Mr. Smith

Kevin Smith,
It is apparently imperative that I write a letter you will most likely never see. If I in fact leave my waning sanity and send it to you, this line would be kept in because that's how I roll.
To being, let's put something in perspective, you graduated high school the year I was born.
Now that that's out of the way, to the meat and potatoes of this little little bit of verbose lovefest. I seriously loved Clerks. The second time I tried to watch it. Funny thin is it's been about two months since the first time I tried to watch it, but something wasn't right with me. I loved the cartoon and had to see where it all stemmed from, and finally after readng Silent Bob Speaks and after watching Robert Rodriguez's first couple of movies I had a better appreciation for 1) modern black and white film and 2) something as box destroying as Clerks.
I have spent the past month of January loving El Mariachi, Desperados, From Dusk Till dawn, Four Rooms and The Faculty and I read his book Rebel Without A Crew which put a whole new perspective in my mind about smaller budgeted films that legally there was no way I was seeing when they came out.
What I have decided I have to say to you is that I have spent my entire evening watching Clerks, about 4 times, and most of the special features from the Tenth anniversary collection that I rented from an independent movie rental place near my college campus. I loved the writing. I loved seeing words that most people don't see much too much further than outside of an English class room or in a dictionary when they're looking for dirty words. The rifts between the characters were hella realistic. That's not near how I talk with my friends, but we can and have gotten into conversations, deep conversations on such a variety of topics that how serious they were when they were talking about the most trite of subjects was one of the things that made it special.
Every group of friends has their topic[s]. It was an interesting peek inside your world, well, the world you lived in when you were about my age [you old fuck :)]and it is always nice to see that the youth of the world do have the love of a good conversation or debate, no matter what age they are. Here, it's that awkward stage between being an adult and being a child. I mean, in my eyes right now, I don't usually think of myself as an adult, and I don't can, truly call myself a child.
What this movie has done was inspire me to take my writing mroe seriously. I don't really want to write for a movie, but like many non-famous people I am interested in meeting some celebs. I'm much more interested in getting my own comic drawn and published, or to become a world reknown botanist. Those are things that make me happy. Comics and plants. What was the point of that, note sure, these things are mostly rants to tell the truth.
I loved Clerks and when I have the chance I'm renting the rest of the flicks from the Askewniverse. It seems to be an interesting place to visit every now and again. I know the rest won't be like Clerks, but I'm sure I'll fall in love with each of them for different reasons.
And another point, I loved Zack and Miri Make a Porno. That was the most interesting romantic comedy I've ever seen. The characters did seem to be the most real and they didn't follow the stereotypic relationship arc as in most romantic comedys. And the set up that they've known eachother for just about the entireity of their lives and they live together is a great set up for why they never slept together themselves. I loved what you did with the characters, everybody. Everything fit into the rules of the world. Every movie world has it's own set of rules, and the rules for Z&M were engaging and awesome.

Jasmine P.

Fan Letter 1

Since I'm never going to actually mail any of these out, I figure I might as well write them and have them somewhere.

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Dear Mr. Downey,

What can I really say, I'm a fan. I'm not one of those creepy fans that wants to marry you, I'd be wholly content with meeting, and chatting for a day. I love your performances across the board in movies of varying acclaim. I haven't seen everything you've been in, but with what I have, I totally enjoyed your performances.

More than anything, as a fan, I really would just like a good conversation. To just see how you tick when it's not in the public eye. It's not what you were, but it's what you are. Who you are outside of the public eye intrigues me, I feel this way about many celebrities. Well, not many, but just sitting down and talking would be fantastic.

What I'm interested in knowing is what else you're interested in. The public knows of you as an actor and that you ave an interest in music. But what else is there? What types of movies do you like to see? What types of things do you read? It's the little things that make up everything that intrigues me the most. I am a 'why' type of person and am interested in knowing as much about what I'm interested in as possible. Any bit of information helps in creating more well rounded characters, stories.

'Here, check this out, a sketch of one of my characters.' That's what I'd say upon meeting you quite possibly at some point during the conversation.

To any type of point, I would quite simply like to meet and talk. A photo would be magnificent. But it's the truth. I am a fan, but like I said before not a creepy fan. I don't think it's that bad a thing to just meet and chat for a bit. It'd probably be fun. I might teach you something too. We'd both probably benefit somehow.

Points of praise:
Delivery, voice, facial expressions, physicality, emotion. Humor. Those are some of the things I really and truly love about your performances.

Another point is it's interesting with the parts you choose to perform how those hint at things about you. I feel that way about all actors. What you choose to do is an interesting reflection of self. You have taken on parts of damaged characters who are inherently good people. You have taken parts of the wild and of the human. You're wildly human, or maybe simply humanly wild and it works. The pain, the joy. Sometimes you seem to be more than an actor and you are the character, something that few can say they've accomplished.

I look forward to seeing what happens and where you go as you age. A new generation of actors is arriving and going through their own hells, just as everyone did ten, twenty years ago. But even with the youngster coming up, they still need their heroes, and audiences still need the older actors for inspiration and for those sorts of roles in film.
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I got a bit sidetracked while writing this, but it's the over all truth. More to come. More to come.

Jasmine P.