Lorene Scafaria is part of a distinguished group of Succession (HBO) directors. How distinguished? This year Succession swept the DGA Awards’ dramatic series category nominations–Kevin Bray for the “Retired Janitors of Idaho” episode; Mark Mylod, who wound up winning the DGA honor, for “All the Bells Say”; Andrij Parekh for “What It Takes”; Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman for “Lion in the Meadow”; and Scafaria for “Too Much Birthday.”
To earn a DGA nomination for “a show that I’m in love with,” alongside four fellow Succession directors, was “incredibly meaningful,” Scafaria affirmed.
Scafaria, who started out as a writer, came to the series after her lauded feature Hustlers, which received three Film Independent Spirit Award nominations–for her as best director, Jennifer Lopez for supporting actress and Todd Banhazl for cinematography. The film also scored assorted other honors, including Best Feature and Audience Award nominations from the Gotham Awards.
On the heels of Hustlers’ success, Scafaria set her sights on Succession. She’s been a major fan of the show, its writers, cast and crew and wanted to be a part of it. “I put it out there that I was really interested in directing an episode. I knew I’d spend the next year writing a feature,” she recalled, reasoning that her schedule could accommodate a turn at episodic directing. What Scafaria didn’t know was that the world would soon be turned upside down by the COVID pandemic. She got together with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and EP Mylod in February 2020 and landed the invite to direct. Then COVID hit. A year-plus later, she got to direct an episode. “It marked my reentry into the world,” said Scafaria who found the experience a bit surreal after a long stretch during which she hadn’t left her house, much less socialized.
Also a bit surreal was the episode she landed, “Too Much Birthday,” in which Kendall Roy (portrayed by Jeremy Strong) throws a 40th-birthday bash for himself that’s a tribute to excess. It was a plum assignment for Scafaria–big, cinematic, humorous yet hellish while evoking a mix of pity, empathy and reflection.
“It’s a party that you’re never going to see again. You’re never going to see those rooms ever again, all built specifically for the ego of one character. You see his innermost thoughts and desires,” related Scafaria, adding that it was a golden opportunity to take familiar characters and see them in extremely unfamiliar settings.
For the episode, Scafaria said she kept referencing Burning Man, the all encompassing temporary city. Roy’s birthday party was that, elaborate rooms within a large event space that were built only to soon be demolished.
She credited production designer Stephen Carter for his ingenious creation of those settings, ranging from a giant birth canal to a treehouse. Yet within these environments of enormous space and scope, it still at the end of the day was all about people and how they interact with each other–albeit during a party which from one room to the next had a sort of maze-like dynamic.
In an earlier SHOOT interview, Carter noted that as much fun as it was for him to work on the “Too Much Birthday” episode, some of his production design wound up on the cutting room floor. Yet Carter saw the value at times of doing more by showing less. He explained for example that while the characters in Succession are often in opulent surroundings, the series doesn’t linger on the environments. While the settings can be huge and amazing, the characters don’t see them as such because to them it’s part of their lives. On one hand it’s amazing how these people live. But on the other hand, there’s the sense that they take it for granted–an attitude that is better reflected when lingering is kept at a minimum. It all gets back to an inherent strength in Succession–that it’s a show, affirmed Carter and Scafaria, that trusts the intelligence of its viewers.
Carter earned an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award nomination earlier this year for the “Too Much Birthday” and “The Disruption” episodes of Succession. It was his second ADG nod, the first coming as an art director in 2015 for the feature film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Carter is also a two-time Emmy nominee–as a production designer on Succession in 2020 and as an art director on Sex and the City in 2003.
Scafaria noted that coordination among herself, Carter and cinematographer Christopher Norr was essential. Norr, she said, lit the environments created by Carter in a way that did the most justice to the scenes, helping to enhance the feeling of a maze with actors moving from one room to the next. While Succession has a well established look and style, the nature of the “Too Much Birthday” episode afforded Scafaria and her colleagues the opportunity to expand a bit on the visual language of the series. Norr, a three-time ASC Award nominee for Gotham, and Carter embraced the challenge, said Scafaria.
The director shared that it was a privilege to collaborate with such a talented ensemble of actors and crew, describing the Succession players as “a well-oiled machine.” Succession gave her the chance to “work on other people’s visions and bring my vision to it,” to be part of the actors’ “ballet” that is at the heart of the show. She said it was a fascinating experience “to step in as the special guest yet you’re running the set.” Overall, she felt “spoiled by the show itself,” inspired by its embarrassment of creative riches. “I hope to return and work on it some more.”
