Marc Maron is a great actor in In Memoriam, but the comedian and podcaster was worried he didn’t have the talent to play key moments in his new movie.
“I had to cry, but I didn’t know if I could have that much control as an actor. I didn’t know if I could do that,” Maron recalls. “I was really surprised. I went back to the trailer and was obsessed with DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I’m like, ‘This sucks.’ what am i doing here? ”
It was left to Maron’s scene partner Sharon Stone to help Maron find a way through his emotional ordeal. When Maron returned to set, Stone held his hand and encouraged him to empathize with the sadness he was feeling over the 2020 death of his girlfriend, director Lynn Shelton.
“Why don’t you do that scene with Lynn? I’ll make sure she’s here,” Stone said to Maron.
It worked.
“Sharon is kind of a mystical figure,” Maron says. “She’s a strong force. When she said that, I realized that Lynn was my biggest advocate as an actor. She loved directing me. Without her, I don’t know if I would have continued to pursue acting. So I think doing that for Lynn helped me get to that place emotionally.”
“In Memoriam” premiered at this year’s Tribeca Festival, and Stone is excited about the experience of working with Maron. We first met in 2018 during an interview on the podcast “WTF With Marc Maron.”
“We truly partnered in a very deep sense on the ground,” Stone says. “In my career, I’ve faced off against big dogs. They’ve always brought me in to fight the biggest, toughest guys, and often like a handful of guys, but they knew I could withstand it. But working with someone like Mark was very different. They were able to be very honest with me about their true feelings and emotions. He was able to become my true partner instead of my enemy.”
In the film, Stone plays the ex-wife of Maron, a fellow actor she met on a movie set. Both have terminal illnesses, and their diagnoses have caused them to reevaluate their lives and work in different ways. Maron’s character is obsessed with competing in the “In Memoriam” category at the Oscars. Mr. Stone has a more reflective and resigned attitude. Their tender encounter takes place in the grand surroundings of Stone, wearing a Norma Desmond-like robe and turban and resting on a mansion banquette.
“This is the fulcrum of the movie, because we have to take this moment away from this place that Mark is in, where he’s not living in real life,” Stone says.
Stone formed a bond with Maron while appearing on “WTF” and remained in touch over the years. When Shelton died from an undiagnosed blood disease, she wrote him a letter of condolence, which touched Maron deeply.
“It was a terrible tragedy,” Stone says. “He lost her very early, and she was very important to him.”
Although the scene was complicated to work with, Stone is thrilled with the finished film.
“Mark is amazing,” she says. “He’s a real candidate for this movie. I was completely shocked. Rarely do you see a movie this good, about the human condition, so good, so beautifully made.”
Stone, who showed he can land a punchline in films like “The Muse,” hopes to do more comedy in the future.
“I don’t know how many more villains I can spit out,” she says. “I want to go back to my roots…I started out in improv, doing comedies like ‘Irreconcilable Differences.’ My job was to be a comedic actress, and then I did Basic Instinct and people forgot that I could be funny. ”
Just don’t expect the stone to dust off the ice pick right away. She has confirmed that she will not be reprising her role as femme fatale Catherine Tramell in the upcoming Basic Instinct reboot, which Joe Eszterhas is reportedly writing for Amazon MGM Studios.
“How old is Joe Eszterhas?” Stone asked, Googling the screenwriter’s age. “Oh, he’s 81 years old, so I guess he’s a real expert when it comes to sexy things.”
