With writer-director Kevin Smith’s Clerks 3 opening in select theaters September 13th, I recently got to speak with Rosario Dawson about making the sequel. During the wide-ranging interview, Dawson talked about how Clerks 3 is more emotional than she expected, how she ugly cried during the premiere, why she loved being able to play Becky again, the way Smith works on set, how she always tries to challenge herself with her choice of roles, and how appreciative she is of the fans. In addition, we talked about her upcoming Ahsoka Disney+ series, what it’s been like working with The Volume technology, and how hard everyone works behind-the-scenes to make sure they meet the fans expectations.

Clerks III continues the journey of Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), except they now own the Quick Stop. But after Randal has a heart attack and almost dies, he faces an existential crisis when he thinks he has nothing to show for his life. Almost immediately, Randal decides to enlist his friends to film a movie about his life working at the Quick Stop. In addition to Anderson and O’Halloran, Trevor Fehrman, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Smith himself will all be reprising their roles from the previous Clerks movies. The film also features Ben Affleck, Fred Armisen, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amy Sedaris, and Justin Long.

Watch what Rosario Dawson had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below.

COLLIDER: So, a bunch of questions for you. If someone has actually never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

ROSARIO DAWSON: Ooh, I don't know. It depends on the person.

Usually, it's like a reason to talk about it. We can go on to a different question.

DAWSON: No, I mean, just, sorry. It just really depends on the person. I've done so much different genre stuff and have done so many low-budget, independent, whatever kind of things. And then these bigger projects, marathons. It's so funny, the idea you couldn't get people to watch an 18-hour movie, but they could watch 18 episodes and binge-watch it. So, really, it depends on the person, [the] kind of humor you're into. I feel like that's been a big part of my decision-making, film-wise, is have I done it before? And is it an audience maybe that I haven't explored, and it's just a type of genre. It's just trying to challenge myself and push myself and not get too familiar.

Some people really lean into that, and you can count on their laugh or a smile or something like that, 15 minutes in, and they become that kind of actor, whatever. But I just want to be a part of all the genres. I just want to be in all the universes. I'm in View Askew, Marvel, DC. I'm hoping to be a mutant one day, and in Star Trek. And then that's it. And then I'm good.

Is there a project from your past that you wish more people had seen? Something that you're really proud of that you want to highlight?

DAWSON: Gosh, I have to just say, I want to just appreciate the fact that there's been so many fans for projects, say Josie and the Pussycats, or things that might not have necessarily hit at the time, but people have kept alive all these years, and I think that's really special, so.

Now that the costume and the makeup and everything for Ahsoka is out there, have you thought about ever wanting to go to a Comic-Con and doing cosplay as yourself.

DAWSON: Yeah! No, I was talking about that. I want to play, I want to be the person who walks around in Disney and takes pictures with kids. I think that'd be dope.

I think it would be amazing.

DAWSON: I'm really impressed by people's cosplay, though. The folks that I interact with, people get really down sometimes with the details, which are really, really incredible. So, I love that, I think it's great. I'm a cosplayer, so that's fun.

Jumping into why I get to talk to you, I found Clerks III to be more emotional than I expected. How was it for you?

DAWSON: I was ugly crying during the premier. That was just something I gave myself over to. I hadn't seen it before, so I had expected it. I was glad my makeup survived, but I have been wanting to see this story for a long time. Not particularly this story. I didn't know that, until I read the script, exactly what it was going to look like, but I've been wanting to catch up with these characters for a while, and it was poignant because it's not just a story. It's a reality. We almost lost Kevin to a heart attack. We wouldn't have had this movie. We wouldn't have had so many different things. Seeing his daughter being a part of his storytelling so much, she would've been without her father. Just what these relationships mean to us on camera and behind it and off is just so meta in a way that is hard to describe, honestly.

