NEW YORK CITY—Kevin Smith is getting a lot of publicity for being fat. That could help his new film, Cop Out (now playing in theatres) at the box office, which would be a good thing, considering he apparently made the movie to see if he could put bums in theatre seats. To recap, Smith won an apology from Southwest Airlines after it bumped him from a flight on February 13 because he was deemed too large for a single seat. Now the director of independent films like Clerks and Chasing Amy is sitting in one chair in a New York City hotel room discussing the new experience of being a director for hire without screenplay input.

“I didn’t want to come in and say, ”˜Let’s change the script and turn it into a Kevin Smith movie.’ After 15 years, I know I can make a Kevin Smith movie in my sleep. I just wanted to see if I was a director. If I was going to skate on their [Warner Bros.’s] ice, I had to play by their rules. I tried to play the ball where it laid.”

The movie stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as cops who have worked together for nine years. Smith was approached by studio executives about taking it on after he wrapped his most high-profile movie to date, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. He says that he was out to prove something to himself, his critics, and even fans who were against him making a big-budget film.

“It looks like an average movie, but for years my shit didn’t look like average movies. They barely looked like films. People would say on the Internet, ”˜You are not a director,’ and they were right. The problem is that if you make15 years of those movies and turn around and say, ”˜This one is about two cops, dude,’ the fans of my movies will say, ”˜What the fuck? Where is Chasing Amy?’ Let me do Cop Out and let me have fun. I always said no to cool things, and for once I wanted to say yes. A lot of people look at this movie and say, ”˜It’s a buddy-cop movie. How cool could it be?’ But I think that you also have to think, ”˜The dude who made Clerks made this movie.’ It shows growth, I think.”

The film had several stars attached to it over the years it was in development, but it eventually came to the attention of Willis. When producer Marc Platt asked Smith how he felt about working with a movie star, he assumed Platt was just being polite and would take the film away from him.

“I said, ”˜I would suck a dick to work with Bruce Willis.’ He [Platt] said, ”˜You won’t have to go that far, but it’s good to know.’ I was shocked that I was still allowed to be involved, based on the fact that Bruce is a big movie star and I have never worked with one. Please don’t tell Ben Affleck I said that.”