hooper then says "You are so amused!" This cut footage adds up to maybe 20 seconds

The scene where Alyssa tells her lesbian friends that she is dating a man is basically cut in half. It was mostly made up of dialogue, some of which was seen in the trailer.

Several music cues were changed from the early cut to the theatrical release.
What is the "Chasing Amy Gala" that I’ve heard about?

Basically, a few weeks before the theatrical release of the flick (March 15^th to be exact), Kevin gave a bunch of the web board regulars the chance to come down and view the flick. You had to send an e-mail into View Askew and if your name was recognizable, you were extended an invite. A few of the web board regulars like Smalls and Gramp have been around since then and attended.

After the screening, everyone had dinner at the Broadway Grill and Kevin then screened an early version of Mallrats for the lucky attendees. And later, Vincent screened his flick "A Better Place" for a few folks in room 409 at the Oyster Point Hotel (which was Dutch’s room).

Who exactly is "Amy?"

Amy is the character that Silent Bob talks about in his story at the Marina Diner. Whether or not Amy is a real person in the Askew universe remains to be seen, although most people peg the story as an homage to the John Hughes movies (ex. Breakfast Club- "She lives in Canada.").

However, since Silent Bob appeared in Malcolm Ingram’s flick "Tailights Fade," which took place in Canada, some have speculated this may be the time in which Bob is talking about.

The fight scene between Holden and Alyssa outside the hockey rink was pretty intense. How many takes did it require?

Kevin says:

"We shot this scene in Brick, NJ over the course of four hours. Joey did multiple wide takes, nailing the fever pitched performance on the sixth (after she collapsed against the car and I called cut, the crew applauded). It was mighty painful for both her and Ben, due to the emotionally exhausting nature of the scene, After we got a perfect master shot, we did it again, two more times, in close-ups. By the end of the night, both voices were fried."

What was the budget?

$250,000

What made you decide to go the independent route again after doing Mallrats for a studio?

Kevin says:

"Um, it just made sense. It was pretty much the route we always intended to go and stay. With Mallrats, we kind of… diverged. We got sidetracked with Mallrats. This was the idea of doing what we intended to do, which was make a quirky little bunch of flicks. And I always dug the idea of making a movie that’s not that expensive. It doesn’t have to yield that much back during its theatrical run. Doing Mallrats for 6 million was kind of force on us, and also kind of disappointing in that if it had limited audience. It’s not going to make back what its budget was."

When was it released?

The official release date was April 4^th1997, for New York, then the next week, Los Angeles. The week after that, all top 20 cities. Miramax was the distributor.

Who are "Vladamir and Estragon and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?"

Vladamir and Estragon are the main characters in Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot. These two stand around with no agenda, much like our beloved Bluntman and Chronic. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern originally appeared in Shakespears "Hamlet." More recently, Tom Stoppard wrote a play with them as the protagonists called "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." These two characters are buffoonish and again, seem to have no real agenda.

Whose car did was Holden driving when he pronounced his love for Alyssa?

In real life, the car belonged to producer Scott Mosier. Although it is never seen, the car actually has a Mallrats bumper sticker on the back.

Was it really raining in that scene? Or was it "movie rain?"

The latter. Kevin says:

"We used three or four rain tours (huge, upright pipes through which water is pumped at a pressure that allows it to descend, rain-like) to achieve this. Did the shot three times. Joey and Ben were soaked. It was the last day of the shoot, but even then, I was still getting the ‘Don’t you feel weird?’ questions (I didn’t)."

Uhh… why would Kevin feel weird about that scene?

At the time of the filming, Kevin and Joey Lauren Adams were an item. Kevin has this to say about it in reference to the scene above:

"To this day, Affleck still turns to me at every screening and gloats about this. ‘Dude, what’s up – I am kissing all over your lady!" is his usual mantra, all smiles. He’s such a bitch."

About that scene again, did I see a reflection in the glass of the crew as Holden walks back to the car, right before the kiss?

Yes you did. It was a blooper that Kevin noticed in post. He left it in because he felt the scene was "too powerful" for him to care.

Was the fluxing length of Holden and Silent Bob’s cigarettes in the Marina diner also a blooper? What about the ash in Holden’s leg? Same thing?

They could be called that. They were a result of having to do many takes of this scene.

