Shannen Doherty tells Kevin Smith his movie Mallrats killed her film career
Mallrats writer-director Kevin Smith apologised to Shannen Doherty after she said the 1995 box office flop killed her film career.
The 52-year-old Beverly Hills, 90210 actor was discussing the cult classic buddy comedy with Smith on her Let’s Be Clear podcast when she made the revelation.
“That’s kind of the interesting thing about Mallrats, right, is that it wasn’t a box office success,” she told Smith, who agreed, “Oh, it died.”
“It died,” Doherty agreed. “So did my film career. That was it.”
Asked by Smith if she really never went on to make another movie, she replied: “No, that was it. People literally thought that I was carrying the movie so therefore it was a box office failure it was completely on me. So there was no film career after that, which was a little brutal.”
“I really thought Mallrats was going to kick me into that gear [of making movies],” she added.
Smith later said on the podcast: “She’s right, man. It’s like, if this works, here goes the movie career. And it really did not. Boy, I apologise for that.”
Mallrats follows TS (Jeremy London) and his best friend, Brodie (Jason Lee), as they take a trip to the mall after their girlfriends break up with them. TS’s girlfriend, Brandi (Claire Forlani), is appearing in a dating game show at the mall, which was the initial cause of their breakup. Meanwhile, Brodie’s ex, Rene (Shannen Doherty), has begun dating sleazy store manager Shannon (Ben Affleck).
Smith said that the movie was expected to perform at the box office after testing well with audiences at San Diego Comic Con. “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 $100m.’ And he was off by $98m.”
Despite bombing with audiences initially, Mallrats has gone on to claim cult status. Smith acknowledged: “So Mallrats comes out and dies this miserable death and then has this ten year ascension to cult classic.”
Last year, Doherty revealed that her stage four breast cancer has spread to her bones.
She told People in November: “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not – I’m not done.”
Doherty was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, before announcing in April 2017 that she was in remission. However, the cancer returned two years later, and she announced her stage four breast cancer diagnosis in 2020. In June of last year, she also shared a video on Instagram of the brain radiation treatment she was receiving, while revealing her cancer had spread to her brain.
