Adam Elliot & Sarah Snook Talk About Bringing Heart to their Mollusk-motion Flick Memoir of a Snail to Life

The Curb

On this episode, Andrew catches up with Academy Award winning master of stop motion animation, Adam Elliot, and Emmy award and AACTA award winning screen legend, Sarah Snook, to talk about their mollusk-motion flick, Memoir of a Snail.

Memoir of a Snail is driven by the delightfully dark sense of comedy and a relatable pathos, both of which bring the off-kilter world of Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) and her equally orphaned twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) to life. It's a film that's resonated immensely with audiences around the world, with each person able to find a little bit of themselves in this tender tale of Grace and her obsession with snails.

As always, Elliot is able to bring forth a welcome sense of groundedness to his characters, and while they may physically appear eccentric, there's something about each and every one of them that makes us feel seen. As with his previous film, Mary & Max, Elliot actively removes stigmas associated with those who live with mental illnesses, while also shining a light on those who try to vilify, condemn, or in the case of Gilbert, cruelly convert them away from their true self.

The authenticity that sits at the core of Memoir of a Snail is not just driven by the characters we see on screen, but also from the empathetic and grounded voice work from Snook, Smit-McPhee, and other Aussie screen icons like Jackie Weaver, Magda Szubanski, Tony Armstrong, Eric Bana, while French icon Dominique Pinon also makes an appearance.

In the following conversations with Adam, then with Sarah, I talk about how they both built that relatability on screen, what it means to show Australian stories in this way, and curiously, the importance of dress up boxes in the homes of Australian kids. There's really something for everyone here.

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