Kevin Smith Didn’t Know Who He Played in Star Wars, Told Everyone the Wrong Part

Not too long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, filmmaker Kevin Smith was a bit confused about his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Reflecting on his experience in a recent career retrospective with Entertainment Weekly, Smith shared that he had initially mixed up which First Order stormtrooper he voiced in the 2015 blockbuster, directed by J.J. Abrams. “J.J. was kind enough to let me do a voice for a stormtrooper,” Smith recalled. “And he had a bunch of lines written, so he was like, ‘I don’t know which one you’re gonna be. Just say all 10 of these.'”

When Smith saw The Force Awakens in theaters, he thought he had figured out which stormtrooper he was. “I don’t know who it is that I am. I think I’m the guy that’s like, ‘Traitor!’ Like the big one,” Smith said, referencing the memorable stormtrooper who yells “Traitor!” at John Boyega’s character, Finn, during a pivotal scene. For a brief period, Smith told people he was that stormtrooper. “So for the first week The Force Awakens was out, I was telling everybody, ‘I’m traitor, bitch!’ and they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me!'” Smith laughed, before quipping, “Then J.J. emailed me and said stop saying you’re traitor, you’re not traitor.”

The real stormtrooper behind the famous line was voiced by David Acord, as confirmed by supervising sound editor Matthew Wood in a blog post on the Star Wars website. However, Smith wasn’t too far off. His voice can be heard in the same scene, yelling, “We have incoming at 28.6! Move!” during the attack on Maz Kanata’s castle.

In the EW retrospective, Smith also revisited other highlights of his career, including his breakout indie comedy Clerks, cult classics like Mallrats and Dogma, and the stoner comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Smith’s latest film, The 4:30 Movie, is in theaters now. Set in 1986, the coming-of-age comedy follows three teenage friends sneaking into movies at their local theater. When one of the boys invites their crush, chaos ensues. The film stars Ken Jeong, Justin Long, and Adam Pally.