'Too Pretty To Be A Geek'

Rosario Dawson On The Comic Book Connection To 'Clerks II'

(CBS)  In a film career that is just over a decade old, the versatile Rosario Dawson has proven she can do it all, from musical to drama, to action.

Now, she's back in theaters in a comedy called "Clerks II," a sequel made a dozen years after the original, that picks up the lives of the main characters ten years later.

"Clerks" became a Generation X classic, spawning a cult industry that even included a comic book series, which is where Dawson and the director and writer of both "Clerks" movies, Kevin Smith, intersect.

With his View Askew production company, Smith forges an entire "View Askewniverse," and directed such films as "Mallrats," Chasing Amy," "Dogma," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Jersey Girl."

On The Early Show Monday, Dawson told co-anchor Harry Smith that Kevin Smith was shocked when she said she would appear in "Clerks II."

She says she found that "so funny. I was so excited that he would even ask me to do it. I've been a big fan of his for a long time. I'm really into comic books, and he did this movie called "Chasing Amy," with Ben Affleck, and it was all about the comic book industry. My uncle is a penciler, and I remember being so glad he wasn't made fun of.

" … As soon as I showed up, we started spieling, and he was like, 'You know comics!' And he's like, 'You're blowing my mind. You're too pretty to be a geek!' And I'm like, 'Sir!' "

Dawson is out with a comic book of her own, "The Occult Crimes Task Force," whose main character is a detective solving crimes involving magic in New York City.

"I'm part co-creator on this," Dawson says, "and I help with the writing and stuff like that. And even like with the first issue, it's like, having a movie industry kind of background, I wanted it to have that 'Silence of the Lambs" feel, like something's coming to get her. She's a little out of her element, but she's toughing it out. That's what she's doing."

"Clerks II" is set in a fast food restaurant, and Dawson plays the clerks' boss. The comedy has racy leanings.