ENTERTAINMENT: So how was shooting this sequel, ‘Clerks II?”

Brian O’Halloran (Dante): Shooting it was a joy. It was like going back to summer camp with the friends you’ve always wanted to hang out with. It’s the same crew, for the most part, the same producers. And working with Jeff; I’ve been fortunate to work with Jeff over the years, with these same two characters many different times — with the “Clerks” cartoon series that came out in 2000, we did a short film for Jay Leno soon thereafter. It’s been a joy.

ENT: How many times have you said that?

Jeff Anderson (Randal): This is the first time I’ve heard “It’s been a joy.”

BO: Yeah, I went down to Borders and got myself a thesaurus. I was like, I don’t want to bore them to death. “Absolutely harmonious!” I got to save the words so I don’t blow them all now.

ENT: “Jersey Girl” bombed. So is doing “Clerks II” Kevin Smith’s backup?

ENT: How was it embodying these characters again?

BO: It’s like putting on an old pair of sneakers that feel great, or going and visiting that group of friends that you haven’t seen in a while. It’s nothing strange, it’s nothing odd, it’s not like, I got to brush up, I need to watch the movie again, it’s nothing like that at all. It’s not too hard for us to get into it. If you gave us the phone book, we’d probably talk it out, and you’d probably be like, oh my God, it’s still Dante and Randal right now. Jeff?

JA: Uh... It was a joy.

BO: Holding onto that line?

JA: It’s my new out.

ENT: So Brian, how was making out with Kevin Smith’s wife?

BO: It was kinda weird, this voyeuristic type of weird. Especially in the position we were in, that she was sitting on my lap in a swing. And with the bigger budget we had on this one, we had this crane shot that comes down from the roof and follows these two Catholic school girls coming out of the restaurant and swoops over to us making out. And when we first started doing this movement, the crane and dolly movement was hitched by a bump in the rail or something, so we had to do it something like 13 times. Kevin told me that by the 13th or 14th time watching the re-take of this, he finally realized, O’Halloran is kissing my wife longer than I’ve ever kissed my wife before my pants have reached my ankles. Meanwhile, there’s me as the actor and friend, and me kissing my boss’s wife, I’m like, please don’t let the launch sequence start.

JA: We did a radio show this morning and we had Kevin on the phone, and I said to Kevin, I said, “Kevin, when you and your wife fight, do you go, ‘Man, every time I kiss you I taste Brian O’Halloran’?”

ENT: What did he say?

JA: He was like, “Uh... no. Thanks for putting that in my head.”

ENT: So do you guys all hang out together, and recreate the View Askew Universe?

BO: Not necessarily. I mean, Jay does live with Kevin, Jay has always lived with Kevin, pretty much is his hetero manservant.

JA: Yeah, every time I go to Kevin’s, I have to wear a backwards baseball cap, chew gum. That’s pretty much what we do.

ENT: So there’s a man-donkey sex scene in this movie. What did you feel about that sequence?

BO: Funny, that guy was half of our documentary team, doing the behind-the-scenes stuff. So to get him into that outfit was kinda funny, to see this guy who was our behind-the-scenes cameraman now on camera, making sweet love to...

JA: And oddly enough he was wearing that outfit on days he wasn’t shooting.

ENT: What was the donkey’s name?

JA: Asphalt. That was the real donkey’s name. Like the street.

BO: Ass-fault. Two s’s. You know, like ass-crack, in the ass.

JA: There was no fault with that ass.

ENT: Any last words?

JA: F—k. Actually, I got one for you, I’m gonna throw this out to you guys because you’re college kids. I heard this morning on the radio: College kids have voted the iPod more important than beer. I’m shocked. I didn’t realize there was such a gap. This doesn’t say anything good about your generation here. But speaking of iPods, I was segueing so effortlessly. For the first time ever, “Clerks II” is again breaking ground. We recorded a commentary track that you’ll be able to download onto your iPod that will be released the second week of the film, so that you can go see the film and then go back into the film and line up your iPod with the credits and listen to the commentary track. As you sit in the theater you can then listen to us talk about behind the scenes. First time it’s ever been done for a film. So I think it’s going to be something you’re going to see all movies doing now, and we’re the first film to do it.

BO: So don’t be surprised sitting in the theater with iPods.

JA: All you college kids that love your iPods, rather than drinking.

BO: I’ve actually snuck beer into movies. In Japan they have vending machines where you can buy beer, for God’s sake. Thanks guys. Especially because you’re not drinking and listening to your iPods.