Posted by Sir James Lacaita at bpr10-195.ih2000.net on November 18, 2000 at 14:25:45:
In Reply to: I'm sure this has been touched on before but.. posted by Baxter151 on November 18, 2000 at 14:07:01:
From the summaries:
As Silent Bob throws Bartleby off the train, Bartleby yells
something. I can’t quite make out what he is saying. What is
it?
Kevin : "Long story. Buckle in. Ready? We were working on
'Chasing Amy', and our old office on Broad St. was the production
headquarters. Affleck - not being a mega-star in them thar days -
would spend time off from the flick around the office, as there is
little else to do in Red Bank besides make movies. One day, he
noticed the German theatrical release poster for 'Clerks', and
immediately insisted that we made it ourselves; that there was no
way the flick traveled overseas, as it was a piece of
Americana-laced horseshit (that's how an Affleck affectionately
teases; at least, I'm pretty sure he was teasing...). Anyhoo, I
countered by saying that 'Clerks' did play Das Fatherland, and that
it'd gone over pretty well - so well, in fact, that they'd even sent us a
poster and some lobby cards. He asked if they'd translated the flick
or subtitled it, and I said when Scott and I watched it at the Munich
Film Fest, it played in English with no subtitles, and folks laughed
in the right places. I boasted (jokingly) that Germans were
inundating me following the screening, touching my coat,
whispering in awe "Schueller Bob!" He found that very funny, and
from time to time, he, himself, would call me "Schueller Bob." He
thought - as it was the implication, though I don't know German
really - that 'schueller' meant 'silent'.
Years pass, and we're shooting the train scene in 'Dogma'. My
hands grab Ben, he's supposed to turn and make a shocked
utterance, and I pull him out of the shot. On the second or third
take, he said "SCHUELLER BOB?!?" Me, him, and Mosier cracked
up hysterically. He begged me to leave it in. I told him "Three
people are going to get it." He said "No - it's more than that. It's
back story." He then went on to explain that since Bartleby's been
walking the earth since the plagues, he's come across many
incarnations of Silent Bob - all of which had, in one way or another, thwarted Bartleby's plans (nevermind that Bartleby was always
pretty straight-laced; Affleck never much cares for any backstory
that he doesn't make up himself). And since the original angelic
tongue was Germanic (Affleck's theory, based on nothing other
than it suited his present hypothesis), Bartleby utters "Schueller
Bob," when Bob grabs him in the fight, because in the heat of
battle, Bartleby finally sees clearly the face of his immortal enemy
through time.
Sir "Schueller" James L.
Since he worked so hard on all that in such a short amount of time
(about ten seconds or less), I said we'd do another take where he'd
repeat "Schueller Bob," this time with no character break (we'd
laughed aloud when he first said it). So to follow through, when I
throw him off the train, he yells "I'll get you for this, Schueller Bob!!!"
It was a throwaway gag that only three people were very amused
by. Now, you guys are let in on the joke.
Granted, it's not a very funny joke. It's just pretty much classic
Affleck rationale in action. It's why I love the guy, and why those
two flicks ('Amy' and 'Dogma') are marginally more precious to me
than the other two: because for me, they'll always be the ones
where Affleck shined the brightest - both on camera and off."