Kevin Smith is probably best known for his more… “adult” films, like Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. Not to mention 2014’s walrus-horrific Tusk. So his latest film, The 4:30 Movie, is a little different. The film is about a trio of teenagers who spend their Saturdays sneaking into R-rated movies at their local theater. One of the boys invites his dream girl to the 4:30 showing of movie (hence the title) and things go a little off the rails.

The film is very personal to Smith, as the character Brian (played by Austin Zajur) is basically a version of Smith when he was a kid. The New Jersey movie theater where the movie is filmed? It was Smith’s actual childhood movie theater, one that he bought and renamed Smodcastle Cinemas. While we don’t see what is actually playing on the movie screens, we do get a trio of original trailers Smith filmed, much like the trailers in Grindhouse.

When I spoke to Smith in this autumn 2024 interview, I asked him about what it was like to hire an actor to play himself as a child, what his favorite memory from that movie theater is, and if he had any plans to make any of his fake trailers a real film.