Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
52 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2018 CM: How did you approach that balancing act when you actually had footage with which to work? KF: It was tricky. The character makes some big mistakes. What is it like to live your life in the shadow of JFK and Bobby Kennedy? It presents a fascinating character, and even more so because it's real. When I first spoke to John [Curran], I wanted to make sure we never condemned Ted fully, but rather felt empathy for him — not sympathy, but empathy for his position — while also understanding that the things that he did were questionable at best, and horrific at worst. CM: And how does that translate to your job? KF: The big thing that we worked on was performance choices. There were certain lines that read beautifully on the page, but when Ted's character would say them, they would just make you wince with utter disgust for him. After test screenings, we tried to shave away as many of those as possible, to make the character someone you could at least follow through the film and not make you want to walk out of the theatre. Many moments from our first cut were too specific when, as much as possible, we wanted to make what happened the night of the accident a question. It's not known for sure whether Mary Jo was alive for hours afterwards; she could have died on impact or by drowning in the car. We wanted to say, "This could be happening." Basically, there's a moment in the movie where there's an intercut between Ted doing his nightly routine and Mary Jo in the car. That montage was created to express that this could be happening in Ted's mind, the thinking of that. Now whether that comes across to the audience, I'm not sure. But we tried to stress the mysteries of that night, and not make a definite choice. CM: Without giving anything away, can you name an example of a scene that was too specific? KF: There was a scene that occurs after the accident, where Ted and his friends Joe Gargan [Ed Helms] and Paul Markham [Jim Gaffigan] go back to the bridge. Joe and Paul are diving into the water, trying to save Mary Jo, but they are unable to, and Ted says they need to get back. There's a whole scene that takes place after that in which they're arguing about what to do. After the first test screening, I thought, "No matter what, this is the scene; it's gonna stay in the movie because it has hints and is very exciting. But we ultimately ended up cutting that scene from the film because we realized from subsequent test audiences involving 100 people each that things were occurring in the scene that were swaying the needle too much in one direction in terms of how they viewed Ted's character — and they were never able to get back and feel for him after that point. That totally came from those two screenings. We realized that scene was a linchpin that opened up a dam for us. CM: What is your responsibility when telling a historical story like this one — about people who did or might still exist? KF: I had the luxury as the editor to focus solely on story. It was more John's job to be aware of the fault lines. I felt it was my job to say, "This is the story that we're telling. This is how best to achieve that goal." If too many of us in the editing room are confined by other considerations, we're going to keep ourselves from experimenting in a way that will produce the most interesting results. But I've now worked on two documentaries [including an episode of the Dirty Money series, which became available on Netflix in January] and it's weird talking about people as characters when they're real. All of the films I've worked on with Terry were in some way autobiographical; Tree of Life deals with the death of his brother, and To the Wonder deals with his second wife. I was very conscious of the fact Chappaquiddick. Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures