WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Dave Franco is a successful actor but that doesn’t mean he was full of confidence when he began directing his first feature. Dave tells Marc how he overcame the fear of the unknown once he stepped on set to call action for the first time. They also talk about how the timing of the pandemic worked out for the release of that film, The Rental, and how his latest film, Somebody I Used to Know, started as a script he wrote with his wife, Alison Brie, during quarantine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Radhika Jones just celebrated her fifth year as Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair and, as far as Marc is concerned, she plays a major role on the front lines of the American culture war. Radhika tells Marc why she remains optimistic about our current cultural moment, why print is not yet dead, and how a magazine like Vanity Fair can modernize and evolve in order to better represent our current times.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brendan Fraser is receiving awards and accolades for his performance in The Whale but his reasons for taking on the role go much deeper than wanting to earn well-deserved praise. Brendan and Marc talk about the many layers of pain, trauma and redemption that went into creating the performance, much of which was informed by experiences throughout Brendan’s own life. They also compare notes on their shared love of Canada.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Polley has a lot to say about memory, narratives and the stories we tell. That’s because she believes they’re all fluid, which creates a sort of moving target for a writer and director of films, as she is. Sarah and Marc talk about how this is represented in Sarah’s movies like Away from Her and her latest, Women Talking, and why she made a documentary about a particularly fraught and deceptive narrative from her own family.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Octavia Spencer’s career started behind the scenes, as she worked in casting departments on film sets. Director Joel Schumacher said she should read for the role of Sandra Bullock’s nurse in A Time To Kill and set her on a path that would eventually culminate fifteen years later with an Academy Award. Octavia and Marc talk about how she’s had to resist typecasting, how she conquered stage fright, and how her childhood love of police procedurals is now her life, as she kicks off the third season of the crime drama Truth Be Told.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Todd Field toyed with many pursuits before he ever directed a film. First there was close-up magic. Then he went to school on a music scholarship. He also hoped to become a baseball player, working as a batboy for a minor league team. He helped invent Big League Chew. Then he became an actor and worked with Stanley Kubrick and Tom Cruise, who both offered Todd support as he made his first movie. Todd and Marc talk about the decisions that led him to each of his three films: In the Bedroom, Little Children, and Tár.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrea Riseborough can't lie. She's terrible at it. But she believes that trait helps her as an actor because there's no hiding her emotions. Marc can attest to this, having acted opposite Andrea in To Leslie, but she's been at it since she was nine years old doing David Mamet plays with other kids. Marc and Andrea talk about her background in theater, how Mike Leigh gave her a charmed entry into film, and how she's personally confronting the current challenges of film creation and distribution.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katt Williams is a one-of-a-kind comic performer, so it’s only natural he should have a one-of-a-kind backstory. Katt tells Marc about his travels as a teenager, trying to make it on his own in Florida, then in Haiti, then around the country in all 50 states as a door to door salesman. Katt recalls the days he was opening for comedians like Jeff Foxworthy and Dan Whitney, before he became Larry the Cable Guy, and he talks about some of his surprising inspirations, from Jack London to Don Knotts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colin Hanks knows there are public perceptions of him that are tricky to navigate. For one, the man known as America’s Dad is his actual dad. There’s also the fact that people have a hard time seeing him in roles other than The Nice Guy. And then there’s the way people still think of him as a young man even as he enters middle age with children of his own. Colin and Marc talk about the mindset he’s had to put in place to feel at ease with himself, much of which he had to absorb as he processed the loss of his mother.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Foster was 14 years old and when he had what he calls a breakdown. Ben had a moment while acting where he completely lost himself and he needed to get back to that place at all costs. Marc talks with Ben about how he chased that feeling from the set of a Disney Channel sitcom into dramatic work in movies like Hell or High Water and Kill Your Darlings, where his commitment to the role is never in question. They also get into his two most recent performances in The Survivor and Emancipation, where he felt a deep responsibility in depicting both the victim and perpetrator of human atrocities.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.