Kevin Smith Reveals How George Carlin Changed His Faith on the Set of Dogma

Kevin Smith is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his movie Dogma, and all the ways in which it changed his life. It was the director’s fourth movie and a massive leap forward in terms of recognition and profits, and it allowed him to work with some of his heroes once again. After a successful tour around the nation to watch the movie again with fans, Dogma is returning to theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. Smith spoke to ComicBook ahead of these events, explaining how his own faith was tested on the set of the movie by none other than George Carlin.

“You don’t wind up on a set with George Carlin on a movie about Catholicism and not start questioning your faith, Mr. Lapsed Catholic himself,” Smith joked. Carlin was infamously critical of all religion in his work, and he took aim at the faith he was raised in most often. That’s undoubtedly one of the reasons Smith cast him as Cardinal Ignatius Glick in the movie, which deals with Catholicism in an irreverent but critical fashion. However, unlike Carlin, Smith parodied and criticized Catholicism while still practicing it and holding it dear at that time.

“I remember talking to him about the third act,” Smith went on. “Ben [Affleck] and Matt [Damon] show up at the church where George is rededicating it, and then they snap a cop’s neck, and all hell breaks loose. So, right before we shoot the scene, George is like, ‘What’s going on in the scene?’ And I said, ‘Well, they’re gonna do this, the two angels kill everybody, and then they cut off their wings to become human. They go in the church and when they come out, their sins are forgiven, and then presumably they’ll be killed by the cops and then go straight to heaven.’ He’s going, ‘Where is this in the Bible?’”

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Carlin’s question might have been a joke, but Smith had a real answer for him. “When I was 13 years old, my church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, had a centennial where the Holy See said, anybody who comes through the archway of the church on this day has all their sins forgiven. It’s call the plenary indulgence,” he said. “And so, I’m sitting there going over this with George, and he’s just looking at me and nodding. He has this look on his face of an adult who’s listening to a child overexplain Star Wars. And then finally, he goes, ‘You really believe in all this s—, don’t you?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah. You were raised Catholic — you don’t?’ And he goes, ‘No, I’m smarter than that.’”