Jason Mewes

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Image:Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.jpg

Jason Edward Mewes (born June 12, 1974) is an American television and film actor best known for playing the role of foul-mouthed drug dealer “Jay”, the vocal half of Jay and Silent Bob, the recurring duo from the “View Askewniverse” films of Mewes' longtime friend, writer/director Kevin Smith, who plays Silent Bob. Mewes currently lives with Smith and his family in their Hollywood Hills home.

1 Early life
2 Heroin abuse
3 Recovery
4 Etymology of Mewes' vocabulary
5 Television appearances
6 Video Game Appearances
7 Trivia
8 Filmography
9 See also
10 References
- 10.1 Footnotes
11 External links

[edit] Early life

Jason Mewes was born to a heroin-addicted mother and an unknown father in Highlands, New Jersey, and was raised by his aunt through most of his childhood while his mother spent time in jail. When his mother was out of jail, she would usually steal credit cards from neighbors' mail boxes in order to fuel her habit. Mewes remembers that she used stolen money to buy him a bicycle for Christmas, one of the few Christmas gifts he remembers receiving. During a brief period when she worked as a drug dealer, she would send a young Mewes out on his bike to unwittingly deliver drugs to people she didn't trust enough to deliver them to herself. When his mother wanted to go out for the evening, she would leave Jason and his sister at the homes of people she barely knew. These people would lock them in the closet, causing Jason to develop claustrophobia.

Despite this upbringing, Mewes grew up to be a fairly level-headed, if occasionally offbeat, child. He met Kevin Smith as a teenager while both of them were students at Henry Hudson Regional High School in the late '80s. He developed a notorious reputation in his hometown of Highlands, with rumors that he broke a window at a local pharmacy, or that he had sex with a dog, neither of which were true <ref>Me and My Shadow, a multi-part article written by Kevin Smith chronicling Mewes' battle with drugs.</ref>.

[edit] Heroin abuse

When Kevin Smith shot his film Chasing Amy, starring Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams (and based on his relationship with the latter), Smith didn't need Mewes as much as in the two previous films, Clerks. and Mallrats, mainly because the Jay and Silent Bob characters were restricted to one 10-minute scene (in which Smith's Silent Bob character shares much of the dialogue), which was shot over the course of a night. Mewes had memorized all his dialogue and pulled it off without a hitch, while Smith struggled with the large monologue he had written for himself. Unknown to many was that this was the point where Jason's use of cocaine and heroin began.<ref name="multiple">Ibid.</ref> Mewes had also struggled with a lifelong opiate addiction.

Chasing Amy was released to stellar reviews and even some awards, and the $12 million gross of the $250,000 film paved the way for Kevin to make Dogma, a script which utilized the Jay and Silent Bob characters more than any previous film. Between the making of the two films, Kevin and Jason attended an AIDS benefit hosted by Harvey Weinstein, the chairman of Miramax. Upon learning that Mewes' mother was HIV positive, he promised to get her to the best doctors in New York, a promise he kept. Soon after this, Kevin opened up his own comic book store, called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Mewes asked if he could work at the store full time and Kevin thought it was a good idea, giving him the run of the place. A few months after the opening of the store, Smith came in several times to find a customer waiting for Jason to return. At times Mewes seemed ill and frequently fell asleep. During the recording of the Chasing Amy laserdisc commentary, Kevin confronted Mewes and asked him about his drug use. After much denial, Mewes finally admitted that he was using heroin. <ref name="multiple"/>

Smith moved Jason out of his mother's house and into his own Red Bank apartment. The night before Mewes started a methadone program, he was so ill from withdrawals, he tearfully begged Kevin for money to buy heroin, which Kevin gave him. Smith says Mewes still refers to that day as “the day you shook hands with the devil.” Mewes then began the methadone program and started to successfully kick his heroin habit and spent more and more time with Kevin, frequently going on trips to find Star Wars action figures at Toys-R-Us to take his mind off things. Mewes started to show even more signs that he was becoming healthy again. After finding out that respected English actor Alan Rickman was going to star in Dogma, Mewes proceeded to memorize not only his lines, but the entire screenplay as well so he “wouldn't piss off that Rickman dude”. <ref name="multiple"/>

While making Dogma, Kevin and producer friend Scott Mosier instructed Jason's new girlfriend, Stephanie, to watch the seven-months-clean Jason for any signs that he had started to use drugs again. To their knowledge, Mewes was clean throughout the shooting of Dogma, but they later found out that Stephanie had actually become Mewes' connection for heroin while they were filming in Pittsburgh. Due to the fact that Stephanie was getting paid, and Mewes was getting his biggest paycheck yet, they were able to quietly keep themselves equipped with drugs and not suffer from withdrawal symptoms, while keeping it hidden from the cast and crew. Ironically, Mewes' Dogma performance is considered by many to be one of his best, despite being a heroin addict throughout the shoot. He would even frequently fall asleep while they were filming scenes but Smith, still somewhat naïve on the subject of drug abuse, didn't realize this was a sign that Jason had begun using again.<ref> Ibid.</ref>

By this point, Smith had fallen in love with and married USA Today reporter Jennifer Schwalbach. She had become pregnant with their daughter and they soon moved into a new house. Mewes and Stephanie opted to stay with Mewes' mother until Smith later found out that Mewes had once again slipped into heroin usage. He moved Mewes and Stephanie into his own house and decided to get them off heroin, cold turkey.