Why did they have to do so many takes?

Funny story actually. Kevin says:

" I warned the crew that we might work all night shooting this scene, as you never know if Jason’s [Mewes] going to nail it or not –preparing them for a start/stop shoot in which we’d shoot one of Jay’s lines, then shut down, rehearse, and shoot the next line. Jason whipped through his stuff like a Mametian pro. Me? I needed eleven takes. The crew spent the rest of the night telling me, ‘Yeah –you have to watch out for that Jason Mewes."

You can actually see some of the outtakes on the laser disc, and the upcoming DVD.

In that same scene at the Marina Diner, why was Jay eating spoonfuls of sugar?

Mewes says:: "There was a scene cut out of Clerks. Remember Kevin bought a box of sugar? Well, he bought a box of sugar then I was eating sugar in Clerks. But they cut that out. So, I was like, ‘I’m just sitting there [in the diner] doing nothing. What should I do?’ He was like, ‘I Don’t know.’ I was like, ‘How about the sugar?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, do the sugar. It’ll make up for when we did it in Clerks.’ So then I did that.; And for another opinion, here’s a snippet from an interview of Ben Affleck by Mike McCarthy (have you checked out Interviews Askew or Cinezine lately?) The person asking the questions was not Mike, but another reporter.; Q: When [Silent Bob] is explaining Amy in the restaurant the gentleman beside him is eating sugar, that distracted me.
BA: Yeah, he was eating spoonfuls of sugar.: Q: That bothered me. Why was he upstaging?
BA: He did upstage it. That’s because the director looked the other way [Laughs]. I don’t know if he had singles on it or if he had coverage.: Q: Was he really eating sugar?
BA: Yeah, he was eating sugar. I was sitting right there. He’s a weird cat. I don’t really know what to tell you, besides that he eats spoonfuls of sugar. Gave him something to do in the scene, I guess. It is kind of nasty. I said, wow, that’s a lot of sugar."

Why won’t there be a soundtrack?

Good question. Kevin gives the answer HERE.

What’s with the term "potzer?"

The term is borrowed from Searching For Bobby Fischer. The funny part is that the correct spelling is actually "patzer," and it means one who isn’t good at chess.

Is Holden named after Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield?

Yes, indeedy. Catcher is one of Kevin’s favorite books. In fact, Banky was also named after a character from the book, Coach Ed Banky. He’s the basketball coach who lends out his car to his players so they can have sex in the backseat. Ed Banky, Banky Edwards… ooh, spooky.

Why are Jay and Silent Bob going to "Chi-town" (which, if you didn’t know, is slang for Chicago)?

It’s a teaser to Dogma, which begins there. It was explained in the Oni Comics Jay & Silent Bob mini-series (issue #1 to be exact) that they are actually heading to Shermer, Illinois. This is the fictional town where all the John Hughes flicks are set. You wanna know why they are going to go there? Here’s Jay’s wrote from the comic:

" We’ll go to Shermer, Illinois! All the bitches are fine there, man! And all the dudes are preps and dorks! If the shit came down, you know we could kick all their asses! Except that Judd Nelson, man –that fuck’s harsh. We should steer clear of him. And it doesn’t look like anybody’s selling shit in the flicks, right? That means we can deal like Tony Montana out there, man! You now we can be the blunt connection of Shermer, Illinois, with some of our ‘Jersey Green’ buds! I mean, it’s Illinois –it’s not like anything grows there, right?"

What is Banky’s solo comic "Baby Dave" a reference to?

It is David Klein’s (Director of Photography) nickname. He shaves his head for shoots, thus making him look like a baby.

What was the first scene shot for the flick?

The first scene shot was the discussion between Holden and Alyssa on the swings. It was actually the first time that Kevin had been behind the camera since Mallrats (Not counting the Goops video).

Where the hell was Walt Flanagan?

Sadly, he ended up on the cutting room floor. The scene, which has Banky throwing a chair through the comic shop window that Walt and Steve-Dave work at, was cut because it seemed to be redundant with the Comic Con beginning. The scene does appear in Two Screenplays, as well as on the Laser Disc and upcoming DVD.

Is Ben really a Madman fan?

