Kevin Smith’s Tusk: Jesse Eisenberg was Blumhouse’s choice for the walrus

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Released by A24 back in 2014, the Kevin Smith'sTusk (watch it HERE) was very nearly a Blumhouse production – and if it had been, Blumhouse wanted Jesse Eisenberg as the star.

Described as "a chilling horror tale about the perils of storytelling", Tusk stars Michael Parks and Justin Long. The film follows 

a brash American podcaster as he braves the Canadian wilds to interview an old man with an incredible past-only to discover the man's dark secret involves a walrus.

The old man's dark secret involves a desire to turn the podcaster into a walrus through some at-home surgical procedures, as he hopes to find out if man is truly "a walrus at heart". 

Blumhouse came on board to produce Tusk in July of 2013, with the plan being for filming to start that September. As Smith said at the time, things fell apart at the beginning of August because Blumhouse founder Jason Blum decided he 

wanted to wait ‘til January to start shooting — a start date that was based on the availability of an actor he felt was commercially appealing enough to get an audience to come see a walrus picture. It was disappointing, but Jason wasn't saying no; he was saying yes to January. With a star.

Seven years later, Smith revealed the identity of that actor during a watch-along of the Blumhouse production Freaky on Twitter. Blum wanted Jesse Eisenberg to play the character who gets turned into a walrus.

True Story Part 1: Back in 2013, I tried to make @tuskthemovie with @blumhouse. Wanted to actually use the under-construction Blumhouse offices for walrus enclave. Photo and story here: https://t.co/attUcbxtKt #GetFreakyAtHome

— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) December 7, 2020

True Story 2: Alas, @blumhouse asked me to wait for Jesse Eisenberg – but I wanted to cast @justinlong. (Also, @UniversalHorror HATED the script.) So while I amicably went another way, I’ll always appreciate how much @jason_blum really liked the Tusk script. #GetFreakyAtHome

— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) December 7, 2020

Smith was aiming to get Tusk into Sundance the following January, so the idea of delaying the start of filming until January was a deal breaker for him. He ended up taking the project to the production company Demarest Films, which allowed him to get Tusk into production in November – with Justin Long as the man-turned-walrus. Unfortunately, the post-production process still took long enough that Tusk missed the Sundance deadline after all.

But I feel that things worked out just right for Tusk anyway. Long turned in a great performance as the walrus, and it really doesn't feel like Eisenberg would have been right for the role. I can't imagine him screaming, grunting, and crying through a walrus costume.