Between starring in his own TV series Maron and in the Netflix series GLOW, when comedian and host of the WTF podcast Marc Maron takes on acting roles, they are typically projects that blur the lines between drama and comedy. As he has been taking on more roles in recent years, he’s had the opportunity to showcase more aspects of his talents, with one of the more ambitious projects he’s taken on being Prime Video’s The Horror of Dolores Roach, which delivers on the comedy and drama similar to previous projects, though has a premise entirely rooted in a realm that’s dark and disturbing. The Horror of Dolores Roach is now streaming on Prime Video.
The Horror of Dolores Roach, based on the hit Spotify podcast series of the same name, is a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, cannibalism, and survival of the fittest. Dolores Roach (Justina Machado) is released from prison after 16 years and returns to a gentrified Washington Heights. She reunites with an old stoner friend, Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), who lets her live and work as a masseuse in the basement under his empanada shop. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands” Dolores is driven to shocking extremes to survive.
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ComicBook.com caught up with Maron to talk his connection to the horror realm, his involvement in the new series, and whether there could be more comic book roles in his future.
ComicBook.com: The Horror of Dolores Roach is definitely a horror series, but there’s comedy, there’s drama, there’s themes of gentrification, and it tackles a lot of stuff. But just speaking straight to horror, do you have horror guys? Do you have horror filmmakers that you’re a particular fan of? Or is it like Dolores Roach where there are filmmakers who just blend together everything and sometimes it comes out horror?
Marc Maron: Well, recently I’ve been trying to get up to speed on horror. My girlfriend is a fantasy-horror person, and we’ve actually been doing some supplemental bonus material for the podcast where she has me watch a movie. It’s not really my genre and she’s trying to get me up to speed.
We just did Shin Godzilla and moved through that, and she’s very knowledgeable about that. Then we did the other one. Now, I don’t remember what it was. It was a werewolf one that was fantastical. It was British. It was done by that guy, [Neil] Jordan, the guy who did The Crying Game. You know what I’m talking about?
The Company of Wolves?
Yeah, so we did that. I’m getting up to speed with it. It tends to make me anxious. Drama and thrillers, I’m like, “I know there’s a conclusion to this. Why don’t we just get to that?” Which is really contrary to what horror people like. They want the build. They want the monster, and I’m just like, “All right, so what’s going to happen? Who dies? Is she a werewolf now? I don’t understand. Was that real?”
I’m learning about it. I don’t know that I have guys, really. I remember seeing some movies that made an impact on me. Obviously, the ones that border on satire, Dawn of the Dead or They Live, and there’s stuff like that that I found clever for cultural reasons or political reasons.
I have been watching a lot of Black Mirror lately, which I think is somewhat a horror category, isn’t it?
Oh, absolutely.
But it’s odd that I can … The line between science fiction and horror, I find myself gravitating more towards the ones that are dystopian sci-fi, other than the ones that use horror tropes, because there’s actually — there is a werewolf one, I think, in either the last season or the new season, right?
Yeah, the recent one.
And I was like, “Yeah, I like it. I get the message,” but I really liked some of … The video game stuff, with the two guys. That was something.
So, no, I don’t have a deep well of horror appreciation.
Well, I’ll look forward to our next conversation where we can reflect on this journey your girlfriend has taken you on.
On my education.
WARNING: Spoilers below for The Horror of Dolores Roach
Between that blend of all those different themes in Dolores Roach, and you specifically have a very integral, albeit brief, involvement in the storyline, what was it that really drew you to it, and did you feel pressure knowing how pivotal your scene would be? Or did it give you the freedom knowing you’re in, you’re out, and the rest of the characters deal with the aftermath?
This is one of the situations where this guy, [Episode 2 director Edward Ornelas], he and the writer and the creator [Aaron Mark], he wanted me. There was something that I do, because he could have gotten other people, but he wanted me. And, generally, when people want me, this is obviously a bad guy, but I bring a certain amount of humanity to things just because I’m … I don’t know if I’m that great an actor.
I read it and I got it. It was clear that this guy was — I wouldn’t say it was one-dimensional, but he was of a type of guy who pretends to understand the struggle of people, but clearly was just this asshole. I knew that it did set up the righteousness, if there is any, through the series of the realities of gentrification and the difficulty of transitioning out of prison and all that stuff.
I knew that the nature of the character was pretty … It was evil of a type, but you couldn’t really sympathize with the guy or necessarily empathize with the guy. I imagine if it were in a horror movie, you would sympathize with him just because he gets killed. But I knew that tonally he was important.