Shortly after, Mewes again started using heroin and Smith evicted him from his home. Mewes lived with his mother after this and found himself hooked on a new drug: Oxycontin. After travelling to both France and England for Dogma-related events, Smith moved Mewes back into his house in order to quit the drugs cold turkey. After a month, Mewes was still in pain but recovering and traveled with Kevin to Los Angeles for an awards show. One night, Mewes managed to take Smith's ATM card, after telling him he was going to use it to withdraw money and his taxi fare, and withdrew $1,100 from it by early morning. He spent most of the night trying to get drugs to no avail and eventually returned to his hotel room and trashed it. That day, Smith and Scott Mosier put Jason in an L.A.-based rehab center, from which he escaped. Eventually he was found and put back in once again, and not allowed to take phone calls for a week. When Smith finally spoke to him again, Mewes said the place felt more like a psychiatric ward, so he was moved to another rehab in L.A. where he proceeded to get clean. <ref>Ibid.</ref>

During this time, Kevin and Jennifer returned to Jersey so that she could give birth to their daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. A month later, they returned to L.A., where Mewes was now substantially sober and stable. He recorded tracks for the first few episodes of Clerks: The Animated Series, and then later returned to New Jersey, where he became a model citizen, refusing all the drugs that were offered to him, and steering clear of his mother's Oxycontin.

In order to convince Mewes to quit drugs permanently, Smith told him that he was writing a screenplay for a Jay and Silent Bob feature where Jason would be the lead star, and get a large paycheck. The condition was that Jason get off heroin and Oxycontin. Jason agreed and checked into another rehab clinic. <ref>Ibid.</ref>

Seeing him again a month later, Smith found Mewes much healthier and happier after spending time in a rehab (along with friend Ben Affleck). However, at Smith's house on Thanksgiving of that year, it became clear that Mewes had begun using drugs again after someone offered him cocaine at a Q&A in Colorado. Mewes stayed downstairs at Smith's house and kept agreeing to play with Kevin's daughter when she asked, only to disappear again. Angered at Mewes' attitude towards their daughter, Smith's wife Jennifer told Smith that she wanted Jason out of the house. <ref>Ibid.</ref>

[edit] Recovery

Despite writing a role for him as Arthur Brickman in his new film Jersey Girl, it became clear to Smith that Mewes would not be able to participate in the film. He had dropped out of two rehab programs that Ben Affleck had paid for, and a bench warrant for his arrest had been issued for him in New Jersey. On the advice of one of Mewes' previous rehab counselors, Smith began to use a “tough love” technique on his friend, not allowing him into his home or letting him see Harley anymore. By this point, Mewes had taken to occasionally living on the streets and had dropped out of the Betty Ford Clinic after only two days. He would occasionally come and see Smith, who was editing Jersey Girl at the time, and borrow money from him, which he said was for cigarettes but was actually to fuel his continuing drug habit. After a scare fueled by a rumor that Mewes had died, he finally checked into another rehab and began cleaning up his life permanently. <ref>Ibid.</ref> In late October 2003, Smith and company held a big party for fans to celebrate Mewes cleaning up.<ref>News Askew: Stash Bash 2: Welcome Home Jay</ref>

[edit] Etymology of Mewes' vocabulary

The character Jay's familiar “snootchie bootchies” and “snoogans” sayings are based on things Mewes used to say himself as a teenager. In An Evening with Kevin Smith the origin and development of Mewes' original colloquialisms are revealed as thus:

He started with “neh,” as in “I'm gonna fuck your mom, neh.”
This evolved to “nootch.”
Then, adding a letter to make it “snootch.”
He lengthened the saying to “snootchie bootchies.”
The phrase then evolved into “sniggidy-niggidy-nooch.”
Finally, it was shortened into “snoogans,” thus encompassing all previous forms of the word.

According to Kevin Smith, the phrases were meant to convey something along the lines of “just kidding, don't kick my ass.”

[edit] Television appearances

While he is mostly known for acting in films, Mewes also has worked in television. He voiced the role of Jay in the short-lived Clerks: The Animated Series. He, along with Smith, has made appearances in the film Scream 3, and on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He appeared in two episodes of a three-part story arc in which he and Smith film a new addition to Smith's New Jersey films entitled Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh? at Degrassi Community School. They appear again on Degrassi, at the premiere of Jay and Silent Bob go Canadian, Eh? in Canada. Mewes, Smith, and Degrassi star Stacie Mistysyn made the cover of Canadian TV Guide. In 1998 he starred as "Gary Lamb - Ground Activist" in a series of Nike commercials directed by Smith.

[edit] Video Game Appearances

In Tony Hawk's Underground you can see Mewes and Kevin Smith when you get on the subway to the New York level.

In Scarface: The World is Yours Mewes provides a voiceover for one of the minor characters.

[edit] Trivia

Is Kevin Smith's first and only choice for the lead role of Oliver Queen in a proposed Smith written and directed "Green Arrow" upcoming film for The Weinstein Company.

Auditioned for both Barry Allen (Flash) and Arthur Curry (Aquaman) on the Superman TV series, Smallville.

Was the star of the Kevin Smith sitcom pilot called "Hating Hal".