Kevin Smith said that Ellen DeGeneres walked out of his film "Chasing Amy" while discussing the LGBTQ+ community's reaction to the 1997 cult classic in a new documentary.
The film tells the story of a male comic artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Lauren Adams). In a clip for the documentary Smith, 54, is asked if he understood why there was backlash in the LGBTQ+ community.
"Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Believe me, I've had 22 years to get used to that. I got used to that on the [expletive] first week it came out. There were some people that were upset," he responded.
"The biggest blowback, and God's truth, that I heard, felt and was told about was when they told me that Ellen and Anne Heche went to see 'Chasing Amy,' and it was reported that they walked out in the first half hour," Smith continued.
"And us being like, 'Well, that's the most famous lesbian in the world. We just lost her. That means we're never getting on 'The Ellen Show,' " he added.
DeGeneres publicly came out the same year 'Chasing Amy' hit theaters. She was in a relationship with Heche, who died in a car accident in 2022, from 1997 to 2000.
Smith previously spoke about the controversy surrounding the film in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying he understood the movie did not sit well with everyone.
"This is a flick that was made at a different time," he said. "I can't exactly apologize for my complete lack of education. I didn't go to college for liberal arts studies or something like that. I just grew up with a gay brother, and 'Chasing Amy' was kind of a fulfilled promise to my brother."
Commenting on the finished documentary about "Chasing Amy," Smith said he "absolutely loved" it.
"Look, anything that keeps these movies alive for a current generation, I'm all OK with," he explained. "Even if every documentarian wanted to revisit the movies and be like, 'Here's why they're bad,' at least it puts those movies [in front of] a current audience as opposed to racking them with old black-and-whites. For somebody to be like, 'We're going to take a look at your work in the modern era,' it means that, for at least a minute, that movie's relevant again."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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