I don’t do anger that much in my life anymore, so the opportunity to unleash it in a scripted way was something. And I liked the whole conceit of the thing and didn’t really … You never know what you’re going to get into set-wise, but they were playing it pretty straight and we had to really make that death look real.
So, to answer the question, I like going to Canada. I thought that it was an interesting show. I liked the writing. I liked the cast. So, I was game.
That death scene, in particular, you’re in your underwear pretending to get killed in a pretty violent way that. What is that process like for you? Is it just like filming any argument scene or like any Joker scene? Is it all just the same, just a different outfit, or was it a heavier experience?
No, it is heavy, because ultimately when you have nudity or semi-nudity on a set there’s this tone that shifts. There’s a care that’s taken that everybody feels safe and supported. I felt fine, but I was laying there and, in order to act it, you have to realize the violence of it. There was a vulnerability to that, which I sensed, and I think I played. That moment where somebody realizes an attempt is being made on their life, it’s a real moment. And even for a bad guy, it’s a pretty vulnerable, horrible moment, and I think that came through.
I think in that moment, you’re like, “Oh, my God, does that guy really deserve this?” But that sets the tone for the rest of the characters, and now they’re in and then the fact that they commit to it is a whole other ball of wax, but that’s the nature of horror.
So yeah, I mean, it did feel pretty vulnerable to shoot that and to make her comfortable in killing me and getting that right, because it does define her character as well, the struggle that she went through or those decisions she made in that first murder.
You had your part in Joker, and I know about your experience with almost doing Avatar, but seeing what was required for Avatar–
Well, I wouldn’t say … [Avatar] was never offered to me. “Almost,” as much as I talked to Jim Cameron and went down to the place.
I guess, let’s say that there was a filmmaker who was like, “Oh, come down to Atlanta. It is going to be a bigger-budgeted, green-screen spectacle, but we really want you to do this.” Do you think Joker is the closest you’ve been to being interested in such a VFX-heavy thing? You voiced Lex Luther for DC League of Super-Pets, would you want to dip your toes back into that sandbox?
Well, it’s weird because I do have a very small but significant comic book past for a couple of years. There is a zone of comedy that I was … For some reason, when I was in Boston in the late ’80s, I got involved with the first Hellblazer comic and the first Sandman comic, and then through that back into some of the Frank Miller, Swamp Thing stuff. There was a moment there where I was pretty compulsively reading Hellblazer and Sandman. And I still have them. They worth anything? What do you know?
Let me just hop on eBay here…
So I enjoyed watching the [Netflix] Sandman series. And again, my girlfriend is a Neil Gaiman freak, and I interviewed Gaiman. I think, in that world, I like Hellblazer a lot. Fantasy that’s grounded in some sort of reality — even though Sandman kind of isn’t, but it kind of is. But Hellblazer definitely is. Those things kind of appealed to me, and I think that Neil did, they did a great job with Sandman. So that zone of horror.
I don’t know about Marvel or DC, really. I’ve spoken negatively about Marvel movies, but I got a lot of flack for doing Joker, which I said, “Yeah, but that’s DC. It’s different. These are the underdogs.” But it was ultimately because I was going to do a scene with [Robert] De Niro, so what was I going to say? No? Just to maintain my integrity for a bunch of comic book fanatics?
I’m not closed off to a particular zone of fantasy. I don’t know about bigger DC movies, unless it’s a Batman movie where I play a human part, which would be cool.
Well, hey, James Mangold, who just did Indiana Jones, he’s doing Swamp Thing in the next couple of years, so I’ll put him in touch with you to let him know you’re open.
If there’s a regular guy in Swamp Thing that has a role, I’d like to talk to James. I actually went to see Indiana Jones [and the Dial of Destiny] because, again, my girlfriend is a Harrison Ford freak, and it was okay. I think in the last half hour it was pretty great.
Yeah, I echo those “it was okay” remarks. I would personally love to see you play a young Stan Lee, but that’s just me.
There’s been a lot of momentum, a lot of requests for that on the Internet. I see it on Twitter all the time. Because I think the appearance and I think he was sort of cranky, and I think I could probably manage it. We’re both Jews. I think there is that world of those early guys, especially the Jewish nature of it, which isn’t talked about a whole lot, how many of them were Jewish and creating these mythologies.
I actually did a joke about that in my last special, not the last one, but the one before about how the similarities between Iron Man and the New Testament is that they were both created in Jewish writers’ rooms. I thought that was funny.
The Horror of Dolores Roach is now streaming on Prime Video.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.
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Image Credit: Disney+