Another funny story. Kevin says:

"Affleck was constantly trying to throw in some ‘business’ for Holden that included his admiration for Allred’s ‘…classy book.’ In the first cut scene in the comic book store, he was looking over Madman, and in the convention, he went so far as to ad-lib ‘Mmm…this is a classy book.’ Right before hr rushes off to break up Bank and the Tracerguy’s fight (as it was ad-libbed, it was cut). The guy [Affleck] knows zero about comics, but ironically enough, wound up with his picture in the letters page of an issue of Madman. Where'’ the justice?"

How come Jason Lee’s characters in Mallrats and Chasing Amy are so similar?

A lot of people have said this. For a change, here’s what Ben says:

"I think that, while the characters are different, that’s an archetype that Kevin’s used in all three of his films. The Dante/Randal dynamic. That straight guy/more outrageous guy thing seems to be a format that he’s quite comfortable with. Jason Lee played that character in both those movies. So, certainly there’s going to be some commonality. Though I think Jason showed a tremendous amount of nuance and range over the course of the movie. Kind of subtle stuff, you know? Obviously, a lot of the stuff he did was big, but there were a lot of subtle things that I noticed after watching it five or six times."

I’ve heard of Gwen Turner and/or Guin Turner being in or being mentioned in Chasing Amy. I’m confused. Who is who.

The Gwen Turner mentioned in Chasing Amy (in the ice rink parking lot) is by Kevin’s admission, the same Gwen Turner who is seen in Mallrats. Her name is an homage to Guinevere Turner, who acted in, co-wrote, and co-produced the lesbian comedy Go Fish, which appeared at Sundance (and was repped by John Pierson) at the same time Clerks did. She became Kevin and Scott’s good friend, and Kevin admits that, "the name Gwen Turner itself was a nod to our buddy Guin."

Now, for a real twist. Alyssa, who was played by Joey Adams, admits to sleeping with Gwen Turner, who was also played by Joey. So, in essence, she slept with herself.

Who did the Bluntman & Chronic artwork?

That would be Mike Allred, of Madman fame. He has also contributed to other askew projects, including the cover to Jay & Silent Bob #2 (under the pseudonym "ALLROD" –read the issue, you’ll understand) and the Bluntman & Chronic story which should be appearing in Oni Comics Double Feature #12 in June.

Why do I recognize the guy in the Ice Rink who says, "I told you these were good seats!"?

Because he is Ernie O’ Donnell, otherwise known as the infamous Rick Derris from Clerks. In Chasing Amy, he was NOT playing Derris.

Isn’t Alyssa really a bisexual? If so, why does she yell "I’m FUCKING gay!"?

That has long been a point of debate. Ben says:: "Whether or not she is clearly a lesbian or clearly bisexual, she doesn’t fit easily into a label. She’s just a person who has had relationships with a bunch of different people, who had made a choice at one point to live her lifestyle one way, then kind of reconsiders and rationalizes. To me, from a purely objective point of view, someone who sleeps with both men and women is defined as bisexual. But, if a woman says I’m a lesbian, I’m gay, regardless of whether or not she has slept with men in the past, one has to respect that."; "It was an attempt to write honest characters, be they gay, straight, or as Kevin seems to be suggesting, that their sexuality –their orientation- exists along a spectrum. If 10 is totally gay and 1 is totally straight, you have characters who are sprinkled along this gamut, which I thought was an interesting theory."

Is Banky gay?

Kevin says:

"No –Banky is not gay. He would never cruise, nor would he have ever actively pursued Holden of his own accord.

However, he does love his friend. Very deeply.

Then why did he agree to the three-way?

Again, Kevin says:

"Life comes down to moments. In the moment that Holden makes his off-kilter suggestion, Banky was willing to go the distance –a window is opened, and in that moment, Banky agrees to a same sex encounter of sorts. When Alyssa declines, that window is slammed closed. But Banky’s already exposed something that he can’t live with –Holden’s knowledge that he would’ve gone through with it (for whatever reasons, whether it be to save their relationship, or because he was into it). That’s why they’re no longer friends by the end of the flick –Banky’s self-loathing.

So is Banky gay? It’s not that easily defined. But then, that’s kind of what the movies about.

And Ben adds:

"…rather than saying that Banky is gay, or that anybody is gay, the idea is that often close male relationships operate quite a bit like love relationships in a lot of ways. You care about one another very deeply. You’re loyal to one another. You spend a lot of time together. You can be jealous if some woman comes in and takes your friend away. Ultimately, it’s about how you care about other people in your life, not necessarily who you sleep with."

