Kevin Smith Got Death Threats for Dogma: 'Imagine Getting That Irate Over a Movie with a Rubber Poop Monster'

Kevin Smith laughs off the controversy surrounding his 1999 film Dogma.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in a career retrospective released Friday, Sept. 13, the writer-director-actor, 54, recalled receiving “400,000 hate mail and three credible death threats” following the release of his film starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Linda Fiorentino.

Damon and Affleck, regular collaborators with Smith who previously appeared in his 1997 film Chasing Amyled Dogma like fallen angels trying to get to New Jersey and get back to heaven. Fiorentino plays a counselor at an abortion clinic who must stop them in order to prevent the implosion of all existence.

“The movie had a rubber poop monster,” Smith noted EW. “Can you imagine being that mad about a movie with a rubber poop monster?”

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Kevin Smith July 27, 2024

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Some people were offended by Smith’s disrespect for Catholicism and religion. Among the hateful messages was one anti-Semitic letter that read “‘…we’re coming there with shotguns,'” he recalled.

“I hope whoever wrote that, that message, has found peace,” Smith said.

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The film stars Chris Rock, Janeane Garofalo, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek Pinault, the late George Carlin and the late Alan Rickman. Alanis Morissette played God. Smith appeared as Silent Bob alongside Jason Mewes as Jay, their 1994 breakthrough characters. Officialswho will appear in several installments of Smith’s “View Askewniverse.”

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith in “Dogma” (1999).

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Soon after that DogmaWhen it came out in 1999, the director turned his attention to another piece of feedback. “Comparing me to Hitler is quite a stretch,” Smith jokingly said at the time, according to an EW report.

Dogma currently unavailable on streaming platforms. In 2022, Smith claimed that producer Harvey Weinstein was “holding him hostage,” telling The Wrap, “My movie about angels is owned by the devil himself.”

Smith’s latest project, Movie from 4:30it’s in theaters now.

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Source: HIS Education