Marc Maron plays a great actor in “In Memoriam,” but the comedian and podcaster worried he didn’t have the chops to pull off a key moment in the new movie.
“I had to cry, but I didn’t know if I had that kind of control as an actor — I didn’t know if I can do that,” Maron remembers. “I really freaked out. I went back to my trailer and was full on DiCaprio in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ I’m like, ‘I suck. What am I doing here?’”
It fell to Sharon Stone, Maron’s scene partner, to help him find his way through the emotional gauntlet. When Maron came back to set, Stone grabbed his hand and encouraged him to draw on the grief he feels over the 2020 death of his girlfriend, filmmaker Lynn Shelton.
“Why don’t you do the scene to Lynn, and I’ll make sure she’s here,” Stone told Maron.
It worked.
“Sharon’s kind of a mystical being,” Maron says. “She’s a powerful force. She said that, and it brought me to a space where I realized that Lynn was my biggest champion as an actor. She loved to direct me. I don’t know that I would have continued pursuing acting if it weren’t for her. So by doing it for Lynn, I got to that place emotionally that I think lands.”
“In Memoriam” debuts at this year’s Tribeca Festival, and Stone is thrilled with the experience of working with Maron, whom she first met during a 2018 interview for his podcast “WTF With Marc Maron.”
“We genuinely partnered in a very profound way on the scene,” Stone says. “In my career, I’ve been put up against the big dogs. They would always bring me in to put me up against the biggest, toughest guys, and oftentimes guys who were kind of a handful, but they knew that I could take it. But it was so different to work with someone like Marc, who was so open and so honest in their real feelings and emotions, and so available to be sincere with me. He was available to be my true partner, not my adversary.”
In the film, Stone plays Maron’s ex-wife, a fellow actor whom he met on a film set. Both have terminal illnesses, and their diagnosis has left them reassessing their lives and work in different ways. Maron’s character is obsessed with making it into the Oscars “in memoriam” segment; Stone’s is more reflective and resigned. Their tender encounter takes place in a grand setting with Stone resting in a chaise lounge in her mansion, outfitted in a robe and turban, looking like Norma Desmond.
“It’s a fulcrum point in the movie, because I have to take this moment to snap Marc out of this place he’s in, where he’s not living in reality,” Stone says.
Stone formed a bond with Maron during her spot on “WTF” and kept in touch with him over the years. She wrote him a condolence note when Shelton died of an undiagnosed blood disorder, which touched Maron greatly.
“It was a terrible tragedy,” Stone says. “He lost her so early, and she was so important to him.”
Even though their scene was complicated to navigate, Stone is thrilled with the finished film.
“Marc is remarkable,” she says. “He’s a real contender in this movie. I was completely blown away. Rarely do I see films that are this amazing anymore, that are about the human condition, and are so brilliant and so beautifully made.”
Going forward, Stone, who has shown she can nail a punchline in films like “The Muse,” hopes to do more comedy.
“I don’t know how many more villains I can really spit out,” she says. “I want to go back to my roots…I started in improv, and I did comedies like ‘Irreconcilable Differences.’ Being a comedic actress was my bag, and then I did ‘Basic Instinct,’ and everybody forgot I could be funny.”
Just don’t expect Stone to dust off her ice pick any time soon. She makes it clear she won’t be reprising her role as femme fatale Catherine Tramell in the reboot of “Basic Instinct” that Joe Eszterhas is reportedly writing for Amazon MGM Studios.
“How old is Joe Eszterhas?” Stone asks as she Googles the screenwriter’s age. “Oh, he’s 81. So I bet he’s really an expert on what’s sexy.”
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