Kevin Smith Recalls the First Time He Met Stan Lee

You can always count on Kevin Smith for a good Stan Lee memory. The director known for Clerks was one of the first to snag the comics legend for a movie cameo, having put Lee in his 1995 comedy Mallrats. During his later years, Lee became known for making movie cameos, especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, one of his first big movie roles was in Mallrats, which the MCU paid tribute to in last year’s Captain Marvel. Yesterday, Smith took to Instagram to share the memory of the first time he met Lee.

“I KNOW THE DAY I MET STAN LEE! Quarantine-cleaning my office and I uncovered a cache of golden mementos from the start of my career. This is a set of sides from MALLRATS – the miniature copies of the script pages production uses daily when making a movie. These are the sides from the day we shot the scenes with @therealstanlee, and that was the first time I met Stan. And since these sides have the date on them, I know that I met my mentor and future friend on March 15, 1995. We watched the previous day’s dailies at 2:30, before Stan arrived, and then producer Jim Jacks introduced me to Stan in front of the fake comic book store, Comic-Toast. He was sweet, funny, and everything I hoped he’d be. I recall Jim pulling me aside to say ‘Remember: He’s 70, so be careful with him. He’s an old man and could die at any minute.’ Stan lived to be 95. Over 20 years after he shot his cameo in Mallrats, Stan filmed one of his many @marvelstudios cameos for the movie @captainmarvelofficial. In that cameo, Stan was preparing for his Mallrats cameo. That’s some Marvelous Meta! Meeting Stan Lee enriched my life – and now I know the exact date that it happened,” Smith shared. You can check out the post below:

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I KNOW THE DAY I MET STAN LEE! Quarantine-cleaning my office and I uncovered a cache of golden mementos from the start of my career. This is a set of sides from MALLRATS – the miniature copies of the script pages production uses daily when making a movie. These are the sides from the day we shot the scenes with @therealstanlee, and that was the first time I met Stan. And since these sides have the date on them, I know that I met my mentor and future friend on March 15, 1995. We watched the previous day’s dailies at 2:30, before Stan arrived, and then producer Jim Jacks introduced me to Stan in front of the fake comic book store, Comic-Toast. He was sweet, funny, and everything I hoped he’d be. I recall Jim pulling me aside to say “Remember: He’s 70, so be careful with him. He’s an old man and could die at any minute.” Stan lived to be 95. Over 20 years after he shot his cameo in Mallrats, Stan filmed one of his many @marvelstudios cameos for the movie @captainmarvelofficial. In that cameo, Stan was preparing for his Mallrats cameo. That’s some Marvelous Meta! Meeting Stan Lee enriched my life – and now I know the exact date that it happened. #KevinSmith #mallrats #stanlee #movies

A post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on May 9, 2020 at 4:50pm PDT

While Lee sadly passed away before he could cameo in Smith’s latest film, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, the director did insert a filmed conversation between him and Lee during the movie’s end credits. According to Smith, each crowd during the Reboot Roadshow had epic reactions to Lee’s appearance in the movie. He even shared a clip of the crowd going wild for the Marvel icon.

Smith is currently working on a Mallrats sequel and confirmed that the new movie will feature a Stan Lee scene.

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