Episode 1593 - Rosemarie DeWitt - WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Summary4 min read

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1593 - Rosemarie DeWitt
Release Date: November 21, 2024

Introduction & Guest Background

In Episode 1593 of "WTF with Marc Maron," host Marc Maron welcomes acclaimed actress Rosemarie DeWitt for an intimate and revealing conversation. Rosemarie, known for her roles in "Rachel Getting Married," "Mad Men," "The Boys," "La La Land," and her collaborations with the late director Lynn Shelton, shares insights into her personal life, career, and the profound impact of Shelton’s passing.

Notable Quote:
[00:03] Marc Maron: "Rosemarie DeWitt is a lovely person... we begin this conversation with a bit of grief."

Navigating Grief and Loss

The episode opens with Marc reflecting on the enduring presence of grief following Lynn Shelton's death. He describes how memories resurface unexpectedly, leading to a stream of sadness and loss that he doesn't dwell on but acknowledges persistently.

Notable Quote:
[00:25] Marc Maron: "It's a sort of ongoing stream of sadness and loss that exists."

Rosemarie echoes these sentiments, emphasizing the deep emotional connections and the rarity of truly understanding another’s soul. Their shared grief forms the foundation of their conversation, highlighting the challenges of coping with loss in both personal and professional realms.

Notable Quote:
[16:32] Rosemarie DeWitt: "I loved her. So... we're gonna be... you know, but I think that..."

Personal Stories and Experiences

Marc recounts anecdotes about his friendship with Greg Proops and their shared experiences, including a memorable morning session involving marijuana that amusingly affected his performance at Cobb's Comedy Club. These stories illustrate the camaraderie and long-standing relationships that shape Marc’s life and career.

Notable Quote:
[04:30] Marc Maron: "I got very high very quickly and Greg said to me, I invented you."

Rosemarie shares her own journey, discussing her family background, including her father's military service and her experience with a large blended family. She delves into her eight half-siblings and the complexities of forming relationships within such a vast family structure.

Notable Quote:
[21:28] Rosemarie DeWitt: "I am the only one with him and my mom. And then I had eight half brothers and sisters."

Acting and Creative Process

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Rosemarie’s approach to acting and her collaborations with Marc and Lynn Shelton. She elaborates on her experiences in improvisational settings, emphasizing trust and the unique dynamics that come with working closely with directors and co-stars.

Notable Quote:
[18:54] Rosemarie DeWitt: "I loved her so much and I trusted her so deeply."

Marc discusses his own acting endeavors, including his recent roles and the challenges of balancing comedy with dramatic acting. They explore the emotional toll that certain roles can take, referencing Marc’s upcoming projects like "In Memoriam" and Rosemarie’s work in "Smile 2."

Notable Quote:
[59:11] Marc Maron: "It's about an actor who was a great actor and had his ups and downs... he’s diagnosed with stage four colon cancer."

Parenting and Family Life

Both Marc and Rosemarie delve into their parenting experiences, discussing the joys and struggles of raising children. Rosemarie touches on her adopted children and the unique challenges that come with open adoptions, advocacy for her kids, and balancing family life with a demanding career.

Notable Quote:
[32:14] Rosemarie DeWitt: "My oldest one is in sixth grade... she can see that everybody's losing their mind."

Marc shares insights into his relationship with his own family, including his brother’s experience with adoption and the complexities it introduces. They discuss the emotional nuances of connecting with adult adopted children and the lingering effects of loss within family structures.

Notable Quote:
[76:22] Marc Maron: "I don't really know. And I know, like, they did the adoption where... they were there to."

Insights and Reflections

Throughout the episode, both hosts reflect on deeper themes such as mortality, the evolution of personal identity, and the impact of past relationships on present selves. They explore how personal growth intersects with professional life, emphasizing the importance of vulnerability and authenticity in both acting and everyday interactions.

Notable Quote:
[69:29] Rosemarie DeWitt: "This is what life is. And then your heart is so much more open, and you're capable of so much more love and so much more presence."

Marc adds his perspective on managing personal struggles and the influence of his parents on his perception of love and trust, revealing how these dynamics continue to shape his interactions and self-awareness.

Notable Quote:
[70:21] Rosemarie DeWitt: "You have to integrate it into your personality. It's a constant reality check."

Conclusions and Farewell

As the conversation draws to a close, Marc and Rosemarie express their mutual appreciation for each other's company and support systems. They highlight the enduring influence of mentors and loved ones, particularly in navigating the challenges of both personal loss and professional endeavors.

Notable Quote:
[75:22] Rosemarie DeWitt: "It was so nice to talk, to see you."

Marc concludes with a heartfelt acknowledgment of Lynn Shelton’s legacy and the enduring bonds formed through shared experiences and creative collaborations.

Final Thoughts

Episode 1593 serves as a poignant exploration of grief, friendship, and the intricate balance between personal life and creative pursuits. Through candid dialogue and shared stories, Marc Maron and Rosemarie DeWitt offer listeners a deep dive into the emotional landscapes that shape their lives and careers, providing both insight and comfort to those navigating similar paths.

Note: Timestamps correspond to moments within the provided transcript and are intended to guide listeners to specific highlights of the conversation.

