-Our next guest is a very funny actress, comedian,
and best-selling author you know from her work
in movies like "Obvious Child" and shows such as
"Parks and Recreation" and "The Great North."
She co-created, co-wrote, voiced, and produced
"Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,"
which is in select theaters this Friday.
Let's take a look.
-Rolling. Give me some levels.
-Give -- give you some levels? Like --?
-Just, like, talk. -Like --
Oh, uh -- Hello.
My name is Marc-- Mar...
[ Sighs ]
It's not the first time I've done that.
My name is Marcel,
and I'm partially shell, as you can see on my body.
But I also have shoes and...
a face.
-Please welcome back to the show, our very good friend,
Jenny Slate, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Jenny, you look wonderful. -What the heck?
-I should have kept my suit on.
-I know it. I know.
Or it's just weird that you also didn't have a --
-Oh, you should have brought me one.
-Yeah, John stole my bit, so I just left it, you know?
-You look very -- you look so beautiful.
So put together.
But you had quite an ordeal getting here today.
-Here's what happened.
And this is a real, fresh story. It's really real.
-This is the today story.
-This is -- Yeah, this is really what happened.
So, like most people who go on an airplane,
I fell asleep on the way to the airport.
Got on the plane, and immediately was like --
[ Snoring ]
Like, just down, just out.
And then, like, woke up just long enough to
recline a tiny bit more and just get deeper into that slumber.
And then woke up when the plane was like --
[ Imitates metal creaking ] You know?
And then woke up, ripped open a thing of, like, cashews
and was like glug, glug, glug.
Just a class act.
Class act all the way through.
And waltzed off the plane,
and when I got out of the airport,
I realized that I had left this dress on the airplane.
-Oh, like, a carry-on garment bag?
-Yeah, because I was like --
My stylist, who helped me find a non-sweatsuit outfit.
-Yeah.
-Because I'm a mom, like, splattered in --
-Baby -- yeah.
-Literally anything you can throw.
-Baby detritus, yeah. -Oh, big time, big time.
That's my look.
He was like, "Oh, you know you have to actually,
like, get dressed up and do this."
And so I was like, "Oh, I'll shove it in my bag."
And he was like, "No, no, no, no, no.
You're not going to shove it in your bag.
You're going to hang it up on the plane."
And I was like, "Of course. Of course I'm gonna do that."
And I did, but then I left it there.
[ Laughter ]
Waltzed right off, left it on the plane.
And then like -- and also,
I was wearing sweat pants on the plane.
-Yeah.
-Got to the lady at the Jetblue desk.
I was -- I was crying. -Yeah.
-I also took off my mask so she could see my frown.
So she would know it was like, a full thing.
And yeah, and they had to find this for me.
And I just, I really --
I was on the verge of sweatsuit, but in fact,
it's this.
-Seems like we maybe owe
a shout out to the good people at Jetblue.
-I know, I know.
I just want to say thank you to the lady at the Jetblue desk.
I was like, "I'm going to give you a shout out.
I'm going on a television show tonight.
It's Seth Meyers." She said, "I love that show."
-Oh, wow. -Okay?
She said, "I love that show."
[ Cheers and applause ]
-So, this is -- I'm always happy to see you.
This is such a wonderful reason to have you here.
"Marcel the Shell" was a short film,
a stop-motion film you made years ago.
You posted it online,
and it became -- in my mind, it's one of the sort of earlier
YouTube sensations.
Is that accurate, my memory of it?
-That is accurate. Your memory is accurate.
Yeah, it is.
It's sort of a wonder,
because anyone who knows me knows I hardly know
how to turn on my computer.
-Yeah.
-Yeah, but Dean Fleischer-Camp, who I made the short film with,
posted it on the Internet after showing it to, like,
12 people at a comedy show in Brooklyn.
And he showed it,
and one of them was like, "That's such a nice thing.
Could I show it --"
I think, "Can I show it to my mom?"
Who, like, had a broken leg or something.
And so he put it on the internet,
and we just thought it would be
for this one person, basically, who wanted to
send a happy, little thing to their mom.
And instead it went much, much wider than that.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-You obviously --
The voice is one of the more endearing qualities,
although there are many endearing qualities
about Marcel.
Do you -- you now have an 18-month-old, Ida.
Do you read to her in Marcel's voice?
-Yeah, I speak to her. I sing to her.
She loves -- -She does. That's very good.
-Getting read to in this voice. Yeah.
-That's great. Do you want --
Could you read to us from a kids' book
of what it sounds like?
-I mean, you wouldn't happen to
have a kids' book behind this?
-I do. I wrote one. -Oh, my God!
-It's, like, available in stores.
It's no big deal. -Oh, wow.
-Here.
-So people could, like, they could buy this?
-They could buy it, I guess.
It's, like, in stores. It's super weird.
-Yeah, that's like, so weird. -There you go.
You start from the beginning, so you don't spoil the ending.
-Got it, got it. Got it.
"There once was a bear...
[ Laughter ]
...who was easily scared."
Oh, that's really sad.
-Yeah. It stays sad. It never gets better.
[ Laughter ]
-"Each night before going to sleep,
he would tie a bell to his door that would
make a noise if anyone tried to sneak in.
