That Time Ben Affleck’s ‘Potty Mouth’ Almost Cost Him A Classic Role
Kevin Smith loves to talk. He also loves to swear. And when you land on the sweet spot where Kevin Smith gets to talk about swearing, especially in his classic films, that’s where the best stories come from. The Clerks and Chasing Amy writer-director is reminiscing these days about Mallrats, his lewd and funny hangout comedy that actually turns 25 years old this year. (WHAT?!) Looking back over the making of the movie on behalf of an oral history for EW, Smith rattles off a few stories you might have heard before. Shannen Doherty helped get the movie made by agreeing to star in it. Jason Lee was a professional skateboarder before he took a chance to Brody in the movie. But this one, about Ben Affleck, as new to me and really worth a share.
Ben Affleck appears in Mallrats as Shannon, the manager of Fashionable Male who hates Brody (Lee) and TS (Jeremy London). He’s basically a bully who gets his comeuppance in the end. But Affleck almost got shut out of the chance to even audition for Mallrats because of all of the F-bombs he dropped in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. The way that Kevin Smith tells it:
For real, who even calls it that? I know this was 25 years ago, but it makes Mallrats sound like a 1940s talkie. As it turns out, though, Ben Affleck had an ace up his sleeve. The day that he was coming in to audition for Mallrats, the trades reported that Affleck and Matt Damon had sold their screenplay, Good Will Hunting. Smith actually asked Affleck why he was auditioning, given the fact he just sold a screenplay. Affleck said that he still wanted to act, so he read for the role of TS.
Smith continued:
It’s crazy, the types of conversations that go on behind the scenes of some of our favorite films. Kevin Smith fans love to hate Ben Affleck’s character in Mallrats. But if he doesn’t play Shannon, Affleck also doesn’t move on to Chasing Amy, which helped the industry accept Ben as a leading man. There’s a very good chance that Affleck makes it, regardless. Good Will Hunting blew up in 1997. But these little bits of trivia help us realize what might have been, if a “potty mouth” kept Ben Affleck out of Mallrats.
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Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.