While Kevin Smith might be taking a beating over his new film Tusk not exactly setting the box office on fire, the director took to his Hollywood Babble-On podcast to defend the film and explain how it actually resulted in him getting financing for another highly-anticipated film.

“Tusk opened about as poorly as a movie can open,” said Smith. “Honestly, I read a lot of ****ing pieces the day after were like utter disaster and s*** like that. I did. As per usual, the people that love me, love me, but the people that ****ing hate me, hate my guts.”

Smith said the movie only cost $3 million to make, and when the international and domestic rights for the film were sold, everyone was covered, so the film is in the black. However, in retrospect, Smith said that maybe they shouldn’t have opened on so many screens in the U.S. initially.

In explaining why he’s glad that he made Tusk, Smith added, “Everything in my life would suck right now if I hadn’t made that movie. I’m back in movies now. I’ve got three lined up, and this is the ****ing grand news. Tusk was the absolute bridge to Clerks III. Because of Tusk, I got my financing for Clerks III.”

Smith continued, “And honestly, that would not have happened. A year and change ago I was trying to ****ing desperately get Clerks III made for the 20th anniversary. And that desperation, I must have reeked of it, because I couldn’t ****ing find money and s***. But it was Tusk, it was people going ‘Holy F***! What else do you have?’ And I was like, ‘Clerks III’, done. So everybody that’s like, ‘He failed, he failed,’ thank you I failed into Clerks III. So, never trust anybody when they tell you how your story goes, man. You know your story. You write your own story.”