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Transcript989 lines

[00:01]
Marc Maron
By now, you've heard about Airbnb and how you can make some extra money while you're away. But did you also know you can host on Airbnb and have someone else take care of all the details for you? If you're going away for a long trip, an Airbnb co host can handle all the hosting duties. These are high quality local co hosts who create the listing for you, manage your reservations and send messages to your guests. And you'll still make some cash while you're away. It's easier than ever. Find a co host@airbnb.com host lock the gate. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers. What the fuck, buddies? What the fucking ears. What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it again. If you're new here, welcome. Does that still happen? I think it must. I'm still a discoverable person. You can still discover Marc Maron. I'm very, in a lot of ways, undiscovered. I'm learning that today on the show, Rosemary DeWitt is here. She's an actress. She's been in a lot of stuff. I'm sure you know her. She's been in things like Rachel Getting Married, Mad Men, the Boys, La La Land. She's also married to that guy Ron Livingston, who can be very funny. And I mention that only because we talk about him a bit. She also worked with my late partner, Lynne Shelton on the movies, you, Sister's Sister and Touchy Feely, as well as the series Little Fires Everywhere. So we begin this conversation with a bit of grief. And I tell you, man, it's interesting how that stuff works, how you can draw right back in. It's just like a sort of ongoing stream of sadness and loss that exists. And I don't. I'm very kind of. I'm not baffled by it and I'm happy. It's still in me, obviously, but last week or two, I've told stories that involved her and it just comes right up. It comes right up from the guts, through my heart, into my throat and into my eyes and into my mind. But I don't have to stay there. But it comes. So there's a little of that. So if. I guess this is kind of a trigger warning if you don't want to experience maybe a hint of deep feelings of loss, maybe check out now or maybe come on board, join the human race, you fuckers. Another thing I want to throw out there, my old buddy Greg Proops has A new standup album out. It's called Purple Shasta Raccoon and it's out now from A Special Things Records. Greg recorded this at the Punchline in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. Man, that's our old stomping grounds, me and Greg's. You can get it at astrecords.com or stream it on your preferred music app. Greg Proops, he's the guy. What's the moment with Proops that stands out in the life lessons? Oh yes, I remember. I've told the story before. I probably told it to him one morning when we were doing a live 105 Alex Bennett broadcast from Cobbs Comedy Club down in the cannery. It was six in the morning, so why not smoke the pot that Greg has? Greg the daily smoker. This is before you could get it legally. Greg, who got the best weed down from Humboldt or wherever. Hydroponic super stuff back in the day, before there were strains and strands, there was only maybe three strains and strands. But he always had the devastating weed. And he's like, you want to smoke? And I'm like, yeah, of course. At six in the morning, let's smoke. And I smoked it and I got very high very quickly and Greg said to me, I invented you. And I don't know what that meant, but it did fuck up my performance that morning. I was just there in a not a vegetative state, I'd say a paralyzing insecure state of existential crisis on stage with an audience of about 20 to 25 at 6:30 in the morning at Cobb's Comedy Club. I invented you. It's a good thing to say to a guy that's really high and a little shaky. I'm back at Largo here in LA on Friday, December 13th. I believe that is going to be a music and comedy show. Then starting in January, I'm back on tour. Sacramento, California. I'll be at the Crest Theater on Friday, January 10th. Napa, California at the Uptown Theater on Saturday, January 11th. I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado at Lincoln Center Performance hall on Friday, January 17th. Boulder, Colorado at the Boulder Theater on Saturday, January 18th Santa Barbara, California at the Libero Theater on Thursday, January 30th San Luis Obispo, California at the Fremont center on Friday, January 31st in Monterey, California at the Golden State Theater on Saturday, February 1st. Go to wtfpod.com tour for all my dates and links to tickets. A lot of other cities there. The south, the east, the middle. I'm coming to a Few places you might have to travel a bit because I don't. Do I stay to the big cities for the most part. Also, this is the final call for Ask Mark Anything questions, go to the link in the episode description to submit a question for our full Marin bonus episode that will air next week. And also, by the way, if you're keeping up, I think I bought the wrong vacuum. Yeah, the one I ended up with outside of the broken one and the broom style one out here now, the one that I did buy new, I don't. I don't think it was the right one. I think I wanted the animal too, and I think I just got the animal. But I'm going to have to accept that because I'm done with this. I'm done with the vacuum shit. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to go back, get on board. I've tried to talk about this on stage, but it doesn't seem to land as well as it did here in the garage when I'm just talking to you. Anyway, I've been wanting to. I've been planning on. I've been thinking about just a massive closet purge. You know, I've got a lot of fucking clothes from a lot of years. And most of the clothes that I had in my closet were clothes I actually got from the wardrobe department when I shot my TV show Marin. And when the hell was that? 10 years ago. And I realized one morning looking into that closet and seeing no less than 50 plaid Western shirts of one kind or another that I'm just. I'm not. I'm out of the plaid thing. I'm not a plaid guy anymore. I don't even know why I was for a brief period of time. But I was. I was kind of a plaid guy and I'm done with it. And I was like, dude, just get rid of all of that shit. So I don't know if you've done that where you live a life and you hold on to things. I hold on to fucking everything, man. I mean, I've gotten better at throwing stuff out, Especially stuff that just comes through, sent to me or whatever. I just move it along. But I just would look at all those shirts and I was so happy. I had a house with a closet that could hold all those shirts. And I just would see them be like, yeah, look at all my shirts. But that was the end of it. I wasn't wearing any of the shirts. I would try them on occasionally and think like, yeah, I don't think I want to wear this shirt anymore. And finally I'm like, fuck it. Fuck it. I got a closet full of ghosts. Just a bunch of ghosts. Ghost shoes, ghost shirts, ghost jackets. That guy's not me anymore. That guy was me a while back, but that's a ghost of me now. They're all. Those shirts are dead. They represent nothing. Why are you holding on to them? So I made the pile, man. I went through all of it. My closet's like half empty. Some jackets, a lot of shirts. I haven't done the shoes yet, but I'm getting. I'm getting rid of all the. What's the word? I want the accoutrement of that guy who I was. Look, I'm not saying I'm a different guy, but you kind of are a different guy. You get older and you're like, let's simplify it. Why confuse with plaid? Maybe in the summertime. Maybe in the summertime you wear a plaid short sleeve. But there's no reason to kind of like get all that activity on your shirt. Go with the solids, man. Do like a flannel or a long sleeve, solid shirt. Maybe a T shirt underneath. That's also a single color. Occasionally, I'll commit to a logo or two. I go through different periods, which is why we hang on to shit. It's a very. It's a. It's an odd thing. So I've made the piles, and I've only gone back to the pile. I went. I made the pile of shirts and then I went through it and I pulled two out of it. And then. And then I went back and I put. Put those two back on the pile. It's a con. It's very hard to let go of who you were. It's very hard to get older and see, you know, all that stuff left over from a time when you were a younger person. And sometimes you think, well, it's nostalgic. What does that even fucking mean anymore? Seriously, it's just going to end up garbage. Holy shit. Wait till I get to the books. It's just. And I've talked about this before, but not about clothes. They just lose their meaning. They're literally just shells of something you were. So I've made the piles. And of course, when I'm going through it, I've been carrying around this giant, weird carcass of a fucking jacket. I think it's horse hide. I think I bought it at Century 21 in New York City. Like maybe in 2000. No, earlier in the 90s. But it's just this massive piece of hide. And I didn't wear it that often because it's a heavy fucking piece of business. But I put that on. I'm like, man, keeping this. I'm keeping this. I swear to God. It's like armor. But I got big plans for it. I'm going to shorten the sleeves and get new buttons and I'll wear it twice in the next five or six years. But I'm keeping that one. There are a couple of things I kept that are nostalgic. A couple of shirts. The shirt that I bought in Ireland when me and Lynn went. The shirt and vest that I bought from my. From my special end times fund that I've worn. Never again. I should just get rid of that. Honestly. I do have the shirt I wore on my first HBO half hour Western shirt. But then it comes down to this. Like, I'm no big star, but I got a specific taste. And I don't even know if people want that shit anymore. I've got all these old, like Pendleton wool shirts. Some of them get the moths. Got to. But. But I got quite a few of those. I think I'll give them to a friend. But there's part of me that thinks like, dude, why don't you just sell the whole Marin collection on ebay and give the proceedings to charity? Because then I'd have to figure out how to put them on ebay or wherever people sell that shit. Buy the whole collection of Marc Maron's plaid self in one one box. I don't fucking know if anybody wants that shit. But I do think I'll probably go with the goodwill. The stuff that I don't. I don't give to people that want it. Go with the goodwill angle because then it's like people can find it. And I just. I don't know why that's part of this ego extension of like, yeah, these are top notch plaid Western shirts. I mean, there's always a market for these top notch plaid Western shirts. I'm out of my fucking mind, man. I am too self important sometimes. It annoys me. It annoys me. Look, I've been telling you to use Simplisafe to keep your home secure for almost a decade now. And I've been telling you how easy it is to set up and how they keep adding new features and how we always get stellar customer service when we need assistance. But if I haven't convinced you yet, maybe this will do the trick. SimpleLife is giving WTF listeners exclusive early access to its Black Friday sale. You'll get the whole system with a select professional monitoring plan for for 60% off. That's a great deal for any security. But with Simplisafe, you get things like active guard outdoor protection, which prevents crime before it even happens. If there's someone on your property lurking around or acting suspiciously, the Simplisafe agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before any break in can happen. Hey, buddy, get away from that door. This week you can get 60% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is their best offer of the year. Head to SimpliSafe.com WTF to claim your discount and make sure your home is safe this season. Don't wait. This offer won't last long. Keep your home, your family and your peace of mind protected. With Simplisafe. There's no safe like SimpleLifeSafe. So Rosemary DeWitt is a lovely person. She's in the new family film out of My Mind, which premieres tomorrow, November 22nd on Disney. She's also in Smile 2, which is still in theaters and on digital on demand platforms. And again, we talk about her husband Ron Livingston a lot. And I just call him Ron. So now you know it's Ron Livingston from Office Space. And also he did one of the best jobs playing an agent in adaptation, Spike Jon's adaptation. Just the best. But Rosemary's amazing and this is her and I. Yeah, I think really chatting for the first time. Life is busy, people. And if you're like me, no matter how busy you get, you've got to get your fitness in. Peloton has a variety of challenging classes and programs that fit into your schedule. Whether you're a new parent or traveling for the holiday or training for something big or just busy like everyone else. From four week strength building classes to running, cycling, and everything in between, Peloton can adapt to any goal and need during your busiest times. Find your push, find your power with peloton@onepeleton.com it's nice to see you.
[14:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's good to see you.
[14:46]
Marc Maron
Yeah, it's. I don't want to get too sad.
[14:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. Let's not get too sad too quick. I feel sad.
[14:56]
Marc Maron
Why? Because of me. And because what hangs over us between us.
[14:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah.
[15:02]
Marc Maron
Yes. But you know what? On that note, on the Lynn Shelton note.
[15:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[15:08]
Marc Maron
Which we can talk about, I have it in my mind to, you know, give you this jacket if it fits, you oh, stop. Yeah.
[15:20]
Rosemary DeWitt
Mark.
[15:21]
Marc Maron
No, you can cry now.
[15:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
You're going to make me cry like, 10 seconds in.
[15:25]
Marc Maron
Well, I don't know. You know, I don't. You know, I have stuff. You know, I have some stuff, and, you know, I have stuff that I have to look at.
[15:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[15:36]
Marc Maron
And. But, like, this jacket is. It's very specific. You might recognize it. But, you know, I just have it, and I think you should have it. If it fits you, I'll wear it. Okay. Let's see if it fits after.
[15:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
Let's see.
[15:50]
Marc Maron
I hope so.
[15:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
Let's see. Yeah.
[15:52]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I mean, I. I can't remember when we met, actually. Where was it? For the first time or the only time, maybe. Do you remember? Did we talk after Lynn passed away? Did we.
[16:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think we, like, shared some Zoom tutorial. Yeah. And then. Yeah, I more remember I did little fires everywhere with her when she started telling folks that, you guys. So I just remember her kind of pulling me into her, you know, those sad kind of production offices, those temporary ones, and shutting the door and, like, locking it. Be like, I have to tell you something.
[16:24]
Marc Maron
Oh, really?
[16:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[16:25]
Marc Maron
It was an exciting thing.
[16:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
It was exciting.
[16:28]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I think that she loved you very much.
[16:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
I loved her. So. It's funny, I was on the way over here, of course, I was thinking about her, and I was thinking about the way we know some people, and some people, we just know their souls. It's not like you spend Thanksgiving together or you take. Your soul knows their soul. And that's just how I felt about her. And that's so few people in the world.
[16:55]
Marc Maron
Well, I mean, I think that in our business, too, you know, you don't always get an opportunity to stay close with people, but the work is so intense.
[17:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[17:06]
Marc Maron
And. But she was like, you know, I don't know. It was so much to get through, and it, you know, it never goes away. And they're kind of doing. Some guy's doing a doc about me, and he's, like, asking for all this stuff of us, you know, the little things I have, and then just having to see her. I don't know where you go with a conversation like this, aside from we're gonna be. I don't know, you know, but I think that, like, it seems that, you know, the work you did with her, you know, with the first one, was your sister's sister, and. And I think you were kind of playing the her part.
[17:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, it's funny you said that, because I remember saying to her after that, yeah, I want to play you In a movie. And then she wrote Touchy Feely and then I thought I was playing. But in that one I think I kind of almost was more because she was so protective of it. We kind of didn't know what movie we were making. Like Ron and I did a scene together, my husband Ron Livingston and your sister's sister in the second one, Touchy Feely. And I remember us both going like, I don't know what this scene's about. And Ron's like, I don't really. And he's like. And I don't think Lynn wants to tell us. And we're like, great. But I loved her so much and I trusted her so deeply. And I would feel like I would do some of my best work always in her presence and in her loving care that I didn't care if I knew. Like your sister. Sister. I remember we had that big sort of big three way fight and we only had two cameras. And we did Mark and Emily's coverage first. And then I was like, I don't know what's going to happen. You guys just start yelling at me. Because I just trusted Lyn.
