Jason Mewes Biography
Biography
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Jason Mewes was born to a heroin addicted mother and an
unknown father in Highlands, New Jersey, and was raised by his
aunt through most of his childhood while his mother spent time
in jail. When his mother was out of jail, she would usually
steal credit cards from neighbor's mail boxes in order to fuel
her habit. Using stolen money, she bought Mewes one of the few
Christmas gifts he remembers receiving: a bike. During a brief
period when she acted as a drug dealer, she would send a young
Mewes out on his bike to unwittingly deliver drugs to people she
didn't trust enough to deliver them herself. Jason also has a
fear of small spaces which came from his mother locking him and
his sister in the closet when she wanted to go to parties.
Despite this upbringing, Jason Mewes grew up to be a fairly
level-headed, if occasionally offbeat, child, and graduated from
high school. He also became the stuff of legend in his hometown
of Highlands with rumors that he broke a window at a local
pharmacy, or that he had s-- with a dog (neither of which were
true).
When Kevin Smith returned to New Jersey to make his new film
Chasing Amy starring Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams (and
based on his relationship with the latter), he didn't need Jason
as much as the two previous films, mainly because the Jay and
Silent Bob characters were restricted to one 10-minute scene (in
which Smith's Silent Bob character shares much of the dialogue)
which was shot over the course of a night. Mewes had memorized
all his dialogue and pulled it off without a hitch, while Smith
struggled with the large monologue he had written for himself.
Unknown to many was that this was the point where Jason's use of
cocaine and heroin was beginning.
Chasing Amy was released to stellar reviews and even some
awards, and the $12 million gross of the $250,000 film paved the
way for Kevin to make Dogma, a script which utilized the Jay and
Silent Bob characters more than any previous film. Between the
making of the two films, Kevin and Jason attended an AIDS
benefit hosted by Harvey Weinstein, the chairman of Miramax.
Upon learning that Mewes' mother was HIV positive, he promised
to get her to the best doctors in New York, a promise he kept.
Soon after this, Kevin opened up his own comic book store,
called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in Red Bank, New
Jersey. Mewes asked if he could work at the store full time and
Kevin thought it was a good idea, giving him the run of the
place. A few months after the opening of the store, Smith came
in several times to find a customer waiting for Jason to return.
At times Mewes seemed ill and frequently fell asleep. During the
recording of the Chasing Amy laserdisc commentary, Kevin
confronted Mewes and asked him about his drug use. After much
denial, Mewes finally admited that he was using heroin.
Smith moved Jason out of his mother's house and into his own Red
Bank apartment. The night before Mewes started a methadone
program, he was so ill from withdrawals, he tearfully begged
Kevin for money to buy heroin, which he did. Smith says Mewes
still refers to that day as "the day you shook hands with the
devil." Mewes then began the methadone program and started to
successfully kick his heroin habit and spent more and more time
with Kevin, frequently going on trips to find Star Wars dolls at
Toys-R-Us to take his mind off things. Mewes started to show
even more signs that he was becoming healthy again. After
finding out that respected English actor Alan Rickman was going
to star in Dogma, Mewes proceeded to memorize not only his
lines, but the entire screenplay as well so he "wouldn't piss
off that Rickman dude."
While making Dogma, Kevin and producer friend Scott Mosier
instructed Jason's new girlfriend, Stephanie, to watch the
seven-months-clean Jason for any signs that he had started to
use drugs again. To their knowledge, Mewes was clean throughout
the shooting of Dogma but they later found out that Stephanie
had actually become Mewes' connection for heroin while they were
filming in Pittsburgh. Due to the fact that Stephanie was
getting paid, and Mewes was getting his biggest paycheck yet,
they were able to quietly keep themselves equipped with drugs
and not suffer from withdrawal symptoms, while keeping it hidden
from the cast and crew. Ironically, Mewes' Dogma performance is
considered by many to be one of his best, despite being a heroin
addict throughout the shoot. He would even frequently fall
asleep while they were filming scenes but Smith, still somewhat
naïve on the subject of drug abuse, didn't realize this was a
sign that Jason had begun using again.
By this point, Smith had fallen in love with and married
Jennifer Schwalbach and she had become pregnant with their
daughter and moved into a new house. Jason and Stephanie opted
to stay with Jason's mother until Kevin later found out that
Mewes had once again slipped into heroin usage. He moved Jason
and Stephanie into his own house and decided to get them off
heroin, cold turkey. Mewes got into an extremely bad state and
took to crying and screaming at Kevin; at one point, he even
bashed his head against the wall so much that he drew blood. On
another day, when Kevin and Jennifer were having a party in
their house, Mewes disappeared to the bathroom for over an hour.
Kevin later found out that he was smoking cocaine in the
bathroom but, at the time, Jason denied everything so Kevin
threw him out of the house, while Stephanie stayed. Mewes would
call multiple times every day until Kevin finally gave in and
let him stay there again, with even stricter rules than before.
Shortly after, when Stephanie's parents called trying to find
her, Kevin broke it to them that she had become a drug addict
and her parents came to take her away. Realizing what his life
had become, Mewes promised Kevin that he would defeat his heroin
habit.
