“That’s the world that she was born into, man,” ‘The 4:30 Movie’ director tells PEOPLE of his only child, daughter Harley Quinn Smith, who’s now 25
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Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Harley Quinn Smith and Kevin Smith in New York City, October 1999
Celebrating Dogma was a family affair for Kevin Smith.
As the religious satire turns 25 this year, Smith recalls attending the New York Film Festival premiere of the cult classic alongside his daughter Harley Quinn Smith and wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith.
When the family arrived at Lincoln Center, “We stepped out of the car and we had this little set of angel wings [on Harley],” says Smith, 54, of his daughter, who is now 25 but was just 3 months old at the time.
Speaking to some of the controversial subject matter of the film, he adds, “We get out of the car, it’s a thousand people protesting, holding a huge statue of Mary and praying the rosary and shouting at us and stuff.”
“So that’s the world that she was born into, man,” Smith says.
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Harley Quinn/Instagram
Kevin Smith and daughter Harley Quinn Smith
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon lead Dogma as fallen angels trying to get to New Jersey and back into heaven. Linda Fiorentino plays an abortion-clinic counselor who must stop them in order to prevent the implosion of all of existence.
The 1999 movie costars Chris Rock, Janeane Garofalo, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek, George Carlin and Alan Rickman, with a cameo from Alanis Morissette as God.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in a career retrospective published last month, Smith remembered receiving “400,000 pieces of hate mail and three bona-fide death threats” upon the release of Dogma.
“The movie had a rubber poop monster in it,” the writer-director-actor, who has also appeared as Silent Bob (to Jay Mewes‘ Jay) in several of his own films, told EW. “Can you imagine getting that irate over a movie with a rubber poop monster?”
Some people were offended by the filmmaker’s irreverent take on Catholicism and religion. Among the hate-mail messages was one antisemitic letter that read, ” ‘ … we’re coming in there with shotguns,’ ” he recalled to EW.
“I hope whoever wrote that, that missive, found peace,” said Smith.
Dogma is currently not available on streaming platforms.
Smith’s new film, The 4:30 Movie, distributed by Saban Films, is available on digital now.
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