[18:46]
Marc Maron
Well, that was the way she worked. Right. It was like improv, like guided improv.
[18:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. But also you knew that someone was gonna make you look good.
[18:54]
Marc Maron
Right.
[18:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? It wasn't like her ego was gonna come out later and then do something weird with the movie that no one intended.
[19:00]
Marc Maron
No. I mean, she so deeply cared about actors. It was her whole thing, you know, she's just sit there and I don't know if we could talk about it.
[19:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
I'm sorry.
[19:12]
Marc Maron
No, no, I did it. I did it. But like, you know, for her, it just seemed like the actors and whatever happened between the actors was paramount. There wasn't, you know, it wasn't about like the set really. It was really about like. And she just knew when you hit that place.
[19:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[19:34]
Marc Maron
And it was kind of always a relatively quiet place and an underacted place.
[19:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[19:40]
Marc Maron
And you didn't like. Cause you know, we were together. But like when she'd give me direction because we were together, I'd be like, no, fuck that. No. And like I'd turn into a child. And then eventually I'd kind of relent and then do it the way she wanted. And she'd go like, it's better, right? I'm like, no. I don't know. It's also tragic. We don't need to keep talking about death.
[20:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, well, we're also at that age now. Where people die, where you go through and you're like, oh, wow, that person's. I ran into. I was in New York last week, and I ran into an actor that I kind of came up with, like, 20 years ago. And we were naming people, and we're like, wow, all those people are gone. But we're not old. We're just. That's just.
[20:25]
Marc Maron
It just starts and kind of comes in waves. I have big theories about it. Like, there's these chunks of time where if you live through them, you're good.
[20:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[20:34]
Marc Maron
But then there's these other chunks of time where it seems like people go in these few years, and then if you can get past those, you're good.
[20:41]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, well. And then you're the only one I know. Like, my dad died last year at 90, and he was like, I'm it. I'm the only one left. You know? He's like, there's no one even to.
[20:50]
Marc Maron
Well, how'd he go? I mean, was he all there?
[20:52]
Rosemary DeWitt
He was.
[20:53]
Marc Maron
Well, that's great.
[20:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, no, it was great. And he was like. He went.
[20:57]
Marc Maron
He's 90.
[20:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. And he was healthy until the end. You know, he was a. What do you call it? Know, a really stubborn motherfucker, you know, so he wouldn't get the walk. You know, he went out in a blaze of glory with all the broken bones that one can have at that age.
[21:10]
Marc Maron
He wouldn't do the walk, but he.
[21:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
Ran that body right into the ground.
[21:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Tough guy. Tough.
[21:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Marine Corps, 30 years. Yeah. Tough. Really tough. Yeah.
[21:18]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God. You grew up with a Marine?
[21:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Like the Great Santini.
[21:22]
Marc Maron
No, not that bad.
[21:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
No. I mean, it depends. He had. I was his ninth child, so I don't.
[21:27]
Marc Maron
Nine children.
[21:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, not with my mom. He had eight with his first wife, Dorothy, and then eight. Catholic, you know.
[21:35]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[21:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
Irish. He was Irish Catholic.
[21:37]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[21:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
And. And then me. So I think maybe they had more of that.
[21:42]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[21:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
That guy. And then I had. I had a subtler guy.
[21:46]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[21:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
But.
[21:47]
Marc Maron
Yeah, A little tired.
[21:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
A little. Not that.
[21:50]
Marc Maron
How many did. How many siblings do you have with him?
[21:52]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, it's just me with him and my mom. And then I had eight half brothers and sisters.
[21:56]
Marc Maron
So you're like a vacation.
[21:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. I don't know what I. Yeah. Disneyland. Yeah.
[22:01]
Marc Maron
And do you have a relationship with all those other ones?
[22:04]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I mean, to different degrees.
[22:06]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[22:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, I remember a million years. Like, one of the first movies I ever did was Rachel Getting Married, and it was all about family. It's a good movie. And I started. I did press kind of for the first time. And I remember I just couldn't answer any questions about family because I could never figure my own family out. You know, it was, like, about a sibling relationship. And I just gave the most neutral, boring answers because I'm like, I can't speak to this because I don't understand. It's complicated.
[22:35]
Marc Maron
How old were you then?
[22:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't know, 30s.
[22:38]
Marc Maron
But so how Catholic did you grow up?
[22:41]
Rosemary DeWitt
Catholic.
[22:43]
Marc Maron
And your mom is not Irish?
[22:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. No, she is, too.
[22:47]
Marc Maron
So Irish.
[22:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. So I remember, like, even before she passed away, I was young, she wanted to see a priest. And I was thinking, why? Like, what have you ever done? She wanted to make confession. I mean, before she died. And I was like, you don't leave the house. What do you have to confess? You know? But they were Catholic, so what do.
[23:03]
Marc Maron
They have to confess?
[23:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, a laundry. I don't know. I shouldn't bash anything, but I just feel. I remember my husband's mom is a Lutheran. She's retired now. Pastor, different approach totally. And he didn't understand that my concept of religion was like, anything you do is bad, and even if you go to confession, you still can't be forgiven.
[23:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[23:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's like. You're just screwed, basically. That's a trick. Yeah.
[23:28]
Marc Maron
Yeah. So you're just. You're born flawed and you stay flawed forever.
[23:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. I had a therapist who one time said to me, gosh, I wish you were Jewish. Our guilt is so much better than yours.
[23:38]
Marc Maron
It is, because we just have to live with it.
[23:41]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[23:41]
Marc Maron
We can't dump it on Jesus.
[23:43]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right.
[23:43]
Marc Maron
You just have to integrate it into your personality. It's a constant reality check, you know, Ongoing shame about everything.
[23:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, No, I have that, too. Yeah.
[23:53]
Marc Maron
Are you still religious?
[23:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, I just have ongoing shame about everything.
[23:57]
Marc Maron
You do?
[23:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, I'm working on it. I think it's alleviating as I get older.
[24:02]
Marc Maron
What is it about that, though? Because, like, I have it, too. And I'm not saying I'm a saint, but there is a point where you're like, why do I keep doing this to myself? And then some part of you is like, well, you must. This must be your comfort zone.
[24:13]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah.
[24:14]
Marc Maron
And it's so fucked up, isn't it?
[24:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. Well, you just decide, I guess we decided at an early point in life what level of a good person we have to be, and then we just fail miserably. Even if you hit all the boxes and hit all the marks, it's just never Good enough. But I mean, that's kind of what I like about it.
[24:31]
Marc Maron
The voice you put in your head. Right. But I guess that comes with Catholicism. But it's for me, I didn't have that. But I've got a guy in my head that's sort of like not quite.
[24:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, they say, like, try to make friends with that guy and they'll be like, hey, I'm going to drive the car now. Guy stay in the backseat.
[24:47]
Marc Maron
Right. But then it's an ongoing discussion.
[24:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. With him.
[24:51]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah.
[24:52]
Rosemary DeWitt
And you're like, why do you get so much air time? We need to take that piece of the mic away from him or just.
[24:58]
Marc Maron
Talk to more other people.
[24:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[25:00]
Marc Maron
Get out of yourself.
[25:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[25:02]
Marc Maron
But wait, so is it true? Like, you know, I'm not a big research guy, but you're the granddaughter of that boxer?
[25:10]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, that was my mom's dad. Yeah.
[25:13]
Marc Maron
Was his name Braddock James?
[25:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, James J. Braddock.
[25:16]
Marc Maron
And that's what they made the movie of? Yeah, Cinderella.
[25:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Cinderella Man. Yeah, that's what they called him. That was his kind of moniker because he was a washed up fighter at like 30. And then he was like a longshoreman. And he was. He only. He had a bunch. He had three kids. And then he just started taking fights during the Great Depression to pay the bills. It wasn't about like his like unlived life. It was just they needed to put food on the table.
[25:42]
Marc Maron
Right.
[25:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
And he just started winning. Cause he was so hungry. And he became the champ.
[25:46]
Marc Maron
But did you know this all growing up?
[25:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[25:49]
Marc Maron
You did?
[25:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, I just found out because you.
[25:53]
Marc Maron
Have a part in the movie a bit. And so was he alive when the movie came out?
[25:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, he died when I was 4 years old.
[26:00]
Marc Maron
Do you remember him?
[26:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. We lived with him and I remember hiding behind the chair, you know, when I was little, we lived with him for a little bit. He smoked a pipe. You know, I have very specific memories and there's some family lore and like stories that you hear over in your head.
[26:13]
Marc Maron
Right.
[26:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
And then when I was like, you know, in my early 20s, like different directors were attached. They were gonna make a movie about him. And I was like a stalker, you know, I was like, I have to be in this movie. And by then, like, my mom wasn't alive.
[26:27]
Marc Maron
Whose dad was he?
[26:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
My mom's. And my dad was a. Like, he fought in the Golden Gloves, so he, like. He was a.
[26:33]
Marc Maron
He's a boxer too?
[26:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, he was like small, a smaller. Yeah. But like looked up. He kind of bragged on my grandpa so much, but my mom was so humble about it, so it was no big deal.
[26:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah. Right. But it was to your dad.
[26:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, to my dad, it was.
[26:48]
Marc Maron
He probably knew that when he married her because he knew the old man. Oh, yeah.
[26:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
He grew up with her. Yeah.
[26:52]
Marc Maron
They grew up in the same town he was in. Your grandfather was in his life.
[26:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[26:56]
Marc Maron
So one of his heroes. He's marrying one of his heroes.
[26:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
And then, of course, he had all the old pictures and the. Too much. It was so embarrassing to my mom, the way he was trying to telegraph it.
[27:08]
Marc Maron
Did she ever think, like, is this the reason why you married me?
[27:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't think she thought that, but I just think she didn't need anyone to, you know. Not that she wasn't proud of her, but it wasn't her. It's just her dad, you know?
[27:21]
Marc Maron
So when you're growing up, I mean, all these other siblings, are they just in another place?
[27:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I think sometimes about, like, the way we parent now in, you know, like, where we help our kids with their feelings and we talk to them about everything. I remember meeting, like, I knew my three oldest siblings from when I was born.
[27:40]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[27:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
But the younger five I didn't meet until I was 10 years old.
[27:45]
Marc Maron
Right.
[27:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
But nobody explained it to me.
[27:48]
Marc Maron
It was just like, here they are.
[27:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
We're driving up to Maine. We're gonna spend a weekend. These are your brothers and sisters. And I remember them all kind of being like, hey, punk. You know, like, none of them were that excited to meet me. I mean, they're lovely now, and we all love each other, but nobody. It was like, I remember watching Mad Men years ago, and I thought the show was so perfect, except when they sat their kids down and explained that they were getting divorced. I was like, nobody did that.
[28:12]
Marc Maron
No one did that.
[28:13]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, it was just, throw them to the wolves. They'll figure it out. We don't really.
[28:17]
Marc Maron
Yeah, but your parents didn't get divorced, right?
[28:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, but I was just saying the parents just didn't do a lot of life coaching. I didn't think in the 70s.
[28:24]
Marc Maron
Well, now there's, like, 80s. Well, you have kids, right?
[28:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, too.
[28:28]
Marc Maron
And how's that going?
[28:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's great. I love it.
[28:30]
Marc Maron
Yeah?
[28:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[28:30]
Marc Maron
How old are they?
[28:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Almost 9 and 11.
[28:34]
Marc Maron
So as a parenting style, I mean, how do you kind of delegate? How do you figure out what your boundaries are? Did you read books?
[28:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
I read books. I probably talked too much. I. Literally. Speaking of that inner critic voice, I had a conversation with her earlier today.
[28:50]
Marc Maron
About.
[28:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Because they. I was in New York last week and I did some, like, late night TV stuff and they wanted to see it. They're like, did you talk about us? Like, they always want to have a. They want to have like a. What do you call it? Like an Internet footprint.
[29:03]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[29:03]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like they're mad that I have no social media.
[29:05]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah.
[29:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, they just think it's so painful that I don't like it. Yeah. That they have this particular mom. So I was like, well, I talked about you guys on the tv. Do you want to see it? And then I showed it to them. And then like that critic lady, I was talking, talking to her in my head. I'm like, oh, I should probably go home tonight. Be like, how did you feel to see yourself on TV last night? Was it okay?
[29:24]
Marc Maron
Do I know you had pictures on tv?
[29:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, like a picture of them in a Halloween.
[29:28]
Marc Maron
Was it with Fallon?
[29:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, it was with Seth Meyers.
[29:31]
Marc Maron
Oh, that's good.
[29:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
It was fun.
[29:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah. He's a sweet guy.
[29:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sweet.
