Hollywood history is filled with happy accidents. Directors leave projects and are replaced – for good, and for evil. Actors get replaced in major roles, sometimes even after they have filmed scenes (as when Michael J. Fox replaced Eric Stoltz on Back to the Future). But I don’t know if I have heard a story quite like this one, which explains how Clerks director Kevin Smith thought he was pitching a role to legendary Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin… but was not.
Kevin Smith is making the rounds promoting his new coming-of-age comedy The 4:30 Movie, a sweet movie Smith filmed in the New Jersey movie theater that he owns and operates. When he stopped by CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, he started talking about the pivotal role that Tusk and The Umbrella Academy co-star Genesis Rodriguez plays in the new film. Only, even though Smith has a history with Rodriguez, she originally wasn’t supposed to be in this film.
Smith told us that he received a text message about a week and a half before he was about to start filming on The 4:30 Movie. He was in the New Jersey town of Atlantic Highlands, home of Smith’s Smodcastle Cinemas. And he received a text from someone he assumed was George R.R. Martin. This isn’t as unusual as one might assume. Smith tells us that Martin had been to the theater, and even did a show there. So they have history. After a few brief exchanges, Smith told “George R.R. Martin” that he should swing by the Jersey set, and take a role in The 4:30 Movie. That’s when it got weird.
As Smith told ReelBlend:
The person wrote back, ‘Do you know who this is?’ And I was like, ‘Of course!’ And then I was like, ‘Do I?’ I looked, and in my phone, George R.R. Martin is GRRM, as he is in most places. But Genesis, she listed herself as ‘G.R.’ So the whole time I thought I was talking to George R.R. Martin, I was talking to Genesis.
Classic. Who doesn’t mix up one famous celebrity friend with another? And this is with Kevin Smith off the weed, and in the wake of the mental health crisis he endured. That’s probably why the Mallrats filmmaker was able to think quickly on his feet and rebound. As he told ReelBlend:
I figure this out, and I’m like, ‘Of course I know this is you, Genny! Absolutely. Yes, come be in the movie!’ I had no part for Genesis. She was like, ‘Are there lines? How many scenes?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely! I’ll send it to you.’ When I got off the text with her, suddenly I was like, ‘Oh shit, I gotta create a scene for Genesis. And a character! Nevermind a fucking scene.’ How do I weave this person into the script when we’re like a week and a half from going?
Obviously, Kevin Smith solved the problem. In The 4:30 Movie, Genesis Rodriguez ends up playing the usher who tears tickets at the theater. But she delivers a monologue about how movies help people make sense of their lives, and Smith went on to tell ReelBlend that it’s his favorite scene in the film. Here, watch the full interview with Smith, where he tells the longer version of this story:
The 4:30 Movie is available to watch now on all of the streaming platforms where you purchase movies. If you’d like to plan your own trip to the theater, check out our guide to upcoming 2024 movies, then call up that special someone and make it a date.