Because even a bear
who is easily scared is a very heavy sleeper."
That's true. That's true. -Bravo.
[ Applause ]
So I feel like -- -That's really cute.
-Thank you. I feel like your daughter is
going to have incredibly good hearing,
because Marcel does not project.
-He can't project at all.
That's why I have to ram my finger into my own ear.
-Now, you are obviously one of the voices in this.
And then you reached out and you got, for Marcel's grandmother --
-Yeah. -A real incredible pull.
-It's Isabella Rossellini. -Which is amazing.
-Can you believe it? -How did it happen?
-So we wanted Marcel's grandmother,
whose name is Nana Connie,
which is also the name of my grandmother,
whose name is Nana Connie.
We wanted her
to have a distinctive voice, maybe an accent.
One of my grandmothers has an accent.
And so we were like,
"Well, it's a long shot, but maybe we'll just ask.
Whatever."
And they presented it to her
and she was like, "I don't know what this is.
[ Laughter ]
Never heard of it."
And her children were like, "No, we like Marcel the Shell.
You should do it. You should do it."
And so she just said yes,
kind of like, just because her kids said it was worth it.
But we didn't even have a script.
The film is improvised off of a treatment.
Like, a long document, basically.
And so she showed up and was like --
-And showed up not at a studio.
-Right, right. That's the other thing.
It's not like "Zootopia," where you show up
and they're like, "Hi, this Is
all the hors d'oeuvrs in the world."
-Yeah. -You know, like, "We're Disney.
Would you like, you know, a pheasant..."
-Hummus. -"A pheasant hummus?"
Which they're famous for at Disney, is the pheasant hummus.
-You really got to grind up the pheasant.
[ Laughter ]
-I just filled up on that ground-up pheasant.
Anyway, she came to our rental,
where we were recording with microphones taped
to the middle of our heads.
This is what you call an indie film.
And we had nothing to offer.
Like, we had like, some snacks and stuff,
but we were like, "So, Isabella Rossellini,
what do you like on Postmates?"
Like it was --
-Did you ever order
Postmates for Isabella Rossellini?
-Yeah, we got Thai food. We got Thai food.
-I think, you know,
the Hollywood gossip mongers want to know,
what does Isabella Rossellini order from a Thai restaurant?
-You know, I can't exactly remember,
but I'm thinking, like, "I'll have the summer rolls."
[ Laughter ]
You know, like, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful voice.
-You know, obviously, this is a summer movie.
It makes sense.
It's a giant, big-budget, as we established, summer movie.
-Yeah.
-And what would you say to the people who are,
you know, maybe it's like,
are we going to go see "Maverick"?
Are we going to go see
"Marcel the Shell With Shoes on?"
Like, how do you help them make that choice?
-Sure.
I mean, let me say on camera,
I don't want to insult Tom Cruise in any way.
So I think you should maybe see both films.
But I definitely think you should see ours.
And -- the other thing is,
I heard a rumor, truly,
when I was on the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie.
That's how all Hollywood stuff starts.
"When I was there talking to an invisible chipmunk."
No, truly what I remember
is someone, like, popping their head out of a plant
and being like, "Tom Cruise is watching 'Marcel the Shell.'"
They told me that he watched it.
-Wow. -Yeah.
-That just, like, percolated through Hollywood
till it found you on set?
-Completely, yeah. -Wow.
-Which is crazy, because, like, on that movie,
like, I am a human, but the chipmunks are there,
and, of course, they're, like, invisible.
I hate to break it to you, but, yeah.
So there was kind of like, no one on set also.
-Yeah.
-Someone being like, "ba, ba, ba."
But I always sort of held it with me,
and now that the movie's coming out,
I know Tom's probably doing a lot of press for his film.
-Yeah, I think he's out there. Yeah.
-Yeah, I'm just sort of like, "Sir, I really enjoy your work.
If you do like Marcel, maybe you could just
share a little bit of your spotlight with us.
And please let me know if you want tickets."
[ Laughter ] -That's so nice.
-Yeah. -That would be so nice.
-It would be so nice
if Tom Cruise came to see the Marcel movie.
-You know, in the beginning of "Maverick,"
there's a video of him being like,
"Thanks so much for coming out to the movie."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I feel like if he comes,
you should record yourself being like,
"Thank you, Tom Cruise, for coming."
-For sure.
Like, I should probably just record that super quick.
-Yeah, so let's go right there, and we'll play this.
If he comes, this will start the screening.
-If he comes.
Hi, Tom.
[ Laughter ]
It's Jenny Slate, the voice, co-creator, writer,
and co-producer of the film you're about to see.
I just want to thank you so much
for taking the time out of your busy schedule
to see our small film.
Indie film really,
really appreciates everyone that watches it.
And I love you and I've always thought you were really cute.
My favorite movie of yours is "The Client."
[ Laughter ]
No, "The Firm"!
Oh, no, Tom, "The Firm."
We can edit. We can edit.
-Is he even in "The Client"?
-No, it's Sarandon!
[ Laughter ]
Tom, I'm so sorry.
-Oh, my God, this went terribly.
Jenny Slate, everybody!
"Marcel the Shell with Shoes On"
is in select theaters on June 24th
and nationwide on July 15th.