FJ-HRN-2781

A01. HRN-2781
In: 02.05.31 Out: 02.08.11
Sound Bite: Kevin Smith – on the MPAA
Um I can’t fathom why they would have initially given it an NC-17. I mean granted there’s some pretty racy stuff in the movie but I don’t think there’s anything outside the confines of an R-rated film, albeit a hard R-rated film. Like we’re not one of those R-rated films where um you know somebody said fuck twice and suddenly the movie’s R-rated. We earned our R-rating but never crossed that line and that was the argument that I brought to the appeals committee. I said, look, you don’t make a movie called Zack and Miri Make a Porno without extra close scrutiny when it comes time to rate the movie. We knew this would happen, so we went out of our way to make sure it nestled comfortably within a hard R. And I said um, the argument that the MPAA gave is that the movie’s too titillating for people of a younger age to see. No one under 18 could possibly fathom or comprehend this movie, which is just like, hey man, I don’t know a 12 year old boy that doesn’t explore himself or a 12 year old girl that’s not already using the showerhead. Kids learn about sex at a very early age. Since we all have the internet, kids know what porno is. They don’t gravitate toward it. Just cause something exists doesn’t mean you become it. Just because you see something in a movie doesn’t mean you become it. I saw Star Wars quite a bit when I was a kid, never wanted to be Darth Vader once. You know it’s like I don’t think anybody sees this movie and goes, “Oh, porno, what a great idea.” Although in these harsh economic times, maybe, maybe it’s different now. When we made the movie, not so much, so when I stood up in front of the MPAA, I said look, if was 13 years old and this was 1983 when I saw this movie on cable when we first had cable in my hometown, would it send me to the bathroom to tug one out? Absolutely. But in 2008 when you can flip open your laptop and see 15 second mpeg clips of real people having real sex, this movie is not titillating at all. This movie is what it’s intended to be, a flat-out comedy. And then the MPAA relaxed their rulings a bit from a few years ago, now you’re allowed to cite precedent. So I was able to cite other movies that had done stuff similar to what we did for the thrusting that they objected to, because they said that in the first porno sequence with Katie and Mewes, there was far too much thrusting. I cited Taking Lives where I was like, there’s a 3rd act love scene between Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke that’s very erotic, very titillating, they’re having sex all across this room, on top of a dresser, breasts are bared, lots of fake thrusting, that movie got an R. Our movie, where the sex is cartoonish, ridiculous and over the top, and the only sex scene that’s treated seriously is very chaste and people are wearing clothes, we get an R? Like it doesn’t make sense. We do as much thrusting as they do. Like ours is an R, even though we’re trying to be funny? If you’re gonna give that an R, clearly we’re an R as well, and for some reason they bought it.