Filmmaker Kevin Smith apologized to Shannen Doherty after she revealed on her podcast that Mallrats was responsible for the death of her film career.
Mallrats was a 1995 comedy film written and directed by Smith and was a prequel to 1994's crowd-pleaser Clerks in the View Askewniverse.
At the time, Doherty, who was known for the popular high school drama TV series Beverly Hills 90210, was the most recognized actor in the ensemble cast, which included a then relatively unknown Ben Affleck and Jason Lee, who was hired with no prior acting experience.
It was widely panned by critics and moviegoers but eventually reached cult status following the film's DVD release.
Smith appeared on the Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty podcast and talked about his sophomore film.
“It died,” Smith told Doherty about Mallrat's disappointing performance and reception, to which Doherty revealed:
“So did my film career. That was it.”
You can watch the clip below.
Let's Be Mallrats...with Kevin Smith (Part 1) | Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty youtu.be
When Smith asked if Mallrats really did kill any chances of her succeeding in movies, Doherty replied:
“No, that was it. People literally thought that I was carrying the movie so therefore if it was a box office failure it was completely on me."
"So there was no film career after that, which was a little brutal.”
She added:
“I really thought ‘Mallrats’ was going to kick me into that gear [of] making movies."
After discovering that his film was responsible for destroying Doherty's film career before it even began, Smith responded:
“Boy, I apologize for that."
Moviegoers shared their thoughts on the subject of TV actors transitioning to film.
Fans stood by the comedy movie.
Earlier in the interview, Doherty admitted that she loved the script and her character, Rene Mosier, who was a dramatic departure from her vilified 90210 character Brenda Walsh, whom everyone loved to hate and whose persona was often confused with the actor playing her.
Doherty also said she was looking forward to working with "a young, up-and-coming director. And you were."
Smith, who was generating positive buzz at the time for Clerks, also mentioned that the studio execs were confident in the potential success of Mallrats.
He recalled:
“Tom Pollock, who was the head of Universal Studios at that point, he’s there and he’s like, ‘I was there for the Animal House test screening and this is that."
"This movie is going to make $100 million. And he was off by $98 million.”
Mallrats earned $1.2 million for its opening weekend and grossed an overall total of $2,122,561 at the box office.
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