It just felt really important and really special and really poignant, and I loved being able to be Becky again and love her. I miss her, and it was so special that she's so important that it could make the film automatically resonate and hit a soft spot so quickly, be so jarring and so captivating, and such an important storyline. It was just remarkable to be a part of a decades-long storytelling in a way that just resonated so strongly and was so emotional. It has just so much humanity to it. So, yeah, I'm glad it really all worked. It was controversial. I was nervous about it. I've been really anxious about it, and we did all a bunch of improv and stuff. I didn't know it was going to be in there, and it's really special. It's really amazing, and it was wonderful to see all the stuff that I didn't get to see on the day because I wasn't filming every day. But Brian, that monologue he does at the end is so powerful. He really killed that. Their performances in this across the board was really, really special and just earned over a lot of years. So, I think the fans are going to really love it.

What do you think fans of Kevin Smith would be surprised to learn about the way he works on set, if anything?

DAWSON: I don't know. I think he really, with his podcast and everything, he really brings people behind the scenes, but it really is so relaxed. It is just so relaxed. It's such a well-oiled machine, and he knows what he wants, and he expresses it super well, and everyone's just on the same page and we just all know what we're making, and it's so quick, and it feels super relaxed. We're just hanging out. Now, being on several of his sets, it's something, it is hard work. It's super stressful. And I'll talk to Liz Destro and the producers and I get the things that are, the location fell through, all this stuff, the stresses that are normal to making a film, but I think, just because he loves it so much, and he's so good at it that it just, there's some kind of, I don't know, it just feels easy. Liz Destro would be like, "That was not easy," but it feels easy. He makes it really just easy. So, you're just having fun, which is nice. Not every set feels fun. So, I appreciate that.

No, I think a lot of people who just watch movies don't understand what really goes on behind the scenes of the making of a film and how challenging it can be.

DAWSON: Yeah, for sure.

I definitely have to ask you, I am really looking forward to your Disney series, Ahsoka. Have you actually started filming?

DAWSON: Oh, yeah. We started filming on my birthday, May 9th. We're just a couple of months shy of finishing, so...

I know you're going to be guarded, but I'm curious what directors you get to work with on the series. Is it similar to The Mandalorian crew, or is it more like other people stepping in?

DAWSON: Again, I don't know if I'm allowed to say any of that stuff, but I do have to say, it feels really, really special. Everyone is really excited about it. Dave [Filoni] has been wanting to tell the story for a while, and everyone's just really showing up and out, like a lot of blood, sweat, and tears going into this, and it feels like, it's interesting is that because of Mando, everyone's really great at making Star Wars.

It's a well-oiled machine in a different kind of way, and there's a familiarity between all the different departments, which is super interesting, 'cause I've only experienced that, again, on Spike Lee Joint, or a View Askewniverse project, because there's just such a family kind of element to it. And that's what it feels like on set. So, that's special, 'cause it's hard, what we're doing, and it's really coming together really beautifully. There's a lot of dedication and heart going into it, and we know the expectations. So, we're loving it so far. So, I can just say we're enjoying ourselves.

I've seen some of Andor, and it blew me away.

DAWSON: I can't wait for that.

Yeah, it's really incredible, actually, the four episodes I saw, but one of the things that I love about what they've been doing is using the Volume technology to help tell stories, and I just want to know if you could talk a little bit about working with that technology and what it's allowed you to do?

DAWSON: Yeah, no, it's shocking. It's really remarkable what we're able to do. I have to say, it was one of the coolest things on Mando, having Robert [Rodriguez] there, and us doing Sin City on green screen together, and blue screen and to see where the technology has evolved to. And all of us being nineties folks, right? Jon Favreau with Swingers, it's like, there's this nerdy, awesome, just behind-the-scenes thing of it. These folks have become these remarkable auteurs and can kind of do anything that they wanted, but they're really just coming from this independent background of just going, "I want to make something cool. I want to do some, I love this whole process. I love filmmaking."

So, to be able to do something on, they're making pre-vises, and when he was doing Lion King, and they're doing all this stuff and virtual reality, I mean, they're really transforming just how the whole process is. And it's wonderful when you're there and the whole crew and the cast, everybody can see it. We're not just looking at dots. We're able to really visualize it, and there's a graphic on the screen that's showing us what it's going to look like in post already. And it's really cool, and it feels big in the scope and broad and outside, and we're indoors. It's just mind-boggling. It's really cool. We're always like, "really cool."

Lionsgate in partnership with Fathom Events will be releasing Clerks 3 exclusively in theaters from September 13th - 18th.