Kevin Smith Advises Filmmakers: 'Your Voice is Your Asset in This Life'

      Kevin Smith visited El Paso, Texas for the first time on Thursday to launch the El Paso Film Festival by sharing insights and advice from his filmmaking journey. He began with a humorous yet fragile connection to El Paso.

      He recalled a scene from Clerks where Jeff Anderson’s character, Randal, plays with a tortilla chip in a jar of salsa while humming the Jaws theme. The New Jersey filmmaker noted:

      “If you observe that jar of salsa, there’s a small piece of gaffer tape covering the product's name. As inexperienced filmmakers, we were concerned about potential lawsuits if we featured the product name. Instead of creating a fake label—which we couldn’t afford—we simply used gaffer tape to shield the logo.”

      He then disclosed, “That logo was Old El Paso. It took me 31 f—ing years to get to this point, man.”

      From that point, he transitioned into a 90-minute whirlwind of stories about his experiences as Kevin Smith, addressing an audience that included many dressed as his iconic Clerks character, Silent Bob. Speaking alone on the expansive stage of El Paso’s beautiful, 95-year-old Plaza Theater, he recounted tales of his heart attack eight years ago, wild fan encounters at White Castle and Target, and purchasing his friend Ben Affleck’s house.

      When a fan inquired about his horror film Tusk, Smith shifted to discussing the craft of filmmaking. He cautioned that his Q&As often consist of “a little bit of Q and a whole lotta A,” which certainly held true for his response about Tusk.

      Released in 2014, Tusk tells the story of a brash podcaster (Justin Long) who travels to Canada for an interview and encounters a retired sailor (Michael Parks) fixated on a walrus named Mr. Tusk. Eventually, he transforms the podcaster into a walrus.

      While Tusk was a box office disappointment, it has developed a dedicated fanbase due to Smith's willingness to challenge boundaries. He mentioned that it's one of the films he’s most frequently asked about.

      The idea for Tusk emerged from discussions on his previous podcast, the SModcast, and Smith decided to pursue it after soliciting fans' opinions via the hashtags #walrusyes or #walrusno. He wrote a script that failed to excite Hollywood until he met a financier who expressed interest.

      “I asked him, ‘Did you like it?’ He responded, ‘I don’t know,’” Smith recounted.

      However, the executive from Demarest Films, Sam Englebardt, told him: “I just want to see if you can do it. … This might be one of the silliest screenplays, but it actually holds together, man. I think you might be able to make it work.”

      Tusk marked a shift from Smith’s dialogue-centric comedies, typically revolving around young individuals navigating love and life. He explained that it represented a significant creative leap that “would have made more sense at the start of my career,” rather than two decades in.

      He produced the film for $3 million, which it failed to recoup, and endured mixed reviews and some online criticism. Yet, he learned that such feedback is short-lived and the film endures.

      "I’ve experienced this several times, like with Mallrats, Jersey Girl, and later Tusk and Yoga Hosers, where a project fails and faces backlash. In that moment, people celebrate its downfall, saying ‘Ha, ha, you tried and it didn’t work. F— you.’”

      He added, “They have that moment. But for the rest of my life, I get to savor that f—ing movie, man.”

      Smith advised aspiring filmmakers in attendance to avoid reinventing old films and to seek out unique stories that only they can tell. He noted that he wasn’t just addressing young people but also those in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who possess valuable life experience.

      “If you’re fortunate enough to enter this world and have people care about your message and your art, remember that for the rest of your life, you’ll be chasing relevance, and it’s a continuous journey,” he stated.

      “When I step into a movie studio, they don’t eagerly welcome me. They aren’t saying, ‘Here comes the future of film.’ They’re saying, ‘Here comes Clerks 9,’” he joked.

      “You know who they dream about? You, you, you, you,” he pointed out, gesturing to the audience. “I assure you, they have no interest in me anymore. They’re focused on you. Why? Because they haven’t heard your f—ing story yet, kids."

      “Your voice is your currency in this life. That’s all you possess in this life—your perspective on the world and how you express that to the world.

      Many yearn to make films. People love cinema and think, ‘I