Interview

Editor

“The Color Purple” Editor Jon Poll on Finding the Rhythm of This Moving Adaptation

Editor Jon Poll knows comedy structure forward and backward, having worked on such classics as Meet the Parents, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. So, how did he wind up editing The Color Purple? The deeply dramatic musical, directed by Ghanian-born rapper-turned-Beyonce collaborator (Black is King) turned filmmaker Blitz Bazawule, ...

By Hugh Hart  |  January 2, 2024

Interview

Editor

“Maestro” Editor Michelle Tesoro on Orchestrating the Epic Bernstein Love Story

To tell the story of composer Leonard Bernstein’s (Bradley Cooper) courtship with Costa Rican-American actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan), Cooper, who also directed, and his editor, Michelle Tesoro (The Queen’s Gambit, When They See Us) varied the technical aesthetic throughout Maestro. As the couple first gets to know each other at a party, ...

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  December 21, 2023

Interview

Editor

“May December” Editor Affonso Gonçalves on Playing With Identity in Todd Haynes’ New Film

It has been a very busy year for Brazilian-American film editor Affonso Gonçalves, from last fall’s twisted psychological drama Don’t Worry Darling to this year’s doppelgänger medical chiller Dead Ringers and queer wrestling biopic Cassandro. Last week, he returned with director Todd Haynes’ quietly disturbing psychological drama May December. They have developed a shorthand after working with ...

By Su Fang Tham  |  November 22, 2023

Interview

Director Editor Producer

Steven Soderbergh and Co-Director/Editor Jon Kane on Godfrey Reggio’s Ravishing New Film “Once Within a Time”

Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, whose groundbreaking Koyaanisqatsi (1982) remains influential and much admired, didn’t travel to Boston for the November 3 screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre of his new film and his first in a decade, Once Within a Time. But executive producer Steven Soderbergh and co-director and editor Jon Kane happily channeled the 83-year-old ...

By Loren King  |  November 13, 2023

Interview

Editor

Framing Big Laughs & Real Emotion With “Only Murders in the Building” Emmy-Nominated Editor Peggy Tachdjian

Emmy-nominated editor Peggy Tachdjian had never really cut comedy before leaping into the Building, as it were, of Hulu’s hit Only Murders in the Building. The series was created by comedy legend Steven Martin and John Hoffman and is led by Martin, fellow comedy icon Martin Short, and a perfectly cast Selena Gomez as three true crime obsessives living ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 21, 2023

Interview

Editor

“A Haunting in Venice” Editor Lucy Donaldson on Cutting Hercule Poirot’s Crisis of Confidence

Kenneth Branagh is back as director and star with his latest Agatha Christie film adaptation, A Haunting in Venice, based on Christie’s novel “Hallowe’en Party.” As with his other adaptations, A Haunting in Venice is a who-done-it in which a great cast joins Branagh’s twisted tale, which in the latest installment includes Tina Fey, Michelle ...

By Leslie Combemale  |  September 18, 2023

Interview

Editor

Best of Summer 2023: How Editor Eddie Hamilton Cut “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” to the Quick

*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA ...

By Hugh Hart  |  September 1, 2023

Interview

Editor

Behind the Cut With Emmy-Nominated Editors From “Dahmer,” “Welcome to Wrexham” & More

An editor’s role requires taking a mountain of footage and carving out a story. Sometimes, that story is inspiring, like the work that Emmy-nominated editors Charlies Little II, ACE, and Michael Brown did in the docu-series Welcome to Wrexham, which followed the story of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buying Wrexham AFC, one of the ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  August 28, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Barbie” Editor Nick Houy on Leaving Only the A-Plus Jokes

Barbie is currently dominating the cineplex. Co-writer/director Greta Gerwig‘s film, based on the iconic Mattel doll, has become a runaway success, earning over a billion dollars at the box office and garnering an outpouring of love and passion from audiences across the globe. It’s a story of self-discovery that strikes some serious chords with viewers, ...

By Jack Giroux  |  August 15, 2023

Interview

Editor

How Editor Eddie Hamilton Cut “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” to the Quick

As it is, Tom Cruise’s new Mission: Impossible movie (now playing) runs a hefty two hours and forty-three minutes, but what people see in theaters actually represents a very slimmed-down version of the original cut that director Christopher McQuarrie screened for his friends. “It ran four hours,” says Cruise’s go-to editor Eddie Hamilton. “We watched ...

