The Treatment
Jenny Slate: Obvious Child
"I don't want to scrub myself clean. I'm always interested in characters when they misbehave because of hurt." Comedian Jenny Slate on her first starring role.
By Elvis Mitchell • • 30m ListenJenny Slate started her career doing stand-up with her comedy partner, Gabe Liedman, who she met when they were both students at Columbia University. But things really took off in 2009 when she and Dean Fleischer-Camp produced Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a short film on YouTube that instantly went viral. After a brief stint on SNL, she moved to LA and has since been featured on Parks and Recreation, Bob's Burgers, Bored to Death and Comedy Central's Kroll Show.
Obvious Child, Slate's first starring role, evolved from a short film also made in 2009. In the film, directed by Gillian Robespierre, she plays a young woman named Donna Stern who gets dumped, loses her job, and gets pregnant after a drunken one night stand. Slate talks about her childhood longings to be an actress, her sense of style, and her fear of boredom, derived from a particular experience she had as a child. (Hint: it involves public radio.)
Banner image by Chris Teague, courtesy of A24
