The small-budget film won awards at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes, and Smith became a cult hero of indie cinema. But in many ways, little has changed for Muse. After playing Jay in the 1995 feature “Mallrats,” the actor returned to roofing and delivering pizza. “If I was delivering pizza, wouldn’t they all be in the movies?” Muse said.
The two continued to work together, appearing in films (many directed by Smith) and television shows. Meanwhile, Muse struggled with heroin addiction. “For years I was back and forth,” he said. “We did a movie, then I went home and took care of my mother, and then I got nervous again. Kevin came to me to do a movie or something and told me that I was a mess. One time he put me in rehab.See you later, Ben [Affleck] let me in
“Kevin was always there for me,” Muse continued. The one incident Smith couldn’t help was when he showed up at Smith’s door on Thanksgiving, nervous in anticipation of a meal. I was too old for him to let me in. “I had blood on my arm.”
Soon after, Muse entered rehab again. As a creative means of trying to keep his muse sober, the two launched his 2010 podcast, “Jay & Silent Bob Get Old.” Muse has been clean ever since.
In 2013, Smith began writing the script for “Clerks III.” This included the character’s nervous breakdown, the shooting at the theater, and the aftermath of Hurricane His Sandy. “It was very, very dark,” O’Halloran said in a video call. “It was very powerful, but in a very different way, it wasn’t ‘Clerks’.”