By Hugh Hart  |  July 31, 2023

Interview

Editor

How “Stranger Things” Editor Dean Zimmerman Cut Eddie’s Epic Guitar Solo & That Wild Season 4 Finale

“Divide and conquer while keeping our heads above water was how we approached episode nine,” says editor Dean Zimmerman, who has been on the juggernaut Netflix series Stranger Things since the beginning. Season four sees its beloved characters continue their fight against Vecna, a mind-controlling arch-villain wreaking havoc on the town of Hawkins. It was ...

By Daron James  |  July 5, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Flamin’ Hot” Editor Kayla Emter Spices Up Eva Longoria’s Tasty Biopic

If you’re craving a feel-good underdog story with a kick, bite into Flamin’ Hot. The spicy Cheetos flavoring that has become a pop culture icon started with the passion of Mexican-American Frito-Lay janitor Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia). Told from his sizzling perspective, Eva Longoria’s directorial debut is technically a biopic but has the DNA of ...

By Kelle Long  |  June 8, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Poker Face” Editor Shaheed Qaasim on Cutting Rian Johnson’s Ambitiously Clever Crime Drama

In the Peacock murder mystery series Poker Face, star Natasha Lyonne drifts across the country as Charlie Cale, an itinerant human lie detector who unexpectedly solves a new homicide each week. No single Poker Face story is like any other. And provoked by malice, rage, or envy, neither are the murders. “We really treated each ...

By The Credits  |  June 6, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Barry” Editor Ali Greer on Cutting Her Way Through a Brilliant Final Season

Ali Greer has been so focused on editing the fourth season of Barry that it didn’t truly dawn on her that the hit HBO comedy about the master assassin/would-be actor was coming to a close. “Tomorrow will be my last day. We have our final sound mix on the series finale… tomorrow… yes,” Greer says ...

By Chris Koseluk  |  May 16, 2023

Interview

Editor

“John Wick: Chapter 4” Editor Nathan Orloff on Cutting Chaos Into Crackling Coherence

Editor Nathan Orloff is the man who helped turn the mayhem in John Wick: Chapter Four into a beautiful, brutal ballet. It is the longest entry in the franchise, yet it moves with the grace and precision of a seasoned dancer. It’s not only an epic because of director Chad Stahelski’s action sequences; it’s the patient ...

By Jack Giroux  |  April 5, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Scream VI” Editor Jay Prychidny on Stitching Together an Epic Slasher

Scream VI is packed to the brim. It’s an ensemble horror movie with familiar and new characters, not to mention a new location and new rules to go along with the franchise’s history. There was no shortage of moving pieces for editor Jay Prychidny to help assemble. Prychidny is a new addition to the Scream ...

By Jack Giroux  |  March 20, 2023

Interview

Editor

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story” Editor Bob Ducsay on Cutting a Razor Sharp Whodunit

Award-winning editor Bob Ducsay has been cutting blockbusters for decades, including 1999’s The Mummy and 2015’s Godzilla, and has worked with Rian Johnson since 2012’s Looper. He edited both The Last Jedi and Johnson’s first film in the Benoit Blanc series, Knives Out, in 2019. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which hits theaters on November 23 and then Netflix on December 23rd, ...

By Leslie Combemale  |  November 23, 2022

Interview

Editor

“Black Adam” Editor Mike Sale Breaks Down That Epic Justice Society Fight

Black Adam editor Mike Sale, who worked alongside editor John Lee, says they wanted to make a film where the title character, played by the ever-magnetic Dwayne Johnson, did not turn into a hero by its end, which, as far as superhero blockbusters go, is decidedly not the norm. What they wanted to do was ...

By Daron James  |  November 7, 2022

Interview

Editor

A Peek Behind the Scenes of an Editor’s Career

Here at The Credits, we talk to film editors all the time. They give us a glimpse at their process of realizing a director’s dreams in terms of the pacing, montages, cuts, and music behind a particular film or series. But what about the nitty-gritty of their own careers? What goes on when the project ...

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  November 3, 2022

Interview

Director Editor Producer Screenwriter

Filmmaker & TV Creator Mann Robinson on Getting it Done in Georgia

Mann Robinson gets it done. The former rapped-turned-filmmaker and television creator can do it all—write, direct, produce, edit—with a tirelessness that would seem inhuman if he wasn’t so even-keeled about how he approaches his work. “What’s allowing me to have so many things coming up?” he says when we spoke toward the end of summer, ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  October 26, 2022