Trivia for
Mallrats (1995) More at IMDbPro »

• The studio almost replaced Jason Mewes ("Jay") with Seth Green. Kevin Smith insisted that Mewes should play Jay, but the studio made Smith take auditions for the role. Breckin Meyer also auditioned. In the end, all concerned agreed that Mewes was right for the part.
  
  
• Originally, William Atherton was Kevin Smith's first choice to play Jared Svenning. Atherton chose not to do it because the film was aimed at a teenage audience.
  
  
• During the Batman homage as Jay and Bob escape from La Fours, the belting attached to Kevin Smith slipped. The crane refused to start (someone had shut it off), and the key could not be located, nearly resulting in a possibly lethal fall.
  
  
• Stan Lee can be seen looking to his left or right repeatedly while talking with Brodie. This is so he can see his cue cards - not being a trained actor, memorizing lines was very difficult for him. Jeremy London, on the other hand, despite being an experienced actor, forgot his lines repeatedly.
  
  
• The book Bob is reading in the bookstore is simply a mockup, as is the display stand - the real book had not come out yet.
  
  
• The Wile E. Coyote-style blueprints used by Jay and Silent Bob were drawn by producer Scott Mosier.
  
  
• Eden Prairie Center, where the film was shot, worked out perfectly for the shooting. There were a lot of vacant storefronts, so the producers could set up "fake stores" for the film.
  
  
• While shopping, Rene Mosier (Shannen Doherty) is seen wearing at least three different outfits. Doherty had a clause in her contract that she could keep everything her character wore, so came up with the plan that her character should wear everything she bought on her shopping trip.
  
  
• This is the second film in Kevin Smith's intricately interconnected View Askewniverse series (the others being Clerks. (1994), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and Clerks II (2006)). The movies are all linked by characters, themes and events and each contains numerous references to the others.
  
  
• During production, a TV movie (Clerks. (1995) (TV)) based on Kevin Smith's film Clerks. (1994) was being filmed.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Kevin Smith] [cousin Walter] One of the main characters has a cousin Walter who is sexually odd. Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee)'s cousin Walter sticks cats up his ass. In Clerks. (1994), Randal (Jeff Anderson)'s cousin Walter broke his own neck trying to give himself fellatio. This cousin Walter is the same person, ergo Brodie and Randal may be cousins.
  
  
• Two main characters named Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint are a reference to Jaws (1975), which had characters called Brody and Quint and in which the mechanical shark "playing" Jaws was nicknamed "Bruce" by the crew.
  
  
• The picture that Silent Bob goes through at the end of the "Batman" scene is actually a picture of Jason Lee's then-wife Carmen Llywelyn.
  
  
• In the scene where Jay and Silent Bob are hiding in the bookstore, Bob is reading "Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema" by John Pierson. The book contains numerous interviews and writings by Kevin Smith.
  
  
• T.S. picks up a Clerks. (1994) hat in the flea market.
  
  
• Kevin Smith is a John Landis fan, as is stated in his "Thanks" during the credits. During the scene when Brodie and Rene are having sex in the elevator and the people are waiting outside the door, the same song is heard that's played when Jake and Elwood Blues are riding the elevator to the Cook County Assessor's Office in The Blues Brothers (1980).
  
  
• Trisha Jones is given a $20,000 advance for her book "Boregasm" by Pendant Publishing. Pendant Publishing is the company that Elaine Benes works for during the first five seasons of the TV show "Seinfeld" (1990)
  
  
• The security guard, La Fours, is a reference to the leader of the chasing posse in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). In both movies, the character wears the same type of hat.
  
  
• Ben Affleck's character is named "Shannon Hamilton". Shannen Doherty was briefly married to Ashley Hamilton, although she did not adopt his last name.
  
  
• In real life, the elevator that Brodie and Rene have sex in has glass doors, covered up for the film so the people outside couldn't see in.
  
  
• Brodie's shirt is the merged faces of three actors that tried out for the part of Brodie and didn't get it.
  
  
• The name "Gwen Turner" is a reference to Go Fish (1994) writer/director Guinevere Turner.
  
  
• Although Renee's surname is never mentioned on screen, the cast list gives it as Mosier, a possible reference to producer Scott Mosier, but more likely a reference to Kevin Smith's ex-girlfriend, and Mosier's sister, Kristen Mosier, whom Smith noted on the DVD commentary track was the inspiration for Rene.
  
  
• When Renee (Shannen Doherty) runs to tell Jay and Silent Bob that Brodie and T.S. are being arrested, Ethan Suplee (Willam) says, "Brenda?" - a joke reference to Doherty's character on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990). The exchange wasn't in the script, but rather, Suplee was told to say this by Smith before the scene was shot, and so was Doherty. However, Suplee wasn't told that she would respond, so his reaction is genuine.
  
