Kevin Smith Explains Why He's Terrified of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Filmmaker Kevin Smith is in such better shape than he was when he had his heart attack two years [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Filmmaker Kevin Smith is in such better shape than he was when he had his heart attack two years ago that his weight loss was the subject of a lengthy joke by co-star Jason Mewes in the recent Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. Still, he qualifies as a person with a pre-existing heart condition, which makes him high risk if he contracts COVID-19. That's enough to make him worried about the novel coronavirus pandemic that has forced most Americans to live with social distancing requirements or shelter-in-place orders. The filmmaker briefly touched on the subject during an interview that ran yesterday.

Speaking with Marvel honcho Joe Quesada on Joe Q's Mornin' Warm Up, Smith quipped that early reports that the virus was especially bad for groups other than his were easy to dismiss. Of course, if you've got a history of heart or respiratory problems, COVID-19 is particularly deadly, and if you have heard Kevin Smith speak in the last couple of years, you know he had a life-changing heart attack.

"When people started talking about COVID and quarantine and stuff, and the pandemic, the first thigns you heard were like 'old people,' then you heard 'kids.' And I was like, 'I'm neither old nor a kid, so I'll be alright,'" Smith joked. "Then they were like 'high-risk heart attack victims,' and I was like 'oh no!' Now I'm in a sad old demographic."

You can check out the video below.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to have major impact on the entertainment industry and it's something that is likely going continue to have an impact well into the future -- impact far beyond the economic implications. As a major historic and cultural event, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have an impact on the stories going forward and that includes Smith's sequel to Mallrats.

"It's so weird. I was writing today and I was working on Twilight of the Mallrats, the Mallrats 2 script and so I had just read last night articles about the retail apocalypse where 2020 was going to be the death knell for a bunch of stores anyway but the pandemic has escalated that, made it worse, and we're about to see a lot of big box stores, big name stores that you and I have known for most of our lives just go away forever," Smith recently said. "That means massive vacancies in malls so they're predicting the entire implosion of malls. They were already teetering, but an entire implosion of malls across America. So, as a guy who's writing a movie set in a mall I'm like 'well, that's useful information!' for my line of work so I had to start writing the pandemic into the movie because clearly this is going to be remembered for all time. It's not like 'oh, why would you make, that's so topical, the coronavirus happened last year.' You'll still be hearing corona-related stories and plotlines and drops for the next five to ten years the same way post-September 11th that was everywhere."

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