Marc Maron on Making a Doc About the Grief of Losing His Partner, Lynn Shelton: ‘It Was Interesting to Let Another Artist Interpret What I'm Going Through'
In 'Are We Good?' comedian and podcast pioneer Marc Maron works his way through life after the unexpected death of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton.
The 95-minute documentary is directed by Steven Feinartz, who also directed the comedian's 2023 HBO special 'Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark.' The doc captures Maron as he processes his grief on and off comedy stages. The film also chronicles Maron's lengthy, complicated career, his struggle with addiction, his relationship with his declining father, and what the comedian is best known for – his podcast 'WTF With Marc Maron,' which launched in 2009.
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Feinartz and Maron, who met 13 years ago during an episode of WTF, started filming 'Are We Good' in May 2021 – a year after Shelton died.
'The film was a three and a half year undertaking, where I spent a bulk of the production with just myself filming Marc,' says Feinartz. 'My intention was to make a stripped down film that doesn't pull any punches. If you're a listener of his podcast or aware of his comedy, you'd understand that substance and honesty outweigh style. So, instead of the more conventional, highly-polished, flashy documentaries of today, I went for an approach that is more reminiscent of the films I came up admiring. 'Crumb,' 'Hoop Dreams,' and 'Bill Cunningham New York' to name a few.'
'Are We Good?', which is a reference to Maron's signature sign-off to his podcast, is a raw, unfiltered look at a 60-year-old man who is trying to balance life and a career while attempting to mend a broken heart.
Variety spoke to Maron and Feinartz ahead of the SXSW world premiere of 'Are We Good?' on March 11.
Steven, you said in the production notes for this film that you were initially hesitant about making this doc because Maron has long maintained careful control of his narrative. What made you take the leap and make the doc?
Maron: Yeah. Talk about that, Steven. I want to know how I control my narrative. Explain that to me. I felt nothing but out of control of my narrative for as long as you been shooting this thing, but go ahead.
Feinartz: I've been a long-time listener of WTF since the beginning days of the podcast, and I just always felt that you were getting Marc's story from Marc, and that's the most important thing. It's a confessional, and it's honest, and it's real. It's what he says to his fans and how he says it, and I thought, pulling back and seeing Marc from a different view would be interesting. The initial hesitation was that I felt that maybe Marc wouldn't have wanted a documentary, especially coming off something so heavy. I felt almost overly sensitive to the idea of it and didn't want it to feel like any exploitation of his grief. So, there were a lot of things that I was hesitant about.
Marc, why did you agree to participate in this documentary?
Maron: Years ago, some guy wanted to make a documentary about me when the podcast started becoming popular, and people didn't really know about podcasts. It was funny because I didn't know if I earned one in a way. So, when Steven wanted to do this, I felt like, what is it? And then it became about coming out of Covid and moving through grief, and then it just kept going on and on. There were points where I said to Steven, 'Are you waiting for me to die? Are you waiting for an ending?' That's usually when a documentary gets made – after someone dies or something horrible happens. But I thought it was interesting to let another artist interpret what I'm going through. I thought, well, if there's something that people will get out of this thing, let's do it.
There are moments in the doc that are very funny, but overall, it is not a lighthearted film about a comedian. How do you think audiences will react to that?
Feinartz: I think people who see a Marc Maron documentary know it's not going to be light. It's definitely not a traditional comedy doc, and I never intended to make a comedy documentary. It's a profile. I don't want to say it, but I will – Marc is a lovable curmudgeon and I think people who don't know his comedy as well, and maybe haven't been listening to the podcast for a bit, will be reminded of why they liked him and maybe will find a new perspective on him.
Marc, was making this doc cathartic in any way?
Maron: The impact that the doc had on me in terms of catharsis is that I do what I do for who I do it for, and it does help those people a great deal. And it helps me. I'm excited to generate the stuff I generate.
So would you say that the doc made you feel good about yourself?
Maron: I don't know about that. I mean, let's not go crazy. After I watched the last cut of the film, I said to Steven, 'Jesus, man. You make me look like this cranky but decent guy who succeeded despite himself.' And Steven goes, 'Yeah. Exactly.' So, on that level, I think it's not really a wake-up call, but there was some clarity around certain things that I would not have been able to see from my point of view about myself.
'Are We Good?' is seeking distribution.
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When it came to scoring the 'Through the Valley,' Fleming described it as particularly challenging, because Mazin asked him, 'How do we start this at 11 and then keep going up for the whole episode?' The idea was they were 'building up momentum so it just felt relentless relentless relentless. Then at the end, it was kind of the opposite with the pivotal scene with Joel.' When Fleming paused and said he'd been avoiding talking about how that episode ended for so long, Mazin couldn't resist chiming in: 'He died!' As Fleming explained, the original music for Joel's wrenching death scene was much busier but then 'Craig asked 'strip it back.' It was a less is more situation.' While praising the performances of Pedro Pascal, Kaitlyn Dever and Bella Ramsey, Good revealed that for Joel's death 'I actually edited it five times before I was ready to show it to Craig,' because he knew how important it was to get it right. As Joel's death scene played out, the panel couldn't help but become somber and when Mazin cracked, 'Let's talk about the golf clubs we picked out. They have lots of meaning" to release some tension, he then paused and added that actually, when it came to which exact club Abby would use to beat Joel with, 'There was a whole discussion!' The conversation then moved to episode six and its flashbacks to Joel and Ellie together set between Season 1 and 2. The sequence where Ellie climbs the dinosaur was shown and Mazin remarked, 'I love this in the game. I love that we got to do it!' He added that this was a funny situation where the actual dinosaur built for Ellie to climb 'was wobbling too much so then Alex stopped it from wobbling. But then it looked fake so we had to make it wobble [again] a little bit.' Discussing Joel and Ellie's clothes, Foley noted they did their best to match their looks in the game, though there might be slight changes occasionally for specific reasons. One such case was in the museum scene. In the game, Ellie is wearing a tank top in this sequence. However, on the show, they wanted to underline that Bella Ramsey was playing a more youthful version of Ellie in these flashback scenes, so they ended up making it a t-shirt because 'changing it from a tank to a t-shirt made it look baggier and make her look younger.' In general though, 'Joel and Ellie are in the same things they wear in the game because there's no reason to change it.' Ksenia Sereda said she was both excited and nervous about shooting the scene where Ellie and Joel go inside the space capsule, because 'the way it was done in the game was so brilliant,' including the close up on Ellie smiling, imagining going into space. Sereda joked the game provided 'the most expensive previs I've ever had to work with.' Mazin marveled how Sereda lit the screen so that all of the light changes on Ellie's face were done practically, without visual effects needed. Sereda explained how difficult it was, because 'the whole sequence is lit through this teeny tiny window on the side of the capsule. It was very challenging to find this whole look.' This sequence had particular significance to Mazin because 'This is the first thing that Neil ever showed me from the second game.' He elaborated that when he went to Naughty Dog to speak to Druckmann about turning The Last of Us into a TV show, the team were nearing the completion of The Last of Us Part II. When Druckmann showed Mazin the space capsule sequence, his response was, ''We're doing that!' In my mind, I was like, 'We need to do a good enough job for Season 1 that we're renewed [to do that].'" With Season 3 of The Last of Us now in the works, Mazin said he was eager to get back in the thick of it, turning to his fellow panelists and saying 'I can't wait to do that. I can't wait to do that with all of you.' He then proclaimed: 'Don, are we going to have meetings!!'
