Even though this comes from “People Magazine”, it is quite amazing.
Kevin Smith is an American Filmmaker, comedian, and comic book nerd who hails from glorious New Jersey. He’s made a series of movies since the early 90’s, most of which are light weight fluff that could be classified in the “comedy” genre and appeal to younger adult audiences. Over the decades, we’ve paid attention to him because one of the other things he’s done for many many years is to tour college campuses participating in long and humorous talks and Q&A sessions to college students. Often discussing his films and their surrounding subject matters. Not only is much of it quite funny, but also gets philosophical at times, talking about life and also various inside skull duggery of Hollywood and the film industry. Here’s a quite beloved explanation he gave at one regarding his attempts to be involved in writing a screenplay for a Superman movie and dealing with a crazy studio executive in the process who of course knew next to nothing about the original material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60
What we like most about him are not his films but instead his willingness to publicly share many of his personal life challenges through these public discussions. Which have often surrounded his struggles with his weight. Here’s another solid gold one dealing with fan heckeling and criticism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou2mVnElp6c
Smith has recently gone through what one could call “acceleration” on his spiritual path. In which, with his years of public speaking experience, he does quite a masterful job of explaining some of his recent life adjustments. For spirituality is not only living more in balance with nature, but very much also fixing your life’s alchemical dysfunctions. Official blurb regarding:
“One morning in January 2023, 'Clerks' director Kevin Smith awoke in terror, convinced he was losing his mind. The next day, he checked into Arizona's Sierra Tucson Treatment Center, where he spent a month in intensive therapy and learned how childhood sexual abuse and bodyshaming over his weight by his 4th grade teacher led him to create and hide behind a larger-than-life public persona he calls "the other guy." Now Kevin has stopped smoking weed, cut back on social media, is slowing down his work schedule after churning out movies, comic books, TV shows and podcasts, and learning about the healing power of self-acceptance. Most importantly, he is determined to get the word out to others who could benefit from hearing his story and the tools he's acquired to help find peace.”