[29:34]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I think he does a good job.
[29:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
Really good.
[29:36]
Marc Maron
Did you have some funny stories?
[29:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
I guess so, yeah. I don't know. I don't know how funny they are.
[29:42]
Marc Maron
Have you done those shows before?
[29:43]
Rosemary DeWitt
I've done them before, yeah. And then there's always that pressure. I guess. Not for you. Cause you just get on here and talk every day. Just talk.
[29:52]
Marc Maron
No, there's always pressure because you gotta do the whole, like, Sagram producer. What do you got? Yeah, there's stories you like to tell.
[29:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
And I'm all, yeah, it's like 48 hours before I'm like, shoot, I should have been paying attention to my life. What are my stories? What's funny?
[30:06]
Marc Maron
And then you got to. Then Seth will step in and save you.
[30:09]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I mean, my kids are. When you said you start it with, how are you? They're so funny to me that every day is a story. You know what I mean?
[30:17]
Marc Maron
Of course.
[30:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. So it's like I just go, what was Saturday? Oh, okay, I got one.
[30:20]
Marc Maron
You know, so it was all about the kids.
[30:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's always all about the kids.
[30:23]
Marc Maron
But it's also about like, what are these? You did a Disney plus movie.
[30:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, yeah.
[30:28]
Marc Maron
That sounds heavy.
[30:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's so good, Mark. I love it so much. Yeah.
[30:34]
Marc Maron
You're working with an actual special needs kid who's nonverbal.
[30:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
She's verbal. Phoebe. Yeah. She's brilliant girl from England and she's really funny. In the movie, though, she plays nonverbal. And she really does have cerebral palsy.
[30:49]
Marc Maron
So, of course.
[30:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, so she's so vulnerable in the movie to just, you know, allow us to witness life, you know, like, she has to. We have to carry her in certain ways and, you know, and she just gives a really. It's one of those ones especially. Cause she really is the age of the kids who are mean to you in school. Like, you want the movie. You just want everyone to see it. Cause you just want, like, everybody to go, Feel. Yeah. Feel like this is her and go. She's so cool.
[31:16]
Marc Maron
Right.
[31:16]
Rosemary DeWitt
You should be so lucky to know her and know her world.
[31:19]
Marc Maron
Aren't. It's. It's so amazing how. How reliably horrible people are.
[31:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah.
[31:26]
Marc Maron
You know, I just. I can't. I never understand it that the instinct, even as a child is to, you know, kind of bully the less. The weaker people. Yeah.
[31:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
The vulnerable. Yeah, yeah. I have a. My oldest one is in sixth grade, like, starting those middle school years, and she's kind of like, what's happening to everybody? Like, she can see that everybody's losing their mind. Like, it's puberty. It's like, wow, okay.
[31:52]
Marc Maron
Yeah. But it's also like, I automatically think, really, politics is already a thing.
[31:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, it's not that. But it's the meanness thing.
[31:59]
Marc Maron
Well, meanness has been like.
[32:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
It just becomes a thing.
[32:02]
Marc Maron
Justified. Yeah, yeah.
[32:03]
Rosemary DeWitt
Where they really just start trying on things.
[32:06]
Marc Maron
So that might be. Have something to do with it.
[32:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I guess. And, like, kind of moving for power. Vying for power by being mean and making people look dumb. Or we.
[32:14]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[32:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
So kids that you've known your whole life that are so kind, it just, like, hijacks them.
[32:20]
Marc Maron
So when you're. When you're. As an actor in a movie like this and as a mother, so this. I imagine that the emotions are sort of all in place already to be. To be open, but, like, the experience of what it requires to be. Have that kind of situation. Yes. I mean, you gotta be living it when you're doing it.
[32:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Like, this one was easy because it was like, both our girls are adopted. Gracie's black, Zaza's Latina. And you just. I kind of know already what it's like to have to advocate for them. Like when you're an adoptive family and visually. So, like, when people can see it coming, they feel entitled to, like, ask questions. When did you get them? You know? And I'm like, well, they're standing here. They're human beings. We're not gonna. Let's have a. Let's Be a normal human beings and talk, you know, and they're great. Like, my older one will be. Can you mind your business? You know, like, she's really tough.
[33:15]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[33:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
So I already kind of went in there knowing, like, oh, this is a part I want to explore about how do we. I almost feel like my kids advocate for themselves better than I actually can.
[33:23]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah.
[33:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
But I was. But I was interested in that part of the role of how a mom and she messes up. Like in the movie, she messes up and I mess up and, you know, I think she likes dad better than me, you know, in the movie.
[33:35]
Marc Maron
Does that happen in real life?
[33:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, sometimes. Right now they're kind of really into it.
[33:39]
Marc Maron
They're on your team.
[33:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
I like it, but I know it's. I know. Like teenagers. They're gonna be all about him.
[33:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Oh, you think so?
[33:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, as far as acting, they think he's so much. He is cooler. But they're like, my little one will be like, don't you feel bad? People stop and ask dad for autographs and nobody asks you. I'm like, I don't feel bad. She's like, yes, you do. No, I don't.
[34:00]
Marc Maron
What's he getting? The big autograph. Attention for Office Space.
[34:03]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, yeah.
[34:05]
Marc Maron
The classics.
[34:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
Band of Brothers. Yeah, he's got some good. He's got some doozies in there.
[34:10]
Marc Maron
Honestly, I think, like, Prime Ron is Adaptation.
[34:16]
Rosemary DeWitt
He's so good in that.
[34:17]
Marc Maron
That's fucking crazy.
[34:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's crazy. And it's also crazy. Cause that's like the least one like him. Like, he's not like that at all.
[34:23]
Marc Maron
That's why it's such a good, nice little part. But like, you know when you're in show business and you kind of wonder, like, what exactly is wrong with fucking agents? Cause part of them, they're all missing the same piece. And you can speak to them as humans and stuff.
[34:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[34:41]
Marc Maron
But there is something, some component missing and. And he just fucking nailed it.
[34:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[34:47]
Marc Maron
It's like, well, just write it. Sorry. What's it. Is it okay being with an actor?
[34:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
It is. Ron's not very actor. Ish.
[34:57]
Marc Maron
You know, but you don't drive each other crazy.
[34:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, not at all. I mean, I think I drive him a little crazy.
[35:02]
Marc Maron
But that has nothing to do with being an actor.
[35:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
No. If anything, he's. He's like a little Mr. Magoo. Ish. That's what drives me crazy. Like, he gets. He has this moment every day where he sits on the end of our bed with his Socks in his hand and stares at them for about seven minutes. And I'm always like, what is that?
[35:20]
Marc Maron
He's meditating.
[35:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't know.
[35:22]
Marc Maron
It's a sock meditation. You haven't heard of that?
[35:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. But then when I say, like, what are you thinking about right now? And it is some. It's usually something like that happened in history in, like, 1712 or the cooling and heating system in our house. Like, he, like, you know, he reads Scientific American like he's not into actor y things, you know?
[35:39]
Marc Maron
I don't know. It sounds a little like. I've been told recently that I have adhd.
[35:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
I have it. Ron has it.
[35:44]
Marc Maron
That's right.
[35:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
My oldest kid has it and my youngest doesn't. And it's like, she's so miserable.
[35:48]
Marc Maron
How do you know you have it?
[35:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, because somebody told me. Like, a doctor told me.
[35:51]
Marc Maron
I'm just taking it by, you know, listeners.
[35:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[35:54]
Marc Maron
And just people I know have not gone to a doctor for the diagnosis.
[35:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, I could tell because you and I, like, I want to cut you off. You want to cut me off? Like, we probably just want to just keep jumping.
[36:01]
Marc Maron
Is that adhd?
[36:03]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think it's, like, an impulse, really.
[36:05]
Marc Maron
It's not neediness or.
[36:07]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think that's something else or desire.
[36:10]
Marc Maron
To make it about me. Is that all part of the disease?
[36:13]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think that might be narcissism.
[36:15]
Marc Maron
No, no, no, no, no. I like ADHD better. Let's go with adhd.
[36:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[36:19]
Marc Maron
And I don't need to do the narcissism thing.
[36:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, but you said, make it all about me. Like, isn't that the classic I gotta.
[36:25]
Marc Maron
Play a narcissist for in a movie?
[36:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Is that what I just read today? That's a really good premise.
[36:31]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I gotta be that guy.
[36:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[36:33]
Marc Maron
Yeah. It's gonna be kind of interesting.
[36:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[36:35]
Marc Maron
Very nervous.
[36:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
You are?
[36:37]
Marc Maron
Yes.
[36:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[36:38]
Marc Maron
Do you get nervous?
[36:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
I want to get nervous.
[36:41]
Marc Maron
But you don't anymore.
[36:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, I mean, I do sometimes. Yeah. I mean, sometimes, but not enough. Like, I want. Like, I want that to be harder and scarier. I was really nervous doing your sister's sister. Like, those things made me nervous because of the improvised. Yeah, the improv, that movie. I jumped in last minute for somebody who fell out, and I had to, like, you know, say, hi, Mark Duplass. And then we're doing, like, a sex scene into this scene and the break, you know, like, I like where. I like the. I like the fear. So.
[37:10]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[37:10]
Rosemary DeWitt
The fact that you're nervous gets me excited. That makes Me think you're gonna transform your life.
[37:14]
Marc Maron
Really?
[37:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Uh huh.
[37:15]
Marc Maron
I hope so.
[37:16]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[37:17]
Marc Maron
Like, I go through a lot of stuff in my head about roles. You know, I go through a lot of like, who turned this down to where? Oh, you care that I got it?
[37:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, who cares?
[37:27]
Marc Maron
No, I don't really care. Yeah, but like my, my go to is like, there's like so many other guys can do this. I mean, what.
[37:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
That sounds really helpful to your process.
[37:37]
Marc Maron
Hey, hey, we all have our own process. Yeah, I like to erase myself entirely through painful insecurity so I can build up from there.
[37:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, you do a whole recasting of the role and then compare despair and then you finally get there.
[37:50]
Marc Maron
Well, I mean, but I mean, you act constantly. I don't act constantly.
[37:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[37:55]
Marc Maron
And so the life of an actor is not. I never feel like it's quite my life. Even though I've done a lot of it at this point, I still feel like the other thing, this, my comedy, you know, that's who I am. I always, I want to do the acting and I've done a lot of it at this point, but it still feels like, well, I'm just trying it out.
[38:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
You just did a series in Vancouver too. I did, yeah. Because I ran into John Hamburg, you know, one of your directors.
[38:17]
Marc Maron
Yeah, because you're up there. I think I texted you or somebody did. Oh, I knew you were up there.
[38:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
I didn't get it. I was thinking like, oh, maybe we.
[38:23]
Marc Maron
Have dinner or something. But I was too busy sitting alone, wondering. Yeah, I was sitting alone in a high rise in Vancouver, watching old movies, wondering why I was up there.
[38:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, at least you were watching old movies.
[38:37]
Marc Maron
I'll tell you something. The one thing that kept me from actually wanting to be an actor was trailer time. I cannot deal with trailer time, okay. And it just drove me crazy because I can't seem to do anything productive in a trailer, Right. And at some point I find myself going like, what could they be doing?
[38:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right?
[38:54]
Marc Maron
How, you know, how long does it take? I mean, Jesus. And in this last one, they had a Samsung Television in the trailer and I hooked it up to my Netflix and my prime and everything.
[39:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[39:05]
Marc Maron
And I'm like, I'm watching the Godfather, I'm watching Tarantino movies. I'm like, this is fine.
[39:10]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well that's great. But that also tells me you're not that nervous.
[39:14]
Marc Maron
Well, not for that. I mean, it's a supporting role. It's a cakewalk.
[39:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay, But I'm just mean. Cause like I still, I guess I still use my trailer time to do, like work.
[39:22]
Marc Maron
Well, I do the work. I make sure I know the lines and stuff.
[39:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[39:25]
Marc Maron
But also when, depending on what the scene is, you kind of know, like, all right, I got, you know, it's one exchange. I know what's gonna happen.
[39:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay. Yeah.
[39:33]
Marc Maron
And you know, and I'm gonna wait three hours.
[39:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[39:35]
Marc Maron
And then I'm gonna go out there and try to enjoy what being an actor is like.
[39:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, and you also do a lot of comedy. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I do a lot of, like. And now I'm the mother of this murdered child. You know what I mean? So I'm in my trailer feeling, you know, various degrees of despair.
[39:52]
Marc Maron
Well, I'm hired to do various degrees of cranky big hearted dudes.
[39:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sure. Yeah.
[39:56]
Marc Maron
So like, you're like, I got that.
[39:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[39:58]
Marc Maron
That makes faith.
[39:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sure.
[40:00]
Marc Maron
But the narcissism thing is weird because to play a real self centered person, but one without shame, that's tricky because.
[40:07]
Rosemary DeWitt
You have a great role model.
[40:08]
Marc Maron
Who's that, my dad?
[40:09]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, I mean, just put on the news.
[40:12]
Marc Maron
I mean, I can't be that guy.
[40:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
But. Yeah, no, but I'm just saying if you want to just make a list, you could just watch all the moves.
[40:19]
Marc Maron
But I wouldn't call him a good hearted person.
[40:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, no, this guy's a good hearted person.
[40:22]
Marc Maron
Yeah, I think so. He's just a little self absorbed. He's an actor.
[40:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[40:26]
Marc Maron
So he's the actor version.
[40:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I got you.
[40:28]
Marc Maron
And you know, they pretend to be good hearted until they really have to be.