Susanne Bier
Exec producing and directing all the episodes in a series has become part of Susanne Bier’s television modus operandi. She served as EP and helmed all six installments of The Undoing, a limited series for which she garnered last year her first career DGA Award nomination. Bier had earlier directed all the episodes and EP’d The Night Manager for which she won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series in 2016.
Bier continued her dual EP/director role most recently on The First Lady (Showtime), an anthology drama series which chronicles Eleanor Roosevelt (portrayed by Gillian Anderson), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis). Bier, who directed all 10 episodes of The First Lady, now once again looms as an awards contender. She has a historic awards pedigree as the first female director whose work won an Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film for Denmark’s In A Better World in 2011), Golden Globe (also for In A Better World as Best Foreign Language Film), Emmy (for The Night Manager) and European Film Award (Best European Director for In A Better World, and in 2013 Best European Comedy for Love Is All You Need).
Bier was immediately attracted to The First Lady, fascinated by its protagonists whom she described as “amazingly impactful, humorous, complicated women.” She added, “Being a Danish director, I felt incredibly honored by the opportunity to deal with American royalty.”
While directing some 10 hours worth of episodes–being on set for 140 days–is “arduous,” said Bier, it also feels “very natural for me to do that” given that she comes from feature films. “It’s been in my blood, part of the core of the creative process.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge, said Bier, is “portraying people who live or have lived. What did they look like, how did they talk, move, what kind of clothes did they wear. You want to have a sense of authenticity and yet be entertaining.”
Attaining that balance is key. “None of us know what they were talking about in their kitchens or bedrooms, in private moments,” related Bier. “Obviously this part is a piece of fiction. Our imagination is talking, creating fiction based on fact. We wanted to be as truthful as possible to what has been documented as real–and yet we wanted to tell stories that were evocative, fascinating, fun and interesting for an audience.”
Bier sees that balance as being divided between her director and EP capacities. She views the director primarily responsible for being “the storyteller, the person entertaining the audience” whereas the exec producer needs to keep “an eye on whatever needs to be authentic” and making sure that it is indeed authentic.
For that mix of authenticity and visual engagement, she gravitated to DP Amir Mokri, a two-time Film Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography nominee (Slam Dance and Life Is Cheap…Toilet Paper Is Expensive) for The First Lady. “There’s something classical and yet very sharp, graphic and undeniably modern about his style,” assessed Bier. “I was very keen to emphasize the similarities as opposed to the differences [among Roosevelt, Ford and Obama]–not so much in storytelling but in their emotional experiences. I felt his [Mokri’s] combination of classical and crisp modernity fit the material. I loved his work but it was in our conversation where I realized he was the right person. You can speak with somebody the first time and realize that we at our core understand each other.”
From her experience on The First Lady, Bier took away first and foremost a deep appreciation for all three First Ladies. “They never gave up on what they believed in,” relentlessly “pursuing what they thought was right,” said Bier who saw some parallels to directing. When you run into obstacles, you find alternative routes to get to where you want to go, to get to what you believe in. “I learned a lot from studying them.”
Bier had time up front to study in that she was approached with The First Lady while much of the world was in lockdown due to the pandemic. She was able to not just read and ruminate over the script but also to extensively research the lives of the three First Ladies, particularly Roosevelt and Ford from yesteryear.
First Lady marks Bier’s first project that was biographical in nature. But rather than one biopic, it was three–each exploring First Ladies of distinctly different eras. This wide range in turn brought a big-picture perspective to the concerns and roadblocks that women faced in this country over the years–as well as how they’ve dealt with all that, displaying intelligence, grace, caring and ingenuity.
First Lady adds to a body of work for Bier that includes A Second Chance, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival; Things We Lost in the Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro; Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper; After the Wedding, which also received a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination; Brothers, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; her debut feature The One and Only, which won Best Film at the Danish Robert Awards; and Birdbox, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Sandra Bullock and which made a major splash on Netflix and in theaters, scoring critical and popular acclaim.
Additionally Bier is drawn to short-form fare. She is represented in the commercialmaking/branded content arena by production house SMUGGLER. Bier sees her short-form endeavors as helping to inform her longer form pursuits through experimentation, exchanging ideas and experiencing different ways of working. She characterized short-format fare such as spots as being “the discipline of accuracy. Thirty seconds doesn’t lend itself to deep complicated psychological truth. It lends itself to precision.” That precision can bring a different dimension to longer from content for which you have the luxury of time in order to explore deep psychological truth. Bier finds her involvement in the long and short of it as making her a better storyteller.
Amanda Marsalis
In SHOOT’s Emmy Preview coverage last month, the prelude to this 16-part The Road To Emmy series, Christina Voros, director/cinematographer on 1883, said she probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to direct episodes of that Paramount+ series and earlier its kin series Yellowstone if Ava DuVernay didn’t give her the initial opportunity a few years earlier to helm an episode of Queen Sugar. DuVernay made a concerted effort to bring women directors into the Queen Sugar fold, often marking their first foray into television.
