“To make Marcel, this small voice that says, ‘I like myself,’ was an unconscious way of saving myself. Now, I finally understand what I would start to say to my younger self. You could be three times as kind. To yourself and to other people.”
-Jenny Slate, episode 281 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Five years ago, Jenny and Sam sat for a special conversation. They promised to reconvene in 2020 (which they did). To celebrate the release of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Jenny returns for round three!
We unpack the decade-long journey to making Marcel (8:00), what the character embodied for her (11:19), creating with director Dean Fleischer-Camp (13:39), combating misogyny in Hollywood (15:16), and the painful timeliness of her 2014 film, Obvious Child (17:54).
On the back-half, we return to passages from our 2017 (29:30) and 2020 conversations (34:40), what Jenny has learned since becoming a mother (36:55), and the regenerative power of making I Want You Back (38:52). To close, Jenny shares a special poem at the heart of Marcel the Shell, written by Philip Larkin (42:27).
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Show-notes:
- Purchase tickets to see Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, releasing nationwide on July 15th.
- Hear our previous talks from 2020 and 2017.
- Follow Jenny on Instagram and Twitter.
- Watch her 2014 film Obvious Child.
- Order her book Little Weirds.
- For more, hear our conversations with Tessa Thompson, Nick Offerman, Meg Stalter, Bill Hader, Cate Blanchett, Questlove, and Alana Haim.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
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Illustrations by: Krishna Shenoi.
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