What was the one thing that got you through the shooting period for ‘Amy?’

Kevin says:

"We had a lot to prove this time around. But none of that mattered, because we had chocolate skim milk on the craft service table. When you've got a gallon of chocolate skim, all the pressure of the world just seems to dissipate."

What does the top pin on Hooper X’s jacket say?

It says, "The Black Man is God." Here’s how it got there, Kevin says:

"Dwight found that pin and asked if he could wear it. I can’t imagine the jacket without it."

Who played the girl sitting with Alyssa at the Comic Convention in the last scene?
Once again, Kevin says:
"My sister, Virginia. You might remember Virg as the Caged Animal Masturbator from Clerks. I remember her from when she put me back in my crib after I got out in the morning to play with one of those Fisher Price rolling phones. She was actually the first person that introduced me to the notion of writing: when I was around five or six, she was writing a fiction book about an adventure here and her friends never had called ‘The Secret Door.’ I was completely taken with the idea that anyone who wasn’t a writer for a living (or an adult for that matter) would undertake such an effort. Years later, when I told her I wanted to be a filmmaker, her advice was simply ‘be a filmmaker –approach everything in life as if you are already a filmmaker. Just… be a filmmaker.’ It sounded stupid. It wasn’t."

What’s the story of the "titty cake" seen in the montage scene?

Um… Kevin says:

"It started as a goof. Joey wanted to bake a cake for the set. We joked about how people would take it if the cake were a replica of her. We took it even further, and hypothesized on the reaction if it were a topless rendition. That night, the ‘Titty Cake’ was born. I did the face (which goes to show you how lousy my illustrative skills are). I had to fight to get this shot into an already packed and behind-schedule day. Dave [Klein] was pissed because he didn’t have the time to light it properly. We rushed it in two or three takes, with Ben slightly tipsy (he wasn’t supposed to work that night). It was negligible that it’d make it into the flick. But guess what…?"

Where is the painting that Alyssa buys for Holden located now?

It’s currently hanging up at the brand new Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Among the other pieces of memorbilia from the View Askew flicks, you can see the drawing that Banky drew for Holden to illustrate that all lesbians are "man-hating dykes," and the fake articles about Banky and Holden’s comics shown in the beginning.

Someone told me that there were problems shooting the "painting scene." Is that true?

Well, the people who went on the Stash Gala tour were told we couldn’t stop there because the owner holds some ill-will toward the Askew crew. Here’s what Kevin had to say about shooting the famous "Dyksiezski scene:"

"We pissed of the owner, we alienated the waitresses, and Joey and I were coming off our biggest fight. But somehow, we were able to get almost everything we needed at the diner (we missed a shot for a later-dropped montage, in which the waitress –Scott’s sister/my ex, Kristin –bends over and Alyssa notices her ass. Kristin bought fifty bucks worth of sexy undies that now only her boyfriend has the pleasure of seeing (and I paid for them, dammit!). The manager was played by Tony Torn –Rip Torn’s son."

Whose car did Alyssa "smack" at the end of the fight scene outside the hockey rink?

Bryan Lynch (or Huber as he’s known to web board folk) filled us in on this info. Bryan:

"…the car Holden and Alyssa fight in front of is my old station wagon (though Vin’s [Pereira] was the one she smacked at the end o’ the scene). It was the second appearance of my car in CA. The first was during the Alyssa’ prom flashback… oh yeah, lesbians GETTING" IT ON IN MY CAR! WASSUP!

Sadly, first and last time any kind of sex was had in said car. Sigh."

What was it like to watch your [then] girlfriend make out with another girl in the Meow Mix scene?

Kevin:

"Joey’s very fond of pointing out how unsexy any screen kiss is. It’s all very choreographed, as actors are worrying about hitting their marks –this shot in particular. They had to enter into the frame at the exact same time and meet in the middle, and smash lips in front of an Entertainment Tonight crew who were filming us filming them, while the women’s respective significant others (Kevin and Jason Lee) looked on. That leaves little room for passion or even awkwardness. Don’t believe the hype –movie kissing ain’t fun."

Uh… what’s a Nubian?

