Filmmaker Kevin Smith recently took WIRED’s Autocomplete Interview to answer the Internet’s most searched questions about himself. During the interview, he discussed how to be vegan when you hate vegetables.
Smith is best known for writing, directing, and starring in the cult hit film “Clerks” (1994) as well as “Mallrats” (1995) and other related movies in the “View Askewniverse.” Most of Smith’s films feature or reference the characters Jay and Silent Bob, played by Jason Mewes and Smith respectively. Smith is currently promoting the upcoming “Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.”
In the WIRED interview, Smith discusses his 2018 “widowmaker” heart attack and acknowledges how eating meat and dairy contributed to his poor health up to that point. He also discusses how going vegan had a transformative effect on his physical health and recovery.
“The LAD is the artery that goes across the front of your heart, 100 percent blocked by cholesterol,” says Smith. “[Because] I used to eat a lot of animal food products. I used to drink two gallons of milk a day.”
During his post-op recovery, Smith was supported to go vegan by his daughter and fellow actor Harley Quinn Smith and says that eating plant-based helped him to get healthy.
“After I had a heart attack, my kid encouraged me to go vegan,” says Smith. “She had been a vegan for two, three years at that point. So she was like ‘I’ve gotta flip him,’ and she did, and I became vegan.”
Smith explains that even though he still dislikes eating vegetables, the combination of fasting and a plant-based diet works well for him. “I hate vegetables, [expletive] hate ’em with a passion,” says Smith. “Very hard to be a vegan when you hate vegetables and stuff. But what I do is now I intermittently fast.”
Smith says that given the choice “between broccoli and kumquats” he’d rather not eat. So he skips meals as part of ntermittent fasting. “I don’t eat breakfast. I break my fast at about 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” he says. “I go as deep into the day as I can and I don’t eat after 8 o’clock at night.”
Veganism and Social Justice
Smith is extremely vocal about animal rights, animal welfare, and social justice issues. He is an animal advocate and appeared in a promotional video for Farm Sanctuary with Harley Quinn. The two encouraged viewers to abstain from Thanksgiving turkey and Smith said, “I will never eat another turkey.”
Smith donates $2,000 a month to the non-profit organization Women in Film in place of residuals from his Weinstein funded movies. Smith is also a co-founder of The Wayne Foundation; a charity that supports women affected by human trafficking and exploitation.
