Kevin Smith Blasted Ben Affleck For Ad-Libbing Too Much While Filming Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith has worked with Ben Affleck on several movie projects, but it seems that while working on 1997’s Chasing Amy, the director became so annoyed by Affleck’s constant ad-libbing that Smith told him to put that kind of stuff “in your own f*cking script one day.” Hilariously, Smith noted that Affleck did just that, leading to great acclaim and an Oscar win to boot.

Chasing Amy was Smith’s third directorial effort and starred Affleck as Holden McNeil, a comic book artist who falls in love with Joey Lauren Adams’ Alyssa, who just happens to be a lesbian. The film, like many of Smith’s movies, was a huge financial success, spinning its $250,000 budget into a $12 million box office win.

While speaking to EW in a retrospective look back at his career highlights, Smith touched on Chasing Amy, and his reaction to Affleck’s over use of ad-libs during filming. He said:

“Ben Affleck loves to ad-lib and he ad-libbed like crazy on [ Chasing Amy] . I said, ‘Look dude, I can’t stand it. You’re always ad-libbing. Like, don’t do it, don’t make up dialogue. Just do the script as written. If you really want to make up s— and say things, save all that s—, put it in your own f—ing script one day. And he did, and he won an Oscar.”

That Oscar would come courtesy of Good Will Hunting, which also won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Despite his many successes – and frequent bouts of ad-libbing – Affleck has appeared in a total of eight of Smith’s movies, including more recent offerings such as Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Clerks III.

Could Ben Affleck Appear in the Long-Awaited Mallrats 2?

There is every chance that Ben Affleck could make Mallrats 2 another addition to his collaborations with Smith – if the director can ever get it made. Due to Universal owning the rights to Mallrats, but being unwilling to finance the movie, Smith’s plans for the sequel have been in limbo for some time. While the death of Shannen Doherty earlier this year almost led to Smith giving up on the film entirely, he recently suggested that he will keep knocking on the door until he can make it. Speaking to Deadline, he said:

“I think we’re going back to have a discussion again about like, look, you guys are never gonna do anything with this. Like, but we can and would and would and would love to. So can you let us take it out? We’re not asking Universal to finance it, but it’s just like, hey, can we have it so we can go out because I can get that movie financed in a heartbeat, Mallrats 2.”