  
• Brodie wears a Henry Hudson Regional shirt. Henry Hudson Regional is the high school in Highlands, NJ, from which director Kevin Smith graduated.
  
  
• The Henry Hudson shirt worn by Brodie in the first scene is also worn by an audience member during the show.
  
  
• The pass that Mr. Svenning wears around his neck is the logo of View Askew, the film's production company.
  
  
• Svenning was not originally supposed to be bald. Michael Rooker was trying to dye his hair gray for a better look, and decided that bald would work even better.
  
  
• Studio execs required quite a bit of language to be removed or replaced with weaker language.
  
  
• Seth Green was on call, ready at any moment to fly to Minnesota so he could replace Jason Mewes as Jay.
  
  
• The original beginning of the movie tested poorly and was replaced by one that was filmed in L.A. The original beginning contained an incident at the Governor's Ball (the one mentioned by the TV execs).
  
  
• The US 1 Flea Market - AKA "The Dirt Mall" - was torn down in the mid-1990s. It is now the site of a multiplex cinema.
  
  
• Brodie's comic book collection seen in the movie was actually director Kevin Smith's collection at the time (which has grown considerably since). The collection is what Smith was able to purchase back after selling his original collection to finance production of Clerks. (1994).
  
  
• The MagicEye "sailboat" picture is actually a 4 x 3 matrix of geometric shapes consisting of a cross, a circle, a diamond, a star, 4 segmented circles and 4 cones.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Kevin Smith] [star wars] Silent Bob hanging upside down to put the video tape in the player is a reference to the Wampa ice creature scene in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Kevin Smith] [star wars] After failing to see the sailboat image, Willam (Ethan Suplee) wanders over to the stage, and gives a frustrated wail while holding on to a frame. This is a parody of a scene in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), in which Chewbacca omits the same cry while holding on to a support strut.
  
  
• The person laughing during the Gramercy title sequence is a cellist in Ira Newborn's orchestra.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Kevin Smith] [comic books] Brodie is a comic book collector; there is a comic book store in the mall; comic book creator Stan Lee appears in the movie; Brodie and T.S. discuss Superman's sex life.
  
  
• The comic book that features Brandi depicts two director trademarks: (1) the fire behind her forms Jaws (1975), (2) she wears a Boston Bruins hockey jersey.
  
  
• John Landis was going to make a cameo as an irate customer, but this was written out at the last minute.
  
  
• Jennifer Love Hewitt tried out for the role of Tricia Jones.
  
  
• When Silent Bob is placing the tape of Shannon's sexual encounter with Tricia in the VCR, the crossed out title is "Woody Woodpecker."
  
  
• According to the blueprints, Jay and Silent Bob's two stage trashing operations are "Operation: Drive-By" and "Operation: Dark Knight".
  
  
• Silent Bob has only one line in the entire movie, consisting of: "Excitement? Adventure? A Jedi craves not these things." He had an additional line in the extended version, which was : "There was never anything good to say before."
  
  
• Filmed in Minnesota, down the road from Fargo (1996) which was shooting at the same time.
  
  
• Orginally Stan Lee was not going to have a cameo in the movie. Kevin Smith had written a fictional Stan Lee-type character but through a connection Stan Lee was asked to be in the movie and agreed.
  
  
• Heather Graham auditioned for a role in this film. Reese Witherspoon had a meeting with the casting director, Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, but both Smith and Mosier didn't enjoy the meeting and told the casting director not to bother to bring her in for an audition. Smith details this meeting in his book, "Silent Bob Speaks".
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Kevin Smith] [off-screen grab] When Ivannah offers to let Brodie examine her, T.S. grabs him from off camera and pulls him out of the tent.
  
  
• DirTrade(Kevin Smith): [jaws]: T.S. was going to propose to Brandi at Universal Studios "after Jaws popped out of the water".
  
  
• The scene just before the ending credits telling us what happens to the main characters in the future is an homage to the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). It even uses the same blue font for the letters that was used in Fast Times.
  
  
• One of the game-show contestant's name is Gill Hicks (played by Brian O'Halloran), a reference to Dante Hicks (also played by O'Halloran)
  
  
• When William gets startled, he says "Poopie Trim". This is a reference to an inside joke between director Kevin Smith and script supervisor Carol Banker.
  
  
• Shawnee Smith came in to audition for a role. According to director Kevin Smith, she was very rude and mocked the screenplay. After Shawnee Smith left, casting director Don Phillips apologized for her behavior.
  
  
• The content of the dialogue between Quint and Brodie about whether Superman would be able to have sex and/or a baby with a non-superpowered woman is taken from a classic 1971 essay by science fiction author Larry Niven called "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex."
  
  
• The only film by Kevin Smith that he did not edit himself, although he and Scott Mosier cut the extended version that's on the Tenth Anniversary DVD.
  
  

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