Why Kevin Smith's Daughter Harley Turned Down Female Lead in His New Movie to Play a 'Hooker Nun' Instead (Exclusive)

Smith praises his only child for having "learned to kind of put herself first, and not in that selfish way, but [to] protect your head and heart"

Harley Quinn Smith turned down a lead role in dad Kevin Smith's new movie for a very specific reason.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the release of his newest film The 4:30 Movie, Smith says he originally wrote it in mind with his daughter, who is an actress, to play the role of Melody Barnegat, the love interest of protagonist Brian David (played by Austin Zajur). The semi-autobiographic story closely mirrors that of a May 1986 afternoon spent at a New Jersey movie theater, during Smith's teenage years.

Compared to Zajur, who was an immediate yes, "Harley was a little bit more reticent and didn't call me back right away," Smith, 54, recalls of his only child, 25.

"And then finally she sent me this long beautiful text, well reasoned out, where she's like, 'I love that you want to include me and I love working with you, but the idea of playing your high-school girlfriend, I'm just bumping into it,' " he adds.

According to Smith, "She's like, 'You don't understand what it's like to be your daughter. As wonderful as it is in real life, online, it's a lot of nepo-baby s---.' "

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Smith says Harley suggested he get a different actress for the role, which eventually went to Siena Agudong. At first, the filmmaker says he "chafed, where I'm like, 'What the hell?' "

"But then I'm like, I love that this kid is strong enough to be like, 'You're one of the people in this world I love the most, but I could still say no to you, even if you're my father,' " he tells PEOPLE. "That made me happy not just as a filmmaker, but as a father, as a human being who's like, 'Oh my God, the kid's already better than me' — a generation removed, and she's learned to kind of put herself first, and not in that selfish way, but [to] protect your head and heart. It's a long life."

"So her maturity as an actor and as a person always capture my imagination, but I've spent the better part of 25 years now just trying to make this kid laugh, and it's one of my favorite things in the world to do," the Mallrats director adds.

While Harley doesn't play Melody, she does have a cameo in The 4:30 Movie — as Sister Sugar Walls, the "hooker nun" in a fictional trailer that plays at the movie theater in the film.

"She was like, 'I want to play Sister Sugar Walls.' And I was like, 'That makes me even happier than you playing Melody Barnegat, for heaven's sakes,' " Smith says. "The guy that made Dogma to have his daughter play the hooker nun in the fake trailer. Absolutely."

Related: Kevin Smith Ran into Daughter Harley Quinn at 'the Weed Store': 'Someone Raised That Kid Right'

Smith, who shares Harley with his wife of 25 years Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, has often had his daughter in his films, beginning with 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Her roles have included a co-lead with Lily-Rose Depp in Yoga Hosers (2016), plus smaller roles in Jersey Girl (2004), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) and Clerks III (2022).

"It's always fun to be able to sit there and make pretend with your kid," Smith tells PEOPLE. "It's on a movie and it's a larger scale and she's 25 and I'm 54, but at its root, it's some variation of us playing hide-and-seek or video games together when she was a little kid."

"The fact that we still get to play together is pretty sweet. Breathing pretty rare air," he adds.

The 4:30 Movie, distributed by Saban Films, is available on digital now.

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