What part of you was speaking through Marcel back then?
Because doing voices can sometimes be about expressing a thing you wouldnt normally say.
Watch on Deadline
JENNY SLATE: And sometimes thats right.
Katie McCurdy
DEADLINE: You dont go there because you dont actually want to do it?
SLATE: Yeah, I dont really want to.
Thats as close as I can describe it.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes OnA24
You feel insistent, and also gregarious and likeable and ready to party.
You put that all together and it comes out in this weird tight stream.
And thats what that voice is.
And Marcels pretty relaxed into his own state of being.
Of course, you could be lost in it.
Youre in the universe, and it can really, really hurt to know that.
But your smallness is a part of that.
And its not smallness, its just existence and presence…
I just love it.
It makes me feel so good.
DEADLINE: Back in 2010, this was a little short.
You didnt expect anyone to see it and then suddenly, millions were watching on YouTube.
It took seven years to finish the feature, but how did the film come about?
SLATE: I dont think we intended for it to take seven years.
And we had a Covid shutdown as well.
Its so functional and its aesthetically pleasing in a way that just is perfectly in the zone.
Its not too little, its not too much.
Its exactly what you need for the appetite you have.
They were really involved in shaping the film, but they also really let us have the final say.
And thats Philipp Engelhorn, who started Cinereach.
And the film wouldnt exist if he wasnt there.
Its really Phil and the people that work with him, Caroline Kaplan and Andrew Goldman and Paul Mezey.
DEADLINE: Isabella Rossellini plays Nana Connie.
Did she immediately get what you were doing?
Is that why she wanted to do it?
She is really an adventurer.
She just seems to be, to me, someone who wants work that impacts her senses.
She had a lot of questions.
A lot of people want to know what theyre getting into.
But for Isabella, the questions were just exciting to her.
She trusted that we had the answer.
There was no hesitation.
There was no, Im feeling silly.
There was no question about, Why do I have a microphone taped to my forehead?
DEADLINE: So its essentially improv that you re-work over and over and then you pick out the gems?
But that said, I also did a lot of improv…
SLATE: Yeah, its really, really nice.
And then there are other moments that are totally written.
Marcel, how he climbs up the wall with the honey and things like that.
What scene should be in its place?
Should the story take a different turn here?
And then they would write to that.
And then we would go back and re-record and re-improvise within that script and find more space.
And then they would come back and write more and clarify what had been said.
And then we would re-record again.
DEADLINE: Is there a favorite line from Marcel that still gets you every time?
SLATE: I really like the last part in the laundry room.
It soothes me and reminds me of how I am capable of feeling.
Oh man, I dont know.
I love so much of it.