[40:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[40:33]
Marc Maron
So when did you start doing the acting?
[40:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, I guess I always did it. I, you know, came like, you know, we talked about like more working class background. Like nobody went into the arts.
[40:44]
Marc Maron
So I, I've heard this a lot lately.
[40:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Really? Yeah. So I didn't have. I didn't think it was something I could ever pursue. I went to college to try to not do it, but. But I was telling a friend recently, we were talking about something and I was like, yeah, you know, in kindergarten I wanted to be a ballerina and I got the seal. And then in first grade I wanted to be Gretel and Hansel and Gretel, but I was the tree. And she's like, you always wanted to be an actor. Most people couldn't tell you like, what roles they didn't get in kindergarten. So I guess I always wanted to do it.
[41:11]
Marc Maron
But like, how do you like. And this is like, so you're in.
[41:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Where'd you Grow up New Jersey.
[41:16]
Marc Maron
New Jersey?
[41:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[41:18]
Marc Maron
Which part?
[41:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Morristown. Near Morristown.
[41:22]
Marc Maron
I'm genetically Jersey.
[41:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
You are where? See, I feel genetically New York, but tell me more.
[41:26]
Marc Maron
No, I'm genetically Jersey. My dad's from Jersey City.
[41:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[41:29]
Marc Maron
My mother's from Pompton Lakes.
[41:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[41:31]
Marc Maron
You know where Pompton Lakes is? You do?
[41:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[41:34]
Marc Maron
I was excited when people know where.
[41:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
Pompton Lakes is and my dad's from Jersey City. My mom and my dad were both born in Jersey City.
[41:39]
Marc Maron
They're probably born at the same hospital that my dad was. Probably Margaret Haternity Hospital.
[41:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yep, yep, yep, yep.
[41:46]
Marc Maron
There you go. We're connected.
[41:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
We are Jersey.
[41:49]
Marc Maron
Do you like Jersey?
[41:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I like. It's beautiful. I mean, parts of it are really beautiful.
[41:54]
Marc Maron
They really are.
[41:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
But I was born in Queens, so I feel genetic. And then I lived there.
[41:59]
Marc Maron
You were born in Queens?
[42:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
I was born in Queens and then I, you know, went to college in New York and then went there at 21 to become an actress. So I feel genetically linked to New York in a way.
[42:08]
Marc Maron
Right, But Queens is more Jersey. It's a Jersey or part of New York.
[42:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I guess it is. It's very Jersey.
[42:13]
Marc Maron
Queens, was it like just a full Irish, working class neighborhood?
[42:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't know what it was. Yeah, I guess for a minute, you know? I guess. Yeah. I remember my cousin got married and they were. I wish I could remember. Was it Queens Boulevard or something? There's a whole strip of Irish bars. That's where everybody met and got married.
[42:31]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so you grow up in Jersey.
[42:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[42:34]
Marc Maron
And you want to be an actor now, given that you were the station of life you were in where your parents were like, what are you fucking talking about?
[42:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, it was kind of good in that no one cared about me that much, you know? Like, my dad said to me a couple years ago, he's like, I can't believe that you're successful. And I'm like, what? What do you mean you can't believe it? And he's like, I don't know. I just thought I was like, why? What did you think I would be? He's like, I don't know. I just thought you'd get married. Get pregnant. Get married to some guy on the block.
[43:03]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Wow.
[43:04]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, okay. Thanks.
[43:05]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the.
[43:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
So, no, they weren't discouraging at all. I think they were, like, cool, but I don't think they thought. But I don't even think they cared if I went to college. You know what I mean? Like, I just. Nobody Was betting on you. On me to do much.
[43:21]
Marc Maron
That's one of the greatest weird compliments I've ever heard. I just didn't think he'd be like, in light of being successful. He was like, yeah, I don't know that I thought you would ever make it.
[43:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, and he was really proud, but it was just, I don't know, it's.
[43:33]
Marc Maron
Good that he could see it because no matter how successful I got, you know, if you're not on a TV show or something, like my dad would be like, why don't you talk to, you know, Jerry Seinfeld? He probably knows what to do.
[43:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's a lot of parents.
[43:46]
Marc Maron
What do you. What do you mean?
[43:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
Just my father in law is such a good guy and he'll say things to me like, you know what Tiger woods problem is? And I'm like, tell me. You know, I mean, because he's really, he's always looking for the loophole, you know.
[44:00]
Marc Maron
Is he a golfer?
[44:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
He is a golfer.
[44:02]
Marc Maron
Do you play golf?
[44:03]
Rosemary DeWitt
No. I used to play with my dad.
[44:04]
Marc Maron
He's a big golfer.
[44:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
He now, we just kind of did it recreationally after my mom, like a bonding thing after my mom died.
[44:11]
Marc Maron
Go out with the fellas, ride around.
[44:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, he said, I played like an 80 year old golfer. I just hit it like straight down the Fairway. But like 100 yards.
[44:18]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[44:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, every time. But now I don't, I don't care about it.
[44:20]
Marc Maron
Cause this whole show I did was a golf show and I don't give a shit.
[44:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, yeah.
[44:24]
Marc Maron
And I was like, I don't know if you want me. I can't. I'm not gonna be able to play. He's like, yeah, well, you don't have to.
[44:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[44:29]
Marc Maron
You're like a retired caddy. I'm like, all right, okay, I can figure that out.
[44:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[44:32]
Marc Maron
And then you think, a little business to do for yourself when you're doing.
[44:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's a funny role, a caddy.
[44:37]
Marc Maron
Right?
[44:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's good. Yeah.
[44:38]
Marc Maron
I was with Owen Wilson. It was pretty funny.
[44:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[44:41]
Marc Maron
But I remember I get so thrilled when I make acting choices, you know, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of times where I'm just standing watching the golfers.
[44:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right.
[44:50]
Marc Maron
Because we're working with this kid who, you know, Owen is taken under his wing as an ex pro. So like when I'm just standing there, I'm kind of looking at the, you know, checking out the fairway and looking at the wind, you know, And I.
[45:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
Was like, how do you see the wind?
[45:04]
Marc Maron
I'm doing it. I'm an amazing caddy.
[45:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[45:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah. So I can see the wind.
[45:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
Wow.
[45:09]
Marc Maron
All right. So what do you do? You go to New York to do the acting?
[45:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Go to New York. I study.
[45:14]
Marc Maron
With who? Like what? Like, what's the scene? What year the scene?
[45:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, I went to college and I was, like, a creative studies major, which was like Hofstra. Make your own Sunday kind of major. Classes on Beckett, Jack Kerouac, Cobble Something together. Yeah.
[45:27]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[45:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
And then New York City, I studied with some really, really good theater teachers, you know, and then I did theater. I thought that was going to be my life. Ron Van Loo.
[45:37]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[45:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
Earl Gister, Lloyd Richards. Like, really, like, old school, you know, this is like the 90s. A lot of scene study.
[45:45]
Marc Maron
Meisner.
[45:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, Meisner. I never did Meisner. And then I was. Do you know, doing off.
[45:54]
Marc Maron
Off.
[45:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
Off. Off. Off Off Broadway. Yeah. Theater. Theater. Theater.
[45:56]
Marc Maron
Like crazy plays.
[45:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, some crazy plays.
[45:59]
Marc Maron
Naked.
[46:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
Naked. Once.
[46:00]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[46:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Glad you asked. That's so weird. Nobody's ever said that. Nobody's ever said, oh, you came from the theater naked. You were getting naked.
[46:09]
Marc Maron
Tell us about the one Naked one.
[46:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[46:11]
Marc Maron
Everyone who does off. Off. Off. Off Broadway is like, there's a naked one in there.
[46:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it was off Broadway then, my naked one. So it was kind of close to Broadway.
[46:19]
Marc Maron
But that must be a pretty good baptism into something. A type of vulnerability that you might not want to do, but you do.
[46:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
It is. It's like a rite of passage.
[46:27]
Marc Maron
Yeah. To make it on stage in a bad play.
[46:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
It wasn't a bad play.
[46:31]
Marc Maron
Well, that's good.
[46:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. It was a good play.
[46:33]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[46:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think it was probably okay production.
[46:36]
Marc Maron
Does it always call for nudity, or was it just a weird director?
[46:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, it did okay. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of in the play, but I know what you mean. No, there were other ones. I remember one time I had an agent say to me, the casting director says she has to be comfortable doing anything naked, otherwise you shouldn't come in on this. And I was like, well, I'm not comfortable doing anything. I don't know what that means. I mean, there's certainly a lot of that when you're an actress in your 20s. And luckily, no one's asking anymore.
[47:07]
Marc Maron
Not unless you're Demi Moore.
[47:09]
Rosemary DeWitt
My God, did you see that movie? I haven't seen it.
[47:11]
Marc Maron
I fucking saw it. Yeah.
[47:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Was it great?
[47:13]
Marc Maron
It's great.
[47:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Wow.
[47:14]
Marc Maron
It's fucking insane. I mean, I'm not Really a horror guy. But, you know, I'm enough of a Cronenberg guy to kind of get where she's coming from. The director. Yeah. And, you know, once you buy into the conceit, which you do pretty quickly because it's required of you.
[47:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[47:31]
Marc Maron
It's pretty. You know, it's like a satire. I mean, it's about something.
[47:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[47:35]
Marc Maron
You know, it's about aging. It's about women. It's about how women are seen, how they see themselves.
[47:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[47:40]
Marc Maron
And what they'll do in the name of vanity. And it's like, crazy. It's crazy.
[47:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, I'm going to see it.
[47:47]
Marc Maron
Because you watch it for two hours and you look, there's still, like, 25 minutes left. And, like, what could they fucking even do now? And then that third act happens and.
[47:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
You'Re like, oh, my God, did it make you sad?
[47:58]
Marc Maron
I think what happens with that, the sadness is like, my girlfriend is a horror person.
[48:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[48:07]
Marc Maron
So she knows horror. It's her thing.
[48:09]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[48:11]
Marc Maron
And so when the movie kind of finishes up where it finishes, you know, it's kind of mind blowing, but I think it's. It's definitely sad. But the nature of Monsters is kind of sad.
[48:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[48:24]
Marc Maron
You know, in the classic sense.
[48:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sure.
[48:26]
Marc Maron
You know what I mean?
[48:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I do.
[48:28]
Marc Maron
And so you get that, but you also get this level of empathy for the experience of. Of women.
[48:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, that's what I meant. Because when you said the. The sentence like that women would do anything.
[48:40]
Marc Maron
Right.
[48:41]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, to fight aging, I was like, oh, that hurts so much.
[48:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[48:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know?
[48:46]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[48:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, why can't we just get old together?
[48:48]
Marc Maron
You can. Can you?
[48:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, we can, but I just mean, like, our culture, like, why can't we all just.
[48:53]
Marc Maron
Like, it's a culture, too, but, like, I. Is. But is it all cultural? I mean, I think, like, I'm pretty vain, but I'm not gonna dye my hair that I know of.
[49:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right.
[49:06]
Marc Maron
And, like, I look at myself, like, when I look in my mirror, I feel fine, but then I see a picture of me. I'm like, oh, fuck, it's happening.
[49:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[49:13]
Marc Maron
And I feel like on some level, should I be doing something other than just exercising and everything else? And I don't. I'm not gonna get any. You know, I'm relatively comfortable.
[49:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[49:24]
Marc Maron
But I'm a guy. I get it.
[49:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah.
[49:27]
Marc Maron
Are you freaking out?
[49:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Not freaking out, but I hate that I even think about it. I mean, I don't mind if I think about it. Like, it's related to mortality.
[49:35]
Marc Maron
Right.
[49:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
But I don't, like, enjoy thinking about it when. When I feel like it's connected to my livelihood.
[49:41]
Marc Maron
Oh, yeah, yeah.
[49:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
Or my, like, how much I'll be able to express myself going forward.
[49:48]
Marc Maron
But it seems like you do pretty well.
[49:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
I think I do pretty well.
[49:52]
Marc Maron
You know what I mean? It's like, you know, you're cast in things that are appropriate for you, and you seem to. Like, there seems to be plenty of them, in a way.
[50:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. No, I'm happy.
[50:02]
Marc Maron
I just.
[50:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? There's a. I think a pressure, and then you look around, and if everybody's going to look a different age, then, you know, I guess I can start playing grandmas. I did. I already played a grandma.
[50:17]
Marc Maron
How was that sign?
[50:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like one of those ones where you had the kid at 14.
[50:21]
Marc Maron
Oh, right, right. Yeah. Wasn't a good situation. But now you're good. Yeah. I don't know. You know, I'm not freaking out about it, but there does come to a point where you're like, all right, we're closing in.
[50:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[50:34]
Marc Maron
The final quarter somehow.
[50:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, I think it's meant to prepare you.
[50:39]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[50:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, well, you go to Canada.
[50:41]
Marc Maron
And places like, even, like, I was just in New Mexico. A lot of gray hair.
