Just like he did back in 2001 with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Kevin Smith packed his latest movie, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, with a lot of cameos. Among the folks who participated in the return to the View Aksewniverse was True Blood, Magic Mike and Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello, but it turns out that much of Manganiello’s screen time in the movie was cut out due to lack of context and Smith realizing the material wouldn’t work as well he initially thought.
In case you need a primer or refresher on Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Joe Manganiello appeared as a bailiff in the courtroom scene where the eponymous duo lose their naming right. Manganiello appeared alongside Justin Long, a frequent collaborator of Smith’s who reprised his Zack and Miri Make a Porno character Brandon St. Randy, In Reboot, though, Brandy is the lawyer who initially defended Jay and Silent Bob in court, and then went after them on behalf of Saban Films.
As Justin Long recalled while speaking with actor David Harbour in the most recent episode of the Life is Short with Justin Long podcast, his scene with Joe Manganiello had Brandon St. Randy getting a little sexually aggressive with the bailiff, but Kevin Smith decided to cut those moments out. After Harbour noted how it seemed like Manganiello’s role had been trimmed when he was watching the movie, Long said:
Kevin explained that it didn’t really make sense because we don’t explain it. It’s not explained. Here’s what I think. Maybe it just wasn’t funny [laughs]. I think it was 10 years ago we did that character who was just like grabbing people and it’s just not cool. But all the stuff I did with Joe, it was fun on the day and it was fun while we did it. It was really fun to do because he was also mildly uncomfortable with it, but whatever.
So along with Brandon St. Randy’s advances coming off weird if you weren’t already familiar with the character from Zack and Miri Make a Porno, it also sounds like this was a simple case of a certain type of humor not aging well. Just because something was funny over a decade ago doesn’t mean that audiences are going to react the same way to it nowadays, so Kevin Smith decided to go the safer route and have Randy wisely keep his hands to himself while in court.
This resulted in Joe Manganiello not getting as much screen time in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot as originally intended, but it’s not like he still isn’t easily spotted when watching the movie. And at least the bailiff still got to give his opinion on the original Bluntman and Chronic movie, saying that it “sucked asshole.”
Following the initial Fathom Events screenings, Kevin Smith showed Jay and Silent Bob Reboot in various cities across the United States with the roadshow tour, and managed to break some interesting box office records along the way. You can now purchase the movie on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, and it’s also available to watch on Prime Video.
Joe Manganiello’s next movies include The Sleepover and Archenemy, while Justin Long is making his directorial debut soon with Lady of the Manor. Kevin Smith, in addition to working on Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation series, is writing his next View Askewniverse entries, Clerks 3 and Twilight of the Mallrats, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on those projects.