Don’t you have a dictionary to look this shit up in? Alright, here ya go:

Nubian: A native or inhabitant of Nubia. Also, a member of any of several negroid tribes of southern Sudan. – The American Heritage Dictionary

How did you come to cast Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams as Holden and Alyssa?

Kevin:

"The cast was basically filled out with a lot of the people we worked with closely on Mallrats. I like to think of Mallrats as my six million dollar casting call for Chasing Amy. We had a good time making Mallrats, and it was a cute little movie, but we were working with people that definitely could have shown more colors. Way more range. When I was writing Chasing Amy, I wrote parts with these people in mind so they could show that range. Kind of stretch. Ben had pretty much played one-note assholes up until this point. I knew Ben as a guy –as a person- and he’s just way more charismatic than that. Way more colorful a character. So I wrote that part with Ben in mind, knowing that he could pull it off. Same with Joey. Joey pretty much played the slut, the bad girl, and the cute squeaky voices girl who shows her tits –even in one of my flicks- but I knew she was capable of a lot more."

Did the fact that Kevin wrote the role for Ben put any pressure on the actor to fulfill expectations?

Ben says:

"Yeah, in a certain sense. It’s a personal story. He obviously cared about it quite a bit and you want to honor that. I wanted him to be really happy with my work so he wouldn’t feel like he made a colossal mistake in asking me to do his movie."

What was Ben like on the set?

One of the things long time Askew fans know is that Kevin thinks Ben is two things. First, Kevin claims that Ben spends a lot of time trying to be a director (he was once, in the short "I Killed my lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I’ve Got a Three Picture Deal at Disney). Second, Kevin also claims he is a "glory whore." Kevin says:

"The boy [Affleck] spent most of his between take time crying about how he never got a loving close up. ‘…you only use lenses that make me look like I got hit in the face with a shovel."

‘Amy’ is a much more personal movie than the first two. Why the change?

Kevin says:

"With Mallrats, the reviews were almost uniformly bad. But I do remember one review from the New York Press that caught my eye. He [the reviewer] said, ‘if you scrape away the vulgarity and the cynicism, what you have at the heart of both Clerks and Mallrats are stories about guys who so badly want to fall in love, but are just so befuddled by women.’ He then closed the review by saying, ‘I finally figured out why Silent Bob doesn’t speak. He’s afraid when he opens up his mouth, everyone will figure out what a really sweet guy he is.’

"When I finished the review, my jaw just hit the floor and I realized he was absolutely right. I don’t want people to know I’m a melodramatic fiend at heart. So, when writing Chasing Amy, I decided to embrace that side of me that I have a tendency to bury in cynicism and smart-ass remarks, and try for a more balanced approach."

What do the hand signals at the end between Holden and Banky mean?

First, Banky looks up and sees Holden. Then, Holden holds up a copy of Banky’s comic Baby Dave and gives it a thumbs up. Banky points off screen to where Alyssa is, as if to say "Did you see her over there?" Holden nods yes. Banky gives Holden the "shared moment" signal and Holden crosses his fingers as if to say, "hopefully."

Do the hand signals mean Banky and Holden are friends again?

Ben says:

"My interpretation is that when you have a friend you’re that close to and you have some really traumatic break, that it leaves a rip. After the course of a year, Holden is left with a lot of warm feelings toward Banky and picks up his comic, which I think is a sweet moment. Especially since they were partners in their art and they’d both gone on to pursue separate projects artistically, which is a pretty significant kind of break up. I think after a ripped break like that it’s almost more uncomfortable to try to be friends again because you’re very aware of what’s not there in the relationship."

"I don’t really see Holden spending a tremendous amount of time with either Banky or Alyssa in the future. I think of him spending some time with himself, writing his Chasing Amy comic and living by himself. That’s why I like the shot in the end where he goes out the door. He’s gonna see what it’s like to be a little more independent in the world. Grow up a little bit, I think."

Will we ever see Banky, Holden, Hooper or Alyssa again?

Never say never. There has been a rumor that Kevin plans on making the "Ultimate Jersey Flick." Supposedly, this flick will include every character that has ever been seen or mentioned in the flicks. Now, if you are really desperate to see one of these characters, check out the top panel on page 14 of "Clerks: The Comic Book" from Oni Press. The artist, Jim Mahfood, included a peel at one of the boys for the fans.