Photo courtesy of imdb.com Kevin Smith, director of several popular movies, said if he had more free time, he'd watch more porn. Smith's latest film, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," will be released on DVD today.

The director, writer and actor talks about life after Jay and Silent Bob

Travesty.

Once again, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its list of nominees for the Academy Awards, and once again the work of director, writer and sometimes actor Kevin Smith has been ignored. Not a nod to Silent Bob. No acknowledgement of Jay's foul-mouthed epithets.

It'll be too late for the Academy next year - Smith is ending his Jay and Silent Bob movie-making trend, which began with his first film, "Clerks," and continued with "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back."

But instead of looking back, Smith looks forward to his next projects: his "Jersey Girl" and "Fletch" films, writing comic books, and - if he has time - watching porn.

"Is winning an Oscar important? Oh fuck no, not at all," Smith said. "Every year now that I'm in the filmmaking business that I've watched the Oscars happen, it's been more evident to me that it just doesn't mean much at all.

"They added the animation category this year, for Best Animated (Feature) Film, and Richard Linklater's movie, 'Waking Life' - which I thought was a real kind of watershed film for animation - didn't get nominated, but 'Jimmy Neutron' did. That's just kind of sad."

Smith said he also believes that even out of the films that were nominated, the award for Best Picture won't go to the most deserving movie.

"Best picture of the year will get taken by 'A Beautiful Mind,' a picture that, to me, is not the best picture of the year," Smith said.

"I'm like, 'Why is this the best picture of the year when there's "Moulin Rouge," which I'm not even that diehard a fan of?' But I can look at that movie and be like, 'This is an astounding film' because no one has ever done some of the things in that movie before. I really thought 'Moulin Rouge' was kind of daring and risk-taking and bold," he said.

While Smith may be hard on some of this year's nominees, he's more forgiving of another film that received a lot of slack.

"I liked 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.' I'm not one of those guys that's like, 'Oh he (George Lucas) fuckin' sold out, he's a jerk and he ruined everything I grew up on.' I went into that movie not expecting to feel the same way I did about those movies as I did when I was a kid. I went into that movie thinking, 'This could be a kids' movie,'" he said.

"Judged on that basis, I enjoyed it. I mean, if you see that movie with an audience full of kids, it's a really great experience - particularly kids who weren't weaned on the first three flicks. So it didn't bother me like a lot of people, and actually the second time I watched it, I thought Jar Jar Binks was kind of fun. But I'm happy to hear there's not a lot of him in the next movie."

Fans of Kevin Smith's most famous characters, Jay and Silent Bob, may be disappointed to learn they won't be in his next few movies. The characters, who first appeared in his black-and-white, low-budget hit "Clerks," were a part of Smith's Jersey Trilogy. The trilogy, which grew to encompass five films, takes place in the Garden State; all five movies feature the shit-talking Jay, Jason Mewes, and his quiet "hetero life-mate" Silent Bob, played by Kevin Smith. Ending the Jersey Trilogy also means ending the film life of Jay and Silent Bob, something Smith doesn't regret at all.

"There will never be another Jay and Silent Bob movie except for the 'Clerks' cartoons," Smith said.

"It's just kind of like 'leave the party before you're the last one there' · when people are like, 'Jesus, will you just go home?' We got lucky, with being able to make five of the movies with those guys in them without people being like, 'enough of that.' I wanted to get out before I was told to leave," Smith said.

Photo courtesy of Miramax Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) and Jason Mewes (Jay) hang out on the set of "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Smith says "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" will be the pair's last movie appearance.

"I didn't want to be Pauley Shore, actually. Everyone loved Pauley Shore; then one day, it turned around and people were like, 'Fuck Pauley Shore.' I don't know why, because he was doing the same shit he was doing in the beginning. Why did people suddenly not like him? It was because he overstayed his welcome."

Fans won't be seeing much of Kevin Smith either. Smith says Silent Bob is also the end of his career in front of the camera.

"I'm done acting, particularly in my movies. I never was an actor, never wanted to be an actor. It just kind of happened by accident," he said.

But just because Smith has ended the Jersey Trilogy doesn't mean he won't be busy. Smith has begun working on his next film, "Jersey Girl," which isn't a part of the Jersey saga, despite its title. After that film is completed, Smith will be contributing his own "Fletch" film. He insists it's a new story and not a remake.

Smith is also a comic book writer and is in the middle of completing a series of Green Arrow comics.

"Right now, I'm in the midst of my run on Green Arrow, which is about four issues. Then I've got a Spiderman book coming out on Marvel," said Smith, who also wrote a script for a Superman movie that was never used.

After Smith finishes all of his writing and directing projects, he hopes to eventually have free time for other achievements.

"I'd like to be immortal. I really don't want to die," he said. "A true achiever in life, I think, would be the guy who didn't die. I guess with all that much time, you'd get to accomplish all the things you don't get to do on a daily basis; and for me, that's watching TV, watching movies. I've got a pile of DVDs that are just lying around."

"If I didn't die, I would watch a lot of porn," Smith said.

The "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" DVD comes out on Walt Disney Home Video today.