[50:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, sure.
[50:45]
Marc Maron
A lot of women with gray hair. And it's like, that's great.
[50:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[50:48]
Marc Maron
Why doesn't everybody do that? But out here, you're like, what's happened to her? She's really slipped off, you know, the slippery slope. You see a woman just walking down the street with gray hair, like, wow, I hope she's okay.
[51:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. She wants to have a condition or can't afford the hairdresser. Yeah. Because it's unheard of.
[51:07]
Marc Maron
So, New York, when do you get your first break?
[51:10]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't know. Break, break, break.
[51:12]
Marc Maron
Were you doing plays? Did you do plays?
[51:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. You know, it's funny. I got my first Broadway offer and I turned it down because I was getting stuff out here, but that had been the goal. And then I. Broadway at the time. Yeah. And then the only reason I think I left New York was because I was going through a divorce, you know, a breakup, and I needed to get out of Dodge. Like, I needed a change of scenery.
[51:32]
Marc Maron
Sure.
[51:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
So I came out here and I would say, got lucky and all those things. And also, you know, when your life is in freefall, you're like, what are you going to do? Tell me I can't have the job? You know, like, you have a fearlessness about you. And I was just able to make a couple things happen, so that gave me a foundation.
[51:50]
Marc Maron
It's good that it was fearlessness and not just the desperation part and the anger.
[51:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[51:56]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God.
[51:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
It didn't feel like that. Yeah. No. It more felt like I'm free. Yeah. Or I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do, so I might as well just go for broke.
[52:04]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[52:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, kind of thing.
[52:05]
Marc Maron
But have you done stage lately?
[52:07]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, not since my kids. I did a play at Williamstown last, but it's a different gig, you know, with your family.
[52:15]
Marc Maron
Oh, yeah. Cause you got like, what, three weeks of rehearsal and then you got like.
[52:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
And you also have to move everybody there to not get paid and pull them out of school, you know, and it's.
[52:24]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I had this dream of maybe doing some theater.
[52:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[52:26]
Marc Maron
And then, like, you know, there was something that came up, and they're like, yeah, they're gonna run it for three weeks in Chicago and then a month or two, and I'm like, I'm out.
[52:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
I can't.
[52:35]
Marc Maron
It's not my life.
[52:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Well, it's like Ron is in a dad band right now. Like, it's just fun, you know, his midlife crisis.
[52:42]
Marc Maron
What's he play?
[52:43]
Rosemary DeWitt
He plays the keyboards and sings a bit. How are they? He's really good. I mean, it's the kind of thing, like, they don't. They have, you know, these. What are they, 80s songs and these other songs. Like, I don't know how many times you can hear them sing them, but they're kind of great. They're called Notorious dad. But my point of bringing it up was, oh, that. He's like, God, he's like, I'm glad I became an actor. He's like, you got to carry your equipment around, you know, like, it's so unglamorous, you know, and the theater is a real. It's a real blue collar gig. It's a great gig. I love it. Like, there's nothing like. Well, you know, you do comedy, like, in front of a live audience.
[53:20]
Marc Maron
Like, I'm in control, you know, I don't have to. I can do whatever I want.
[53:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[53:24]
Marc Maron
When you're in a play, you're kind of beholden.
[53:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
You still can do whatever you want, but. Yeah, yeah. I mean, in terms of, like, the direction, you know, you can switch it up, but. Yeah. But you have to say the words.
[53:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah. In comedy, it's not the same. I don't even know what it would be like to try to memorize a play right now?
[53:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Is that an age thing or just.
[53:41]
Marc Maron
No, I mean, I'm pretty good at it, but, like, you know, because I've done it a couple of times, but not since college.
[53:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[53:46]
Marc Maron
And I did it, but, like, it's. It's a. It's a fucker.
[53:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's a beast.
[53:50]
Marc Maron
Totally.
[53:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Especially if it doesn't work. There was a play I did one time with Jonathan Demme that just didn't quite work.
[53:58]
Marc Maron
He directed it.
[53:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
He directed it, but he also. It was the only play he ever did, you know, as a director and it's such a different medium and I used to wake up in the morning and be like, maybe if I break my own leg, I don't have to do it.
[54:10]
Marc Maron
What's that part of the play?
[54:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, just because it was such a hard play and it wasn't working. If it's working, it's transcendent.
[54:16]
Marc Maron
Right.
[54:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
But it just wasn't working.
[54:19]
Marc Maron
Oh, no.
[54:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it was hard.
[54:20]
Marc Maron
Was it off Broadway?
[54:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
It was off Broadway, yeah. I'm going to tell you a story that Ron and I do this bit. I one time jumped into a play. I love saying off Broadway and off Broadway. Sure. Someone got fired and I jumped in with like three or four days of rehearsal.
[54:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[54:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
And somebody in the cast, in order to make me feel better, was like, oh, no, you don't understand. I had to. This guy Michael. Oh, I wish I could remember. He's a great musical theater actor.
[54:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[54:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
He had to cover for Martin Short, but he had to go on in the lead role unrehearsed.
[54:51]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God.
[54:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
So he had to learn all the songs, all the dances. By the next day he was going on and he said he stayed up till like six in the morning with his wife, and all of a sudden she closes the script and looks at him and says, you don't know this. And so sometimes Ron and I just do that to each other because, like, could you imagine having to go out and doing an interview and knowing you just don't know it?
[55:15]
Marc Maron
No.
[55:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[55:16]
Marc Maron
So what happened to that guy?
[55:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
He did it. This is what you do. You do it.
[55:20]
Marc Maron
And if you're confident enough, the audience doesn't know.
[55:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, they don't really know. And although, like, some of the grand dames of the theater of, like, I'd like you to pause right here. And he's like, you'll be lucky if I don't piss on your leg. I'm gonna do whatever I can do to get through these two and a half hours, you know.
[55:36]
Marc Maron
So when you did Margaret, that fucking movie, he's, like, intense, right?
[55:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
He's great.
[55:43]
Marc Maron
Have you worked with him more than once?
[55:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, just that time. I mean, I've run into him a bunch since, but because that was such an epic movie, I felt like I worked with him more than once. And also, he was one of my. You know, when you come up in the theater, I'd seen a lot of Kenny Lonergan plays. They were like, really? Like, this is our youth and Lobby hero. Those are, like, seminal plays. Like, if you were those ages.
[56:02]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[56:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, if you were in your 20s and you were watching other actors, like Mark Ruffalo.
[56:05]
Marc Maron
Sure.
[56:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Josh Hamilton and Glen Fitzgerald. Like just some Heather Burns. These, like, great parts. Yeah. So I loved. I loved Kenny back then.
[56:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[56:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
So I just, you know, it was a small part, but I was so happy to be part of that ensemble.
[56:17]
Marc Maron
But when you watch that movie, aren't you, like, kind of like. Oh, my God, yeah. It's so fucking heavy, right?
[56:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, I love a heavy. I love a heavy movie, though.
[56:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah. What's the heaviest movie you ever did?
[56:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Do you think that I ever did?
[56:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Where you realize, like, actually, the thing.
[56:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
I just did when we were up in Vancouver, it's a limited series for. It's called Untamed, and it's in that vein of Mayor of Easttown, you know, or True Detective.
[56:39]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[56:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
And it was like, that sometimes happens, especially when you're alone, where my kids had left a little bit early to go back to school. And I was like, okay, if I don't finish this role soon, because it was so heavy. I'm like, I'm gonna go down a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna slip under. So I was like, this really needs. You know? And it was just like. It ended. I was like, okay, good. Because I didn't think I could.
[57:01]
Marc Maron
Oh, really? Stay in it.
[57:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, you stay in it. It's not even that. It's just like when you said you were watching old movies again, it was like, those shows are a lot about true crime and stuff. And then I'm imbibing all the true crime stuff, too. So it's like, not only the role, when I'm there, when I'm not working, I feel like I should be taking in that stuff too, just to kind of not lose the thread.
[57:22]
Marc Maron
Sure.
[57:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
And I'm like, this is not good for me.
[57:24]
Marc Maron
Oh, no.
[57:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. I gotta go home. This has to wrap. So it was perfect timing.
[57:28]
Marc Maron
Oh, thank God.
[57:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
But it was really heavy.
[57:29]
Marc Maron
It'll be.
[57:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
It'll be next year.
[57:31]
Marc Maron
It's a limited series, so you have to go back into it. Because I think roles can, like, take a toll on people.
[57:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, yeah.
[57:37]
Marc Maron
If you keep doing it.
[57:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, for sure.
[57:39]
Marc Maron
I mean, I watched, you know that documentary about the Sopranos, Gandolfini having to do that for six years.
[57:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[57:47]
Marc Maron
It just crushed him.
[57:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Oh, I believe it.
[57:50]
Marc Maron
Because you find this stuff in yourself that, you know, might be gone for. Buried for a reason.
[57:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[57:55]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God.
[57:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
And at least if it's a movie or a play. I remember one time Ron said to me, we were somewhere on a beach, and I was like, oh, my God, this beach is amazing. Why is this beach so epic? He's like, well, I think finally you're, like, back to yourself, you know? Cause it's just. Yeah, yeah.
[58:10]
Marc Maron
Well, let me ask you, so, like, if you've got a big role in a movie, significant role, what do you do first?
[58:20]
Rosemary DeWitt
First I go, why? Why is the script in my lap?
[58:24]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[58:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, what is it? How. You know, like.
[58:26]
Marc Maron
Because they wanted you.
[58:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. No, but, like, what's the title of it?
[58:31]
Marc Maron
In Memoriam.
[58:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay, so what does that mean to you?
[58:34]
Marc Maron
Well, I mean, before I knew what it was about.
[58:37]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[58:37]
Marc Maron
I was like, well, this is going to be dark. And, you know, I hope it's not too sad, but I'm both of those things. So let's open it up to the first page. And then I read it. Well. But I knew the pitch line of the movie, which was. Which was. It's about an actor who was a great actor and had his ups and downs, almost became a movie star, but kind of shit, the bed went through a period where he was just trying to rebuild and get back on top. Then he took a sitcom and he did that for five years, and that's what he got known for.
[59:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, wow.
[59:12]
Marc Maron
So he completely sold out his initial, you know, his original dream and talent to do this thing.
[59:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, that's exactly where I would start.
[59:21]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[59:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
For me personally, I'd be like, where did I. Where do I see this dynamic in my own life?
[59:27]
Marc Maron
Right. I blew it.
[59:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. And it wouldn't have to necessarily, for me, be the. In the career. It could be anywhere, but I'd start to mine it.
[59:34]
Marc Maron
Sure.
[59:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[59:35]
Marc Maron
That's what I do. And you try to connect your own experience to that.
[59:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah. They were doing it.
[59:40]
Marc Maron
I did all that. But then the catch is that he's diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
[59:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[59:46]
Marc Maron
At the beginning of the movie.
[59:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[59:49]
Marc Maron
And he becomes obsessed with the need to be in the immemorial montage of the Oscars, which I love. And he doesn't think he has the resume to do it, which he doesn't.
[59:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
He doesn't. Okay.
[59:59]
Marc Maron
You know, and his manager's like, well, you're getting the Emmys. He's like, who the fuck cares about the Emmys? So he feels like his legacy, his entire legacy is hinging on being in that montage. And he fucked himself by doing this sitcom, so no one knows him. So he's walking around bringing up movies no one's seen.
[60:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah.
[60:18]
Marc Maron
To people that are younger than him and they're like, I don't know anything about it.
[60:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[60:21]
Marc Maron
And his ex wife. It's complicated, but, like, the thing that. I guess what.
[60:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
There's so much pathos in that, though.
[60:30]
Marc Maron
Totally.
[60:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right. Like existential. And also, like, you know, when you spend time with people who are old, like, older, meaning in their 70s and 80s, and how they have to go back to all those past things and keep talking about it and talking about.
[60:42]
Marc Maron
It if they can remember him, like, this guy kind of burned through it. And I think that there was a point where, you know, he didn't have to think about it every day, but the idea that he's dying now, he's got to justify his existence.
[60:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[60:55]
Marc Maron
But I think the bigger question for me was, like, all right, so, you know, you're dying, you know, soon.
[61:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[61:02]
Marc Maron
And that. That's what you. That's the news you've been delivered. What do you do with that as an actor? Because you can't play that in every scene. And it took me till yesterday to realize, like, well, he's going to be avoiding that as much as possible, even when he knows it's happening.
[61:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right.
[61:15]
Marc Maron
He's going to focus on whatever he has to to not live in that.
[61:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Right.
[61:19]
Marc Maron
So there are scenes where he's living in it, and then there are scenes where he's trying desperately.
[61:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
