The director and actor talks about his near-death experience, becoming vegan and the star-studded reboot of the film that first made him famous 25 years agoIn February last year, Kevin Smith performed 90 minutes of standup for a TV special, padded back to the green room and started to worry that the joint he had smoked before the show was too strong. He was sweaty and nauseous, which was not entirely out of the ordinary. But after he lay down on the tile floor and vomited, he was rushed to hospital, where a doctor broke the news that Smith was having a massive heart attack.
Smith stayed calm. Honestly, he tells me, as we talk at his
Hollywood Hills home, he was still stoned. On learning that he might die, he says: “I was like: ‘I’m going to make peace with this right away.’ You did way more than you ever set out to do, you got to do some cool shit, and if it’s done, it’s done.”