Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/790371
30 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2017 seemed quite confident, and she felt that, instead, the character should have an arc toward confidence. "But he didn't see her as the mousy character who gains confidence," she says. "That seemed too cliché. He wanted to explore what it really might be like for a twentysomething woman who hasn't quite caught up to the adult world she was living in. His take was more subtle, and I realized it was a more genuine approach to the character." The film's other challenge was to find the balance in the drama. "We didn't want it to be a melodrama, but we did want it to be meaningful," she explains. "Mark thought that was a broad line, a grayer area, and I thought it was a finer line. To walk the proper line, we had to argue it out." Their process of working together was also delightful and meaningful itself. "Some days, we spent more time at the wall where my scene cards were than on the Avid itself," she remembers. "We talked a lot about what we were feeling at specific points in the movie, and what the characters deserve at that point — or if they had earned the moment. I felt we were asking all the best questions." Editing The Last Word was a departure for Wong, who counts Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and The Matrix (1999) as two of her favorite movies. "I love action movies," she admits. "They're my favorite movies to watch and cut." Not many women edit action films, but Wong cut her teeth on End Game, a 2006 actioner by director Andy Cheng. In addition to that film, she was also an editor on Hercules (2014) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and was the action editor on Red Riding Hood (2011). Wong, who recently became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, credits the launch of her career to the American Cinema Editors (ACE). As a film student at Temple University, she initially tried writing, directing and cinematography before editing clicked with her. "It was something I was immediately super comfortable with," she remembers. "I liked delving into the story — the exact same reason I liked writing." In her senior year, she entered the ACE Student Editing Competition. "It was a scene from the network TV show I'll Fly Away," recalls Wong. "All the competitors had to edit the same scene with the same footage." Much to her surprise, she won. Going to Hollywood for the first time to accept the award was a life-changing experience. "It was exciting to be acknowledged for editing," she says. "I went to the Eddie Awards ceremony in a fancy dress, met Robert Altman and Oliver Stone and thought, 'This is what Hollywood is about!'" After graduating Temple, she found it an easy choice to move to Los Angeles, where she started off as a PA. "It was about paying my dues, running errands and all that," says Wong. "Even with raw talent in Hollywood, there was so much more to learn." She also learned about the ACE Internship Program and, since she had already won an ACE award for Student Editing, applied to the program and was accepted. Being an ACE intern was another career- changing experience. Working at ACE's Blue Ribbon screening, she met editor Mark Goldblatt, ACE, who was in charge of the event and who, coincidentally, had cut one of her all-time favorite films, Terminator 2. "I was floored by his presence," reveals Wong. "He was super nice, and I gave him my very short resume." Goldblatt's assistant editor, Caroline Ross, was editing Wedding Bell Blues (1996), her first feature as a full-fledged editor. She needed an assistant and Goldblatt put the two together. "I jumped at the chance," says Wong. Although there wasn't much money involved, she knew it was a great opportunity to learn more — and she did. "Caroline had so much to teach me," says Wong. "I barely knew Avid, so she taught me a lot." Over the eight years she was an assistant, Wong worked for numerous editors. "I knew a lot of other assistants who worked for the same Sometimes, after I'm on a feature for eight or nine months, instead of going into the next big project, it's nice to do a pilot for five or six weeks. And I get to meet new directors. –Julia Wong Opposite: The Last Word. Bleecker Street Media.