Thank God you figured that out before you started shooting.
[61:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[61:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Don't you love that?
[61:27]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[61:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[61:28]
Marc Maron
Well, does that happen to you, like, the day before you're like, oh, my God, always. I got it.
[61:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[61:33]
Marc Maron
Always.
[61:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[61:34]
Marc Maron
Well, that's good.
[61:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, but I mean. And also, sometimes halfway through the shoot, you know, like, where you're like, oh, I know.
[61:41]
Marc Maron
I get it.
[61:41]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. And there might be something I wished I could have. I would have played so different. But then I'm so grateful.
[61:46]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I talked to, like.
[61:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[61:48]
Marc Maron
Like, I talked to James Caan once, he's like, you know, on the first day of shooting the Godfather, I didn't have Sonny yet.
[61:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Most of the time you don't. Right. Like, you grow into it and you find your way.
[61:58]
Marc Maron
Yeah. But usually when I get there, I'm like, am I just being me?
[62:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Well, and that's true, too. You know what I mean? And, like, you're saying with process. I don't think it's that I'm always marvel at the actors who do all the amazing physical exterior work and the inner work at the same time. Like, it's such a craft. And then I always just feel like I'm some version degree away from myself.
[62:22]
Marc Maron
Yeah, me too. But you've been doing it a long time, so it's very reassuring. Yeah. All that. That work that. That work that you just described.
[62:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[62:30]
Marc Maron
My. My version of that is like, what am I doing with my hands?
[62:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[62:34]
Marc Maron
Do I just leave them here?
[62:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Did they just grow while I was.
[62:39]
Marc Maron
Standing or I'm in the middle of some sort of monologue, and as a person, I'm all. I'm all hands. And I'm like, yeah, is this guy all hands? Because I'm doing an awesome.
[62:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[62:48]
Marc Maron
And then when maybe he is. Well, he's gonna have to be.
[62:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah, he is. Because that's. That's the thing I hate when I watch. As long as the actor is doing, like, using what's really there.
[62:59]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[63:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
I love it.
[63:00]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[63:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
If someone's trying to pretend, you know, that, like, the light didn't just fall on their face and keep acting. You know what I mean? Or that they don't. And, like, you know, if you're working with the other actor and you kind of can't stand them and it's a love. I like seeing that complicated mess of like, you kind of can't stand him. And it's a love scene, you know?
[63:20]
Marc Maron
Yeah. It's like. That is sort of the weird thing about actors. You know, the thing I learned from Pacino in a certain way is he literally says. He says, you know, you want to hit it, you want to nail it, but most of the time you don't.
[63:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. So there's that.
[63:35]
Marc Maron
Well, but that's acting.
[63:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[63:36]
Marc Maron
So if someone watching it believes it, you fucking did it.
[63:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Just.
[63:40]
Marc Maron
Cause you're a little unsatisfied that you didn't. Like, whatever.
[63:43]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. Well, we're always unsatisfied. Like, that's our job. And the audience is, you know.
[63:48]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[63:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
They're not sitting there picking it apart, like they're there to love it.
[63:51]
Marc Maron
Yeah. All right.
[63:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[63:54]
Marc Maron
So what's this other thing you did.
[63:55]
Rosemary DeWitt
The horror movie Smile too.
[63:57]
Marc Maron
I saw the coming attractions for that.
[63:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[64:00]
Marc Maron
How's that?
[64:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
I heard it. I'm seeing it Monday. I heard it's great, actually. Like, the script was really good. It, like.
[64:06]
Marc Maron
Is this your first, like, real horror movie?
[64:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
I did a remake of Poltergeist with Sam Rockwell that, you know, was fun. But then.
[64:12]
Marc Maron
Did you play the mother?
[64:13]
Rosemary DeWitt
I did, but that was almost more of, like, you know, that's like a nice horror movie. You know what I mean? Smile 2 is like, you're supposed to be freaked out for a couple weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[64:25]
Marc Maron
Poltergeist was like, oh, it's ghosts.
[64:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it's ghosts. Ghosts aren't scary. And this one, everything's a spoiler. But the guy, Parker Finn, who directed it, really knows it's fun when you're working with a filmmaker who really knows what they want.
[64:37]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[64:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
And it's like, oh, and now you're gonna look right down the lens. Like they just know what's scary.
[64:42]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[64:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
So technically, it was a little challenging, but fun.
[64:45]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[64:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, my kids can never see it, but ever.
[64:48]
Marc Maron
I don't know why that's scary.
[64:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it's.
[64:51]
Marc Maron
What's your character?
[64:52]
Rosemary DeWitt
I'm like a momager, you know, like a Kris Jenner.
[64:56]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[64:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know.
[64:58]
Marc Maron
Okay. Yeah.
[64:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, or like any pop star. You know, a pop star's mom.
[65:02]
Marc Maron
That's kind of a nasty, ambitious character.
[65:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. That's what was fun about it. It was fun to play somebody who you were like, is this genuine? Like, do they love their kid? Are they pushing them too much? Like, what's wrong? What's in it for them? All that kind of stuff. So it was a little bit of that kind of exploration. And the girl who plays my daughter, Naomi Scott, it's so. I don't know if this gets you excited, but she played Princess Jasmine in the Will Smith Aladdin. And then when someone gets to then do such a transformation. You know what I mean? And now she's playing Olivia Rodrigo or, like. And she can really sing and dance and do all the things. So I know she's not gonna be able to walk down the street in a couple weeks because of this horror. Yeah, because it's gonna be so.
[65:44]
Marc Maron
It's gonna be big.
[65:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
It'll be big for her. Yeah, I think so.
[65:47]
Marc Maron
People like the horror.
[65:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
They do. Especially if it's done well. Cause if you go to the movies and you get to all be together and you talk about your feelings. Could you imagine right now if other people all felt the same way you did about starting this job on Monday? Like, you know how good you'd feel if everybody was in it with you, but you get to go to a movie and be all scared together.
[66:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[66:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? And then laugh that you all had the exact same feeling. It's fun.
[66:12]
Marc Maron
It's great. Do you go to the theater a lot?
[66:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Not as much as I used to.
[66:16]
Marc Maron
But I try to go.
[66:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
I do. I try to go, too.
[66:18]
Marc Maron
Yeah? Yeah.
[66:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
And I love it. When I go, I love it.
[66:21]
Marc Maron
It's, like, amazing.
[66:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, I went to see the Wild Robot the other day. Cause I have kids.
[66:25]
Marc Maron
How was that?
[66:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
It was great.
[66:26]
Marc Maron
Yeah?
[66:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it was great.
[66:27]
Marc Maron
You know, I watched the other night. What, who Framed Roger Rabbit?
[66:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, great, great, great. I know.
[66:32]
Marc Maron
Great.
[66:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. Holds up.
[66:34]
Marc Maron
Did you watch out with you? It's not really a kids movie.
[66:35]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, I haven't watched it with them. I wonder. Yeah. I wonder if they like it. It kind of bums me out. 11 and almost 9. It bums me out when they don't think movies are great. You know what I mean? My daughter the other day went into. She's like, does hip hop. And there was an acting class for dancers at the studio.
[66:53]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[66:54]
Rosemary DeWitt
And I knew the woman. She's like, oh, she should come in and try it for a little bit. And she kind of looked at me like, no, but she went in. So I opened the door 10 minutes later, and she's rolling around the floor like she's pretending she's a pig. And the whole class is laughing. I'm like, oh, she's having a ball. She comes out like, 15 minutes later. And I was like, oh, is the class over? She's like, no, acting is so stupid and boring. I just raised my hand and said, I'm sorry. I need to be somewhere. And she left the class. And I'm like, oh, this thing that I've devoted my life to, you have just decided is, like, the dumbest stuff ever. Oh, that's.
[67:30]
Marc Maron
That's kind of. Thank God. Yeah.
[67:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
And she knows, but she knows herself. She is like that kid who just doesn't suffer. Like, whatever that Fosse quote is, doesn't dance for Grandma.
[67:39]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah.
[67:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, she's like, yeah, I'm not feeling this at all.
[67:42]
Marc Maron
It's so funny, though, because, like, you'd think that acting would be so exciting, but it didn't hurt her feelings. She's Just like, this is dumb. Yeah.
[67:48]
Rosemary DeWitt
She doesn't care. Yeah.
[67:50]
Marc Maron
What's the other one?
[67:51]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, the opposite. Like, she probably is an actress. I won't let her anywhere near it, you know? But she is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When she's 18, she could do whatever she wants.
[67:59]
Marc Maron
Oh, really? You're gonna keep her away from it for that long?
[68:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't know. I mean. Cause she's also. Sometimes, as we all know, she's also really sensitive and, like, she's all the things, but she's like, a natural mimic. And if she hears a song, like, when she was little, she would hear songs on the radio, and she'd be like, turn it off. It's too sa.
[68:18]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah.
[68:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, like, she just feels stuff. So I also want to protect her, you know, It's a business. It's a job.
[68:24]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[68:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
She doesn't need to go to work.
[68:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[68:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
But she. But she feels it so much.
[68:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[68:30]
Rosemary DeWitt
It's beautiful. I think maybe I was like that, but like I said, I didn't really grow up in an environment where that was.
[68:38]
Marc Maron
I find that as I'm getting older, like, things are hitting me hard.
[68:42]
Rosemary DeWitt
They are.
[68:42]
Marc Maron
Yeah. And then, like. Well, Lynn passing. I mean, that, like, opens up something in your heart that is tragic, but you can't undo it.
[68:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
No.
[68:57]
Marc Maron
And the sensitivity to almost everything is just amplified. I mean, you know, it breaks your heart, but then all of a sudden, you realize, like, this is what life is, and everything becomes a little bit heartbreaking. A little bit more heartbreaking.
[69:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. I almost feel like that's, like, the great. It's, like, awful to go through these. Like, I don't. I always don't want to go through awful experiences, but I realized, like, because I've been. I was lucky enough to bury both my parents and be with both my parents when they passed, like, help them go.
[69:28]
Marc Maron
Oh, really?
[69:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
And I. When I. After both those experiences, I was like, this is what it's all about. Like, this is what life is. And then your heart is so much more open, and you're capable of so much more love and so much more presence. I mean, maybe that's not everybody's experience, because sometimes those things can sink you, too, right?
[69:46]
Marc Maron
I've always been pretty good at fighting the love.
[69:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
You have.
[69:49]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[69:50]
Rosemary DeWitt
What do you mean? How do you fight the love?
[69:54]
Marc Maron
Well, I'm a comedian.
[69:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[69:56]
Marc Maron
Yeah. It's all about managing and fighting the love.
[69:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
All right. Yeah. But I just need to understand more.
[70:03]
Marc Maron
I think, because not to be too psycho babbly. That. Because my Parents were so self involved that, you know, I grew to interpret love as sort of a manipulation and stuff, and I don't think they were very capable of being selfless in any genuine way. So I'm fundamentally untrusting.
[70:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, sure.
[70:23]
Marc Maron
Of love.
[70:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
Of someone loving you.
[70:25]
Marc Maron
That.
[70:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, sure. Okay.
[70:27]
Marc Maron
It took Lynn a long time to break through.
[70:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah. She was a determined one.
[70:31]
Marc Maron
She is determined.
[70:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[70:32]
Marc Maron
Or was determined, but. But also, like, in. In giving love, like, the vulnerability of it. I think that in some ways, I don't know, there's part of my personality that I think you got to be all in or not. Like, there's no middle zone. Right. So, like, even with my cats, who I should feel perfectly comfortable, you know, loving, you know, unconditionally, because they're animals, I'm still a little like, you're withholding with your cats. Well, yeah, because they're. There you are.
[71:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah. Well, they are. Yeah. So get me to tit for tat. Yeah.
[71:05]
Marc Maron
And also, like, Lynn was, like, so incredibly supportive and insistent that I act.
[71:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[71:14]
Marc Maron
And then I do it.
[71:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[71:15]
Marc Maron
And, you know, I think about her, you know, like that.
[71:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Isn't it funny also to find people that believe in you that much, like, later in life, you know, like, somebody asked me this morning, like, who was the first person that made you feel like you could be an actor? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if I've met them. No, I'm kidding. But, you know, like, do you know? I don't know. I mean, I think there's a lot of people along the way, but to just to have somebody, like, see you.
[71:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[71:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? In life. And also probably know you well enough to know that you want to do it. Like you want to. Because you seem. As much as you seem scared right now, you seem really excited. You don't. No. And, like, really happy. I love acting because I love that, like, the complexity and the mystery and the beauty and, like, what you had, let's say, with Lynn, like, has a container.
[72:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[72:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
Has somewhere to go.
[72:09]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Well, she really kind of, like, it does require somebody seeing you.
[72:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[72:15]
Marc Maron