Once again, shortly after, Jason Mewes started using heroin
again and Kevin kicked him out. Jason lived with his mother
after this and found himself hooked on a new drug: Oxycontin.
After travelling to both France and England for Dogma-related
events, Kevin moved Jason back into his house in order to quit
the drugs cold turkey. After a month, Mewes was still in pain
but recovering and went with Kevin to L.A. for an awards show.
One night, Mewes managed to take Kevin's ATM card, after telling
him he was going to use it to withdraw money and his taxi fare,
and withdrew $1,100 from it by early morning. He spent most of
the night trying to get drugs to no avail and eventually
returned to his hotel room and trashed it. That day, Kevin and
Scott Mosier put Jason in an L.A.-based rehab center, which he
escaped from. Eventually he was found and put back in once
again, and not allowed to take phone calls for a week. When
Kevin finally spoke to him again, Mewes said the place felt more
like a psychiatric ward, so he was moved to another rehab in
L.A. where he proceeded to get clean.
During this time, Kevin and Jennifer returned to Jersey so Jen
could give birth to their daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. A month
later, they returned to L.A. where Mewes was now substantially
cleaned up and much better to be around. He recorded tracks for
the first few episodes of Clerks: The Animated Series and then
later returned to New Jersey, where he became a model citizen,
refusing all the drugs that were offered to him, and steering
clear of his mother's Oxycontin. His one request for the New
York premiere of Dogma was that his ex-girlfriend Stephanie be
allowed to attend. Kevin agreed but Mewes didn't return for the
post-film Q&A or the party, and it was later found out that he
had retreated to his hotel room with Stephanie where they had
shot up heroin, after being clean for only four months. The next
time Smith saw Mewes was at baby Harley's christening, where
Jason stayed for only a short while before leaving.
In order to try and get Jason Mewes to quit drugs, Smith told
him that he was writing a screenplay for a Jay and Silent Bob
feature where Jason would be the lead star, and get a large
paycheck. The condition was that Jason get off heroin and
Oxycontin. Jason agreed and checked into another rehab clinic.
Seeing him again a month later, Kevin found Jason Mewes much
healthier and happier after spending time in a rehab (along
with, ironically, friend Ben Affleck). However, when he was at
Kevin's house on Thanksgiving of that year, it became clear that
Jason had begun using drugs again after someone offered him
cocaine at a Q&A in Colorado. He stayed downstairs at Kevin's
house and kept saying to Kevin's daughter Harley that he would
play with her when she asked, only to disappear again. Angered
at Mewes' attitude towards their daughter, Kevin's wife Jennifer
told Kevin that she wanted Jason out of the house.
Despite writing a role for him as Arthur Brickan in his new film
Jersey Girl, it became clear to Kevin that Jason wouldn't be
able to act in the film. He had dropped out of two rehabs that
Ben Affleck had paid for, and a bench warrant for his arrest had
been issued for him in New Jersey. On the advice of a doctor,
Smith began to use a "tough love" technique on his friend, not
letting him in his house or letting him see Harley anymore. By
this point, Mewes had taken to occasionally living on the
streets and had dropped out of the Betty Ford Clinic after only
two days. He would occasionally come and see Kevin, who was
editing Jersey Girl at the time, and borrow money from him,
which he said was for cigarettes but was actually to fuel his
continuing drug habit. After a scare when it was said that Mewes
had died, he finally checked into another rehab and began to
clean himself up again. The no-frills rehab seemed to click and,
finally, Jason Mewes began to clean up his life. In late October
2003, Smith and company held a party for fans to celebrate Mewes
cleaning up[1].
After struggling with opiate addiction his entire adult life, in
2003 Mewes finally managed to get clean and stay that way.
Coincidentally or not, 2003 was also the year buprenorphine was
first introduced to the U.S. market for this purpose, providing
opiate addicted patients with a revolutionary new tool to assist
in their recovery.
While he is mostly known for acting in films, Jason Mewes also
has worked in television. He voiced the role of Jay in the
short-lived Clerks: The Animated Series. He, along with Smith,
have made appearances on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He
appeared in two episodes of a three-part story arc in which he
and Smith film a new addition to Smith's New Jersey films
entitled Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh? at Degrassi Junior
High. They appear again on Degrassi, at the premiere of Jay and
Silent Bob go Canadian, Eh? in Canada. Mewes, Smith, and
Degrassi star Stacie Mistysyn made the cover of Canadian TV
Guide. In 1998 he starred as "Gary Lamb - Ground Activist" in a
series of Nike commercials directed by Smith.
Film List
- Clerks. (1994)
- Mallrats (1995)
- Drawing Flies (1996)
- Chasing Amy (1997)
- Dogma (1999)
- Tail Lights Fade (1999)
- The Blair Clown Project (1999)
- Spilt Milk (1999)
- Scream 3 (2000)
- Vulgar (2000)
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
- R.S.V.P. (2002)
- High Times Potluck (2002)
- Hot Rush (2002)
- Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)
- Powder: Up Here (2004)
- My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005)
- Clerks II (2006)
- Bottom's Up (2006)
- Feast (2006)
This Jason Mewes Biography Page is Copyright The Planets © 2004 - 2006 Chuck Ayoub