Kevin Smith Tells Goliath The 8 Things He Loves Most About Canada

Kevin Smith is a Jersey boy through-and-through, setting most of his most well-known films in his home state. Recently however, the writer-director has been setting his sights to the north for his aptly-titled True North Trilogy, a collection of films set in Canada. Although Smith has been vocal about his desire to work on film projects that he’s passionate about and get away from the studio picture side of the business, it’s curious that a filmmaker whose work is so closely connected with a specific region would decide to set not one, but multiple films in a different country. We recently chatted with Smith about why he chose to move his stories to Canada and he had quite a lot to say on the subject, making it clear that “America Junior”, as Homer Simpson once called it, is near and dear to his heart.

8. Hockey

Anyone who’s ever seen a picture of Kevin Smith knows that a hockey jersey is his wardrobe item of choice. Besides cutting out the admittedly frustrating concern over choosing what to wear everyday, Smith’s clothing choice also reflects his love for hockey, a sport that has Canada written all over it. Smith is a diehard New Jersey Devils fan and also has an affinity for the Edmonton Oilers, which was evident in our discussion, as he quoted the father of the greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky, when discussing how he went all in when trying to recruit Johnny Depp for the role of Guy Lapointe in Tusk: “You miss a hundred percent of the shots you never take…let’s see if we can do it.” Pair that with the fact that Guy Lapointe was a famous Canadian hockey player (and that his son is actually the Guy Lapointe that inspired Depp’s character, which blew Smith’s mind when he found out) and it’s clear that hockey is a pretty important component of Kevin Smith’s love of Canadiana.