Kevin Smith heard you loud and clear when you said you were sick of all the sequels and remakes Hollywood was churning out, and wanted something new and original. And with "Tusk", the first installment in the director's Canada-set True North Trilogy, there's no question he's giving audiences something they've never seen before: Justin Long as a human/walrus hybrid.
It all kicked off with a goofy want-ad Smith joked about turning into a horror movie on his podcast, but thanks to his fans, who overwhelmingly responded with #WalrusYes on Twitter, that weird, absurdist idea of a guy turning another guy into a walrus became a real movie, starring Long and Michael Parks. And now, curious moviegoers finally get to see just what kind of monstrous creation Smith and Hollywood special effects legend Robert Kurtzman have cooked up.
Following the "Tusk" premiere during the Toronto Film Festival's Midnight Madness, Moviefone Canada spoke to Smith about what it was like seeing Long go full walrus for the first time, his inspiration for the suit's design, and how thrilled he is to still be able to show audiences something new after two decades of making movies.
Moviefone Canada: What was it like for you finally getting to watch this thing with an audience?
Kevin Smith: I gotta be honest with you, I've been wondering for months how they would react when they saw the walrus for the first time. Because we just put it right in your face and rack zoom out so you can see its full body. So I was so curious how that would play, or how some of the jokes would hit. And it was amazing. The audience was religious. We couldn't have had a better first screening. There was a part of me that was like, 'Oh man, by the time this movie's over at 2:00 in the morning, nobody's going to want to talk about it.' Because it's not a real feel-good movie. It's a 'what the f--k?' kind of movie, but it doesn't send you into the night with good feelings. So I was a little worried that the Q&A would be sparsely attended, but everyone stayed, it was packed, it was crazy. And we went on until 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. It was pretty awesome. Great way to bring it into the world.
Did you get any ideas for more Canada jokes from being up in Toronto for a couple days?
I didn't, but it was so strange being in real Canada, even though we'd just come off the "Yoga Hosers" set, so there I was in fake Canada for the previous three weeks. And in our fake Canada, everybody says 'aboot', and there I am in real Canada where nobody says 'aboot'. But it was awesome. I love going there, and I'm obviously a big fan. That's why it's in so much of these next three movies that I'm doing. But boy, I've never loved Canada more than the weekend that "Tusk" premiered at TIFF. Holy s--t. It was like a baptism and a welcome home party, in a weird way.
This movie came together pretty quickly, right? How long was it from that initial idea on the podcast to actually starting filming?
I'd say it was about six months from the day we published the podcast to I was on a set going 'action!' and there was Justin dressed up like a walrus. It was pretty fast, but "Yoga Hosers" was faster. "Yoga Hosers," first draft of the script is dated 4/20, oddly enough. Or appropriately enough. Then we started shooting on August 19th. So that was less than four months. And I think that's the way you've got to do it with these pictures that I'm talking about making. The more thought you have, the more you might be like ...walrus movie? And then not do it. So the faster we go, as long as everyone's bets are financially covered and we keep the budget low -- "Tusk" was about $2.7, 2.8 million -- you're pretty set. If you can move fast, and we've been able to find a way to move fast, we can make a bunch of these.
Story Continues After The Video
And it seems like people want you to keep making a bunch of these, which has to be even nicer.
Yeah, the reaction's been cool. I was so delighted by that. You know, everyone's always like, 'All they make are sequels and remakes.' And I was terrified in Toronto that I'd bring 'em this -- because they're always talking about why won't anyone do something original -- and I thought I'd bring it and they'd be like, 'Not from you, a**hole! From a good filmmaker.' But the good news is they went for original. They don't care who made it. They were just like, 'Well, I've never seen this before.' And I don't need people to love it. It'd be great if they did, but good or bad, I just appreciate the fact that they're like, yeah, this is new. I mean, that's tough. The world has seen everything. You go on the Internet and you could probably find anything you want to look at. But we were able to kind of show 'em something the world has not seen yet: a chimera walrus. That was exciting.
What was the process of designing that walrus suit like?
I said to Bob Kurtzman, 'Leatherface walrus'. He goes, 'Done'. And he sent me a drawing the next day, I was like, 'That's it!' And then he started building. So they cast Justin, they had to digitally cast him, scan him in, and then Bob builds the rubber pieces out of that. So Justin was in a face piece that took about two, three hours to apply every day, and it was only two days in the walrus suit. But it left his body completely free, so he could walk around, he just had his face done with this kind of cowl. But then, he would crawl inside the body of the suit, push his head through a hole, they would fasten the cowl, and suddenly he was a walrus. And the walrus suit itself was kind of like one of those kid's hippity hops, but covered in fake flesh. So it was comfortably for him, oddly enough. In a weird, uncomfortable way. He just laid on his belly and went for it.
