If you know me, you know I'm a big Kevin Smith fan. While Mallrats was crap, I think that the rest of his movies have been quite excellent, even if they weren't necessarily giant hits that everyone loves. Yeah, I even liked Jersey Girl.
He's been doing a podcast now for a couple of months, which he calls SModcast, as in Smith and Mosier, Scott Mosier, the guy who has produced all of his flicks. They talk about Hollywood nonsense a little, films from time to time, and a lot about whatever else they feel like talking about. Sometimes you hear interesting things about actors they've worked with, or Jason Mewes' drug and alcohol problems, or whatever, but a lot of the time it's about things like their dogs having sex.
What I've learned from listening to the show is that the guy has a lot of issues, but he's up front about most of them. Some are totally irrational too, like fear of the ocean because of shark attacks. I'm not sure if I like him more or less because of those things. His weight issues bother me the most. It's not that I'm judgmental toward him for it, as much as I fear he's a heart attack waiting to happen, and I selfishly want him to stay alive so he can keep making movies I like. :)
In show #20, he had his wife Jen on for the first time (I'm a couple of weeks behind). I was immediately intrigued, because every time he brings her up he paints a picture of them being total opposites. And it's not just the short-and-fat versus tall-and-skinny (his words), they just don't seem to agree on anything.
But during the course of the show, they both just gush over how they love each other (the fact that they "make love" 2% of the time and "fuck" the rest of the time is probably a detail I could live without). He respected her for being a USA Today reporter in her 20's, and she respected him for being a great story teller and film maker.
Toward the end though, she sums it up pretty well when he asks her if she's just a chubby chaser. To paraphrase, she says she loves him for who he is and will not criticize him for it (the weight thing in particular), because it would give fuel to create a circle of resentment and dislike.
I thought that just about summed up the one thing that anyone needs in that kind of relationship. Here are two people with so little in common, but it works because they're OK with who the other person is, period. That's beautiful.