You know what I mean? Cause I have. And I don't know. I imagine you're that way, too. People make assumptions about who you're, what you're like.
[72:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
I don't think anybody thinks about me that much, quite honestly.
[72:27]
Marc Maron
I did most of the day.
[72:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, okay. Well, today, what was your assumption about what I was like?
[72:33]
Marc Maron
Well, I mean, it all comes from, like, Your relationship with people who are actors, it comes from these different roles that I've seen you do. And, you know, I thought you would be a little harder, but you're not. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because you do have a. Like, in a lot of roles, you're pretty. I don't know if it's tough, but you're. You hold your ground somehow. Does that make sense?
[72:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[72:59]
Marc Maron
So I figure, like, all right, she's going to be, like, together and tough and, you know, not in a bad way.
[73:05]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[73:06]
Marc Maron
She's going to be nice.
[73:07]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[73:08]
Marc Maron
But, like, I don't know if I'm going to. You know, I never write. I'm never. Right.
[73:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[73:12]
Marc Maron
Ever.
[73:13]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, that's good.
[73:14]
Marc Maron
But people assume that I'm kind of an asshole sometimes or a little curmudgeon or go a little defensive, and those are all true. But then those people come where they just, you know, they don't. That they don't. That makes no difference to them.
[73:25]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[73:25]
Marc Maron
They see the other thing.
[73:26]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sure.
[73:27]
Marc Maron
The thing that you're trying to hide.
[73:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah. That's the best thing.
[73:30]
Marc Maron
That's the best thing. You know, and if somebody you love.
[73:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
That'S the thing that we all want. We all want to see the thing that everybody doesn't want to show us.
[73:37]
Marc Maron
I know. Isn't that weird?
[73:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's the thing that makes us fall in love with our people and whatever. And that's the thing that.
[73:42]
Marc Maron
I feel like we got to let that happen.
[73:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[73:45]
Marc Maron
Right.
[73:45]
Rosemary DeWitt
Well, and also in the role that you're going to do, too. I mean, I don't know why we're talking about acting so much. I mean, I guess I know why. Because it's a podcast. No, I'm just. Is that, like. I love to see, like. I love to really see someone take an authentic breath, like, while the camera's on.
[74:00]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah.
[74:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? Or show that thing that they didn't want us to see that they didn't plan at home in their room.
[74:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[74:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
But it just kind of happened, and it made them feel awkward. And then the. And again. That's what I know. Of course we're going to talk about Lynn. Those were the moments that she wanted.
[74:16]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[74:17]
Rosemary DeWitt
So when she found them, that was the lightning in a bottle. And then she built the whole movie around. She would change the movie because she's like. That happened. And now we're going to make this whole movie lead up to that moment, because that was true.
[74:29]
Marc Maron
Oh, she was so good.
[74:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
So good. Yeah. Ron and I Wrote pilot recently, like, during the strike, just to be creative.
[74:39]
Marc Maron
Right.
[74:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
And it was like. It's like almost sometimes you forget that we lose people.
[74:44]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[74:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
Because I was like, well, Lynn will direct this.
[74:46]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[74:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know what I mean? And then, like, it's like I woke up, I was like, oh, wait, no. And I was like, oh, God, I gotta go find my Lynn. But there's no Lynn. So then you just have to go out and make new friends and new creative partnerships.
[74:59]
Marc Maron
And there isn't anyone, like, as poetic in the way that she was poetic. You know, there are other. There are directors that kind of, you know, play in the same field. But, like, she was so specific about those moments.
[75:12]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[75:13]
Marc Maron
You know, I miss her.
[75:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. I was so glad, though, that I was coming to do this with you. Like, it's so nice to. To talk, to see you.
[75:22]
Marc Maron
Yeah, it's nice to see you, too, because I think she really loved you. Were you in touch with her?
[75:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, yeah, we talked. We did. We would. Like, we went through a lot of years, especially in between projects, where we, like, really, like, kind of had to hash life out.
[75:38]
Marc Maron
Oh, yeah.
[75:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
But you do that when you're struggling.
[75:40]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[75:40]
Rosemary DeWitt
Like, I had a big, long infertility journey, you know, and she was going through her stuff, and like, we were just. And then when you get happy, that's when you don't talk to each other as much, you know, in a good way.
[75:50]
Marc Maron
Well, yeah, if you're really close with somebody that you have that relationship with.
[75:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. You can just text or send a Marco Polo, and then. Yeah, that's it. You know, and then till the next big threshold that you want to share them. Share with them.
[76:03]
Marc Maron
So that you went through infertility for a long time.
[76:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Like maybe seven or eight years. Like, you've had a long road. But I wouldn't change it because now that I met my kids, I'm like, they wouldn't be these kids if it didn't take the exact amount of time that it took.
[76:20]
Marc Maron
Yeah. My brother went through that, and he's got three adopted kids.
[76:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, wow.
[76:23]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[76:24]
Rosemary DeWitt
How old are they?
[76:25]
Marc Maron
Oh, they're all kind of older now. Like, the youngest one's in his early 20s, and then there's mid-20s, and then there's. She's the oldest one's got to be coming up on 30.
[76:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
And how are the adults, like, the young kids now that are adults? Like, how are they in their adoption, in their adopted life with their. Because it comes with a lot of loss, too, I think.
[76:45]
Marc Maron
So. I don't really know. And I know, like, they did the adoption where, you know, they were contacted when a woman who wanted to put a child up for adoption was pregnant. And so they were there to. At the very beginning.
[77:00]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:01]
Marc Maron
And that seems so heavy to me.
[77:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:02]
Marc Maron
And I haven't really talked to the kids about, like, because they. My brother always knew, like, well, we know who your mom is.
[77:08]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:08]
Marc Maron
So if you want to do that, you know, let us know. And I don't know what the percentage of kids did do that.
[77:15]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:15]
Marc Maron
Because some of them, I think, are like, no.
[77:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:19]
Marc Maron
But I guess that is the intrinsic law saying, why. Why did they all that.
[77:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. You can't not. It's again, like, when we're talking about the other existential things, like, that's an existential.
[77:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[77:29]
Rosemary DeWitt
Question. And like, where. Where do I come from?
[77:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[77:32]
Rosemary DeWitt
I mean, I think the way. Not a trend. That's not the right word. But the way they kind of do it now in adoption is like, you know, you try to do open adoptions. Like, we know our daughter's birth families and stuff, and we're in relationship.
[77:45]
Marc Maron
Oh, you are.
[77:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. But they didn't really do that back when your brother adopted. And then if you went back to, like, if someone like you or I were adopted, they maybe wouldn't even tell you you were adopted.
[77:53]
Marc Maron
You'd have to go, like, go through microfiche.
[77:56]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[77:56]
Marc Maron
To find.
[77:57]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. So it's. So who knows what's right and what's in the best.
[78:01]
Marc Maron
I think it might have been when my brother did it was. I think it was an option.
[78:04]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[78:05]
Marc Maron
I think a lot of the. The mothers were like, I don't know if I can handle that.
[78:09]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[78:10]
Marc Maron
But they know the backstory of all these kids, you know, which is kind of interesting.
[78:14]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[78:16]
Marc Maron
So they all have a relationship with their birth family.
[78:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Yeah.
[78:19]
Marc Maron
Wow.
[78:20]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. It's cool.
[78:21]
Marc Maron
Is it?
[78:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
It is. But I mean, it's a lot of complexity and nuance, you know, because, you know, you just. You're there to focus on your child. So it's like, what's best for them, even though.
[78:35]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah, sure.
[78:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
You know, it's not what's best for me as mom. It's not what's best for them as first mom. It's like, what if you center the kid? Like, what really is best for them? So you have to take cues off them. And we're like, you want to go?
[78:48]
Marc Maron
That sounds so fun.
[78:49]
Rosemary DeWitt
To the water park with, you know, these guys, they say, yeah, you do it. If they Say no. Then you go, okay, we're not going to do it this time.
[78:56]
Marc Maron
It sounds a little heavy.
[78:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it's heavy, but I mean, it's like what we're talking about. Life is right.
[79:01]
Marc Maron
Why don't you and Ron write that movie?
[79:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, maybe. Yeah.
[79:04]
Marc Maron
I've never seen a movie like that.
[79:06]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[79:08]
Marc Maron
Yeah. What's he doing?
[79:11]
Rosemary DeWitt
What's he doing right now? He did pick up today. He's home. He's gonna go.
[79:16]
Marc Maron
Do you guys live here?
[79:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
We live. Right. Yeah, like Los Feliz.
[79:20]
Marc Maron
Oh, you're right here.
[79:21]
Rosemary DeWitt
Mm. Yeah. Although I came earlier from press, so that took me like an hour and a half to get.
[79:26]
Marc Maron
So what were you doing, like five minute bites?
[79:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, it wasn't even a junket. It was more like a 40 minute. Like a 30 minute with peace and of this and that. Yeah, no, not that rata tat.
[79:38]
Marc Maron
Tata.
[79:39]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[79:40]
Marc Maron
You're now talking to. Yeah, yeah. Someone else sits in the chair.
[79:44]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[79:45]
Marc Maron
Wasn't that. Is it all for the. Is it for both?
[79:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
No, that's just for Smile too. And then the other one comes out at the end of November.
[79:51]
Marc Maron
I feel like it's going to be a big movie.
[79:53]
Rosemary DeWitt
Smile too. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, it'll be fun.
[79:56]
Marc Maron
And you got something else on the plate.
[79:59]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Like the one I told you about up in Vancouver.
[80:02]
Marc Maron
That one's done.
[80:02]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, you mean one that I haven't done yet. No, I kind of want to. Yeah. I don't know. I really like the writing process. I mean, I guess you do that too. Like, Ron and I wrote that. I, like, really enjoyed it. So I might. Like you're saying, go write that movie. I like scratching that itch.
[80:18]
Marc Maron
I can't stand writing.
[80:19]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[80:20]
Marc Maron
It's just like. It just never doesn't feel like homework.
[80:23]
Rosemary DeWitt
Okay.
[80:24]
Marc Maron
And it's just sort of like I like things that happen now.
[80:28]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah, you don't have the patience for it, I guess.
[80:31]
Marc Maron
You know, I do write like weekly. I do a newsletter, you know, which is sort of like a.
[80:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's very nice.
[80:36]
Marc Maron
Oh, no, no. And I. And I make myself do that. And it's a good exercise. But the. You know, Lynn and I were writing a script that, you know, I won't let anybody do. And it's. It's a good story, but like, I don't know, you know, and I was kind of helping. I optioned my buddy's book and we went through five drafts of that. I like it when I don't have to be the driver.
[80:58]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. Yeah.
[80:59]
Marc Maron
You know What? I mean, yeah, it's like, what do you think of this? Well, I think we can trim this up and do that and why don't we try it like this? And they go do it. I'm like, yeah, look what we did.
[81:07]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. I kind of feel like that's how Ron and I are like. I feel like I kind of come up with the rainbows and then I'm like, how about like, what if a scene? And then he can sit there and actually, like, hyper focus and hammer it out.
[81:17]
Marc Maron
Oh, good.
[81:18]
Rosemary DeWitt
But I'm very much like, I'm just going to talk the scene into my phone.
[81:22]
Marc Maron
Much better.
[81:22]
Rosemary DeWitt
That's like ADHD or something. Maybe that's what.
[81:25]
Marc Maron
Well, you both have it, but it's complimenting each other.
[81:27]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. He's got his own. Yeah.
[81:29]
Marc Maron
Well, it was great talking to you.
[81:31]
Rosemary DeWitt
It was great to talk to you.
[81:32]
Marc Maron
You feel good about it?
[81:33]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. Do you?
[81:33]
Marc Maron
Yeah, I do.
[81:34]
Rosemary DeWitt
Oh, okay.
[81:34]
Marc Maron
But now we gotta go do the sad thing.
[81:36]
Rosemary DeWitt
I know. That just scared me.
[81:38]
Marc Maron
The jacket.
[81:38]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah. When you said, do you get scared? You know, like, acting like I. And I'm like, no, but I want to be scared. I just got scared to see the jacket.
[81:45]
Marc Maron
But I think it's important.
[81:46]
Rosemary DeWitt
Yeah.
[81:47]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[81:47]
Rosemary DeWitt
Thanks.
[81:53]
Marc Maron
That was nice. I enjoyed that. Again, that out of My Mind premieres tomorrow on Disney and Smile 2 is in theaters and digital on demand. Hang out for a minute, folks. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode of Progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. Okay, here we go. For full Marin subscribers, we've got this month's batch of outtakes that didn't make it into recent episodes, including stuff from my talks with Al Pacino, Robert Patrick, and Keith Urban. I'm locked into the Shure. SM7. Great vocal mic. And then, you know, the 58. Is that an ad? Yeah, they're sending me shit. Yeah, I always go with the SM7. I think I've sold more SM7s to podcasters. Like, I just. I've been. It's one of my favorite mics, in all honesty, and I do lots of recorded vocals on these guys on the SM7s. Oh, yeah, yeah. I hold it in the studio and sing. Yeah. In the studio. No, it's a great vocal mic. Yeah, it's a great mic. And then like, what do you. But I imagine you've moved on from the 58s on stage, right? What do we got right now? Well, it's all wireless anyway. Yeah. You know, so it's a different beast. But I did a tour with these as my main vocal mics on stage. No shit. Yeah. Does Shur know that? Probably back in the day. And they looked great and sounded great, but apparently no one in the front could see my face. Big Mike's to get bonus episodes twice a week, go to the link in the episode description to sign up for the full marin or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF Plus. And just a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by Acastic. And here's some neely sounding stuff.
[85:01]
Rosemary DeWitt
Sa.
[85:58]
Marc Maron
Boomer Lives Muggy and Lafonda Cat Angels everywhere.