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Krumpet: the toast of the nation
ADAM ELLIOT'S "weird little object" has seen him skyrocket from dole queue to studio darling. What's it like to receive an Academy Award? FILMINK's EMMA WESTWOOD gets dazzled by animation filmmaker Elliot's golden glow after his recent win for the animated short HARVIE KRUMPET, which has just been released on DVD.
Last July, a little known film called Harvie Krumpet opened the Melbourne International Film Festival ahead of Japanese Story. Writer/director/animator/producer, Adam Elliot, talked of thrusting his script at Geoffrey Rush during a Popcorn Taxi event in the hope he would agree to narrate it. It was the stuff of budding filmmakers' dreams, with Elliot ultimately joining his narrator, Rush, in the Academy Award winners' alumni list. His little animated flick about an immigrant Aussie battler has, on some levels, echoed his own struggle. And the attention he's received since winning the hallowed statuette has been overwhelming, to say the least.
"I think I need some therapy," admits Elliot, frankly. "I keep on trying to psychoanalyse the whole phenomena, and I think it's that Aussie battler thing, dare I say it. I've never said I'm proud to be Australian before, but I actually am now. It's a bit weird, but after that whole LA circus thing, I just wanted to get back amongst real people. It's much more grounding here, but at the same time, that whole tall poppy thing hasn't kicked in yet."
Walking the fine line between humility and pomposity in the public eye has proved challenging. Elliot's already started rejecting the primary and secondary school appearances in favour of $2,000 to $5,000 a pop corporate engagements. After all, despite the discounts and upgrades an Oscar brings (and Elliot can't stop talking excitedly about those perks), there are bills to be paid, and he no longer has the dole to tide him over. Elliot amusingly concedes he missed a "mutual obligation meeting" with Centrelink while he was in LA in which he was meant to learn "how to write a resume" and "what to wear at a job interview".
"I can't help but be cynical and say to everyone it's just like winning 50 gold Logies', he reflects. "And it's a TV show in the end. On TV, it looks so grand, but that auditorium it's big, but not as big as it looks on television. And those giant Oscar statues on the sides of the stage, they're made of plastic. And you go backstage and it's just a set. And they have ad breaks"
The night before speaking with Elliot, he'd indulged himself with eleven hours sleep, but feels as though he could still sleep for another week. His feet have hardly touched the ground since the ceremony in February. He admits to running out of clothes ("I had to wear my bathers the other day because I had no clean underwear left") and to receiving congratulations from John Howard and Bob Brown. His doorbell's been rung by the likes of Victorian Premier Steve Bracks with champagne in hand, and filmmaking wannabes with CVs in theirs.
"I had a Christian guy ring me yesterday and tell me to beware of homophobia. Now I'm getting a silent number."
If being the dark horse in the race wasn't enough to get the Hollywood press' tongues wagging, then Elliot's thank you to his "beautiful boyfriend" in his acceptance speech certainly did.
"Americans asked - Why did you use boyfriend?'. I think partner's so ambiguous, and I didn't want to use lover because it's revolting. I would have used another word if there was one".
While it would be easy to soak in the adulation and remain half-plastered on free plonk from the numerous congratulatory parties, Elliot is realistic about his future.
"I have to strike while the iron's hot because Hollywood soon forgets you. I'll be alright here if I want to get money from the government, but Hollywood doesn't wait around. So I really have to make a decision in the next three weeks because that's when I'm going back to America."
"I'm just gonna try and get something together. I've got to write. That's basically it. I've had this theory called Urban Eccentrics that I've been working on for a couple of years, but now that this [Academy Award] has happened, I'm thinking of dumping that and perhaps going straight into a feature. It's a huge leap, so Mel [Coombs, producer] and I have to make the time to sit down and discuss it. All the studios have opened their doors and said - Whatever you want to do next, come to us first', but now we have to choose. It's really odd because, six months ago, just getting a meeting with them was incredibly difficult. We've just got to be really careful about making any rash decisions. You're easily forgotten. You can be encouraged to death. If the next move you make is a wrong move, you go to what they call director's jail'."
A little bit of pressure, maybe? It appears that in the face of triumph, Adam Elliot's feeling the heat.
So when does it end? "I guess when I have my nervous breakdown, I'll have to come down from it all."ť
The Harvie Krumpet DVD which features a director's audio commentary, as well as several of Adam Elliot's previous animated short films is available now through Madman/The AV Channel. SRP: $29.95
