Acclaimed writer and director James Gray discusses his artistic process and reflects on his films, including his latest feature, Armageddon Time. Gray explores the challenge of balancing personal voice with creating distance in writing and the importance of realistically portraying son-father relationships. He also delves into the exploration of genre and Shakespeare adaptation, the theme of failure in Armageddon Time, and the significance of failure and craft in writing. Gray highlights the process of outlining a movie and the importance of focusing on the central thematic idea.

Filmmaker James Gray had crisis of confidence after watching a rough cut of his first movie, Little Odessa. Now that he’s made his most personal film yet, Armageddon Time, James and Marc talk about what it took to rebuild his confidence over 25 years, survive fights with Harvey Weinstein, and brave a film shoot in the Amazon that almost killed him. They also talk about Ad Astra, The Beatles, The Stones, Jaws, Apocalypse Now, and Fred Trump. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Director James Gray discusses the aftermath of Ad Astra, his new film Armageddon Time, and the historical context of the story. They explore themes of race and class in America, his family's personal experiences with division, and the painful timeliness of the film amid rising anti-Semitic rhetoric. Gray also touches on the economics of moviemaking, lessons learned from his debut film, and the influence of novelist Marcel Proust and photographer Susan Sontag on Armageddon Time.