It took, the whole process, probably about three hours from the moment he hits the chair to the moment we got him in the suit. And at one point we had like a 25 minute turnaround, so I was like, 'Justin, do you wanna get out of the suit?' And he goes, 'Nah. Honestly, I knew when I read this script and said 'yes' that sooner or later, I'd be sitting here cased in rubber. I'm OK.' But Kurtzman crushed it with that suit. And I was always ready to defend the suit against anyone who would sack it by being like that don't look real. Because I'd be like, well, you show me the real human walrus and I'll compare our design to it.
What'd you think when you first saw Justin go full walrus?
It was creepy. It's the same feeling that y'all have when you see it for the first time. Whether you like the movie or not, that rack zoom where suddenly we show him in the full walrus suit is f--ked up. It just looks weird. Even the concept is weird. Where you're like, 'I can't believe they f--king did it. Look at him, he's a big fat walrus!' So it pays off on that level. A24, the distributors, early on when they got involved in the movie, they were saying never show anyone the walrus. And I was like, are you kidding me? I live on Twitter and Instagram. I'm definitely sharing it. And they said, 'Never show it, because that's going to be the ticket in. Everyone's gonna want to see what the f--king walrus looks like.' And they were right. There's a lot of people who, they hear the word 'walrus' and they're like, wait, how is that possible? And they start doing the math in their heads, going, 'Well, I guess you cut off the legs and maybe sew the arms...' They just want to know what that looks like. So they leave you this much room, you can get your hook in there and be like, come see it on a Friday night!
How much are you thinking about the audience and what their response will be when you're making a movie like this? Genre fans can be a tough bunch to please.
I think you can't. It's one of those things where if you're going to go down the rabbit hole, chances are you have to go alone. If you're trying to blaze a trail, sometimes you gotta go to a place where you can't worry if anyone's gonna follow. But for me, first time I ever did this was "Clerks," and I didn't give a f--k how anybody else saw it or perceived it, or what other people did to make a movie. I just did my thing and played my little punk song and it changed my life. So the same thing here, 20 years later, I was just like, well, hopefully the audience digs it. But after 20 years in this business, I realized if you go around trying to please everybody else, you just come up with something that's safe and everybody's seen before. But this was me trying to please me. To make a movie like I grew up watching, like a David Cronenberg, David Lynch-ian f--ked up affair. Throw some rubber on top of it, like "From Beyond" or "Re-Animator." Get into practical effects. All those movies I grew up watching on cable.
So it felt like if I do that and throw caution to the wind, as long as you keep the budget low, we took care of the financial equation, all that was left was, 'OK, if you didn't have to worry about anything, just making whatever you wanted to make, what would it be?' And that's what this is. Sometimes you just go in a weird direction and people like following. They always say they want to see something new and there's definitely s--t in this movie that, good or bad, you have never seen it before. And that's tough to pull off in the 21st Century.
Are you enjoying subverting expectations of what a "Kevin Smith movie" is with something like this?
Oh my God, you're gonna make me cry. Yes, I absolutely am. That's been part of the fun. I mean, longevity is an amazing thing, but it also makes you an enemy of some cats. Some people become very set in their idea of who you are or what you do. So it was nice to be able to be like, 'Nah, there's this too. This is the movie I could make if I had talent.' And it took me 20 years to get there, but I could kind of pull it off. So I like that. I like playing with the audience in this movie, every step of the way. And just shake up the formula a little bit. As long as the budget's low enough, you can do that. You can do some interesting s--t. So yeah, it has been nice.
I like when people are like, 'This isn't a Kevin Smith movie and yet in many ways, it is a Kevin Smith movie.' It does feel nice to be able to show 'em something two decades in. At this point in my career, everyone should know exactly what I'm all about and have seen everything I've done. And up until last weekend, that was the general consensus for a lot of cats. But it's nice to be able to be like, 'Look, there's a dick under the dick!' And surprise them with a better-looking dick than the one you had shown them 20 years prior. I made it a dick analogy and metaphor. As per usual, I couldn't keep c--k out of it, sorry.
"Tusk" is in theatres now in the US, and releases in Canada October 3rd.
from The Moviefone Blog http://ift.tt/ZAOQX5
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment