Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1492834
35 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E a very personal, a very safe space." And that's just the sort of space required to tell a story as revealing and delicate as "Arma- geddon Time." CineMontage recently spoke with the editor and the director. CineMontage: Scott, how did you first come to work with James Gray? Scott Morris: I first came out to LA to work in film. I got a job with Lee Haugen, who was an editor on a TV show. We met and became very close. He was the ap- prentice on [Gray's] "Two Lovers" [2008], and then, when "The Lost City of Z" came around, John Axelrad had a scheduling [conflict]. Lee was hired to come in and start the editorial process; he was co-editor with John. I had been working with Lee for a little while already, and that's when I got the call to go to Ireland. I read the script on a plane going to Belfast. One of the best script-reading experiences of my entire life. It was just a wild adventure, and I met James in the geographical society building in Belfast. They were shooting the briefing scene, and I met James on set. The very first thing he said to us was: "Come here, come here." He brings us to his laptop and he had music he was playing back or sound design for the film. . . . He didn't know me at all — we were strangers — and he just immediately brought me into the creative fold. [On "The Lost City of Z"], there was a lot of material, so we all just got really close re- ally fast, spending very long hours together in New York, eating really good food, and working hard. Lee and John were mentor- ing me at this point. We went and did a film, a remake of "Papillon," in between projects just to keep the team together. I'd done more cutting. Then "Ad Astra" came along. I started as a first assistant on the show, and as the process went along, I got upgraded to an editor. CineMontage: James, what did you see in Scott to begin what has become a multi- film relationship? James Gray: He is a very intelligent person. He is very aware of what it is that matters in a movie — at least to my taste, which is an emotional directness and hon- esty — and to keep his eye on what matters. Is the actor being honest? Is the scene making sense in the framework of what it is you're trying to express? You recognize that in people very quickly, and I saw it in him. Banks Repeta, left, and Anthony Hopkins in "Armageddon Time." P H OT O : F O C U S F E AT U R E S