Marc Maron Honors Lynn Shelton in Emotional ‘WTF’ Episode: ‘I Was Better in Her Gaze’
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Marc Maron has devoted the entirety of the May 18 episode of his “WTF” podcast to remembering Lynn Shelton, the beloved independent filmmaker who passed away May 16 from an unidentified blood disorder. The pair, creative and romantic partners, most recently collaborated on Shelton’s 2019 comedy-drama “Sword of Trust,” starring Maron as a pawn shop owner trying to sell a sword that allegedly proves the South won the Civil War. The bulk of Maron’s latest “WTF” podcast episode is a rebroadcast of his 2015 interview with Shelton, but the host prefaces the conversation with a heartbreaking tribute to the late indie director.
“She was my partner. She was my girlfriend. She was my friend. And I loved her. A lot. And she loved me, and I knew that,” Maron said at the beginning of the episode. “I don’t know that I had ever felt what I felt with her before. I do know, actually. I did not. I have not. I was getting used to love in the way of being able to accept it and show it properly in an intimate relationship. I was so comfortable with this person, with Lynn Shelton. … I was able to exist in a place of self-acceptance because of her love for me. I made her laugh all the time. She made me laugh. We were happy.”
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Maron said last week that he and Shelton initially believed that the filmmaker had strep throat, though she was also tested for Covid-19, though her results came back negative. Maron said Shelton then consulted her doctor online from home and the two of them continued to treat the illness as if it was a normal bout of strep throat. Shelton’s fever did not break for several days, so Maron pushed for a return trip to the doctor.
“We were going to go to the doctor for blood tests on Friday and in the middle of the night I heard her collapse in the hallway on her way to the bathroom,” Maron said. “She was conscious but delirious a bit. I called 9-1-1 and they got her…They tried very hard at two hospitals, they were amazing. They eventually had to let her go.”
Maron continued, “They let me into the hospital after she died to spend some time with her. And I did that…And now this process is happening. She was an amazing woman. She was an inspiration. She was a determined artist. So many people loved her. No one has anything bad to say about Lynn Shelton, that’s for fucking sure.”
Maron also added how nervous he was before the two met for the 2015 recording of the “WTF” podcast. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “At the time, she was married and I was with somebody, but at this point, when we had this conversation, it was undeniable that we connected. My connection with her is almost seamless. I have no self-consciousness when I’m with her. I was always better with her. I was a better person when I was engaged with her, as a guitar player, as a lover, as a human, as an actor. I was better in Lynn Shelton’s gaze.”
Listen to Maron’s full tribute to Lynn Shelton on the new episode of his “WTF” podcast.
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