Queen Sugar also proved pivotal for Amanda Marsalis who is now in the Emmy conversation for her ongoing work on Ozark (Netflix), specifically on multiple episodes in its fourth and final season. She first connected with Ozark during its second year, directing that season’s memorable finale. “That was the fourth episode of television I had ever directed,” recalled Marsalis, referring to it as “career altering.” She went on to contribute to seasons three and four, while taking on other episodic work that included Westworld, Umbrella Academy and Invasion.
But helping to lay the foundation for it all was Queen Sugar, Marsalis’ first TV directorial gig. She was, however, already quite accomplished before her segue into television. Marsalis first established herself as a commercial still photographer over a 20-year span, shooting celebrities, faraway locations and brand campaigns for GQ, Vogue and Conde Nast Traveler, among other notable publications. Then a friend sent her an email asking if she ever thought about directing. The query was sparked by a script for what turned out to be the feature film Echo Park, which Marsalis wound up directing on a time-challenged, shoestring budget. The indie feature, which starred Mamie Gummer, made a splash at the L.A. Film Festival and shortly thereafter was acquired by DuVernay’s company ARRAY. Later Marsalis, after pitching for it, got the chance to direct episodes of Queen Sugar. DuVernay’s support has been invaluable. In fact, DuVernay was one of three signatories on Marsalis’ application which earned her membership in the DGA.
Akin to the supportive camaraderie she enjoyed on Queen Sugar, Marsalis benefited from another effort designed to generate opportunities for women filmmakers–her being selected to be part of the inaugural class of Fox Studio’s Female Director Initiative. While this took place some time ago, the experience has had a lasting impact. This inaugural class consisted of some 20 directors. She observed that even more valuable than the program itself has been the continuing bond she enjoys with these filmmakers, a network of artists who have gone on to be successful while serving as a resource for one another, comparing notes on how to handle situations, offering help with finding a DP or a production designer, and sharing insights on other varied matters.
Even with Echo Park and Queen Sugar under her belt, Marsalis felt that the decision-makers at Ozark, including actor-director-executive producer Jason Bateman and showrunner-writer Chris Mundy, took “a leap of faith” when they offered her the high-profile season two finale. “They said they were lucky to get me,” recollected Marsalis who thought “that’s not true.” She felt like the lucky one. Either way, luck has been famously described as “the residue of hard work and design.” And Marsalis was ready and proved up to the task, justifying the trust placed in her as the season two finale gained critical acclaim, helping to build continued momentum for the show.
And it feels somehow fitting for Marsalis to help wrap the series with four of the episodes released in part two of the current season (with the finale directed by Bateman). Originally the final season was slated to consist of 10 episodes but that was expanded to 14. While the added storytelling opportunities were welcomed during the farewell tour, the work was beset with COVID shutdowns. Marsalis noted that the Ozark ensemble of artisans truly became a family over the years which helped in coping with pandemic-related concerns and the multiple stops and starts. She observed that season four was both “physically taxing” and “emotionally taxing” on cast and crew. The long season became longer due to COVID shutdowns which put two opposite dynamics in play. One one hand, it was emotional dealing with the reality that the end of the show was coming. “No one wanted to let go,” said Marsalis. At the same time, “Everybody wanted to get home” in the wake of the COVID situation. At the New York premiere event for Ozark last month, Marsalis said that those in attendance felt “emotional and wonderful” that they were all back together.
Marsalis recalled long-time colleagues and new compatriots she’s experienced on Ozark. Among the cinematographers for example, season four marked her first time connecting with DPs Shawn Kim and Eric Koretz, working relationships that proved fruitful and gratifying. Marsalis also cited the first DP she worked with on Ozark, Armando Salas for the season two finale, as being a favorite whom she is always looking to work with again.
As for lessons learned from her Ozark experience over the years, Marsalis noted that she honed her ability “to ask for what I need to tell a story. Jason Bateman is very good at that. I learned a lot from Jason.” In that regard, Marsalis shared, “You want to tell the story in a way that is elegant, precise and practical. How do I truly get through my day in the best way possible and tell this story in a way that is going to resonate with audiences?”
Marsalis continued, whether “I need to be at this location at this particular time of day or I need this equipment,” the key is to “understand my story well enough to ask for what I need.”
Regarding what’s next, Marsalis is currently a producing director and co-executive producer on Kindred, a series for FX filming in Atlanta and based on the novel of the same title by Octavia E. Butler. Marsalis is directing three episodes, with the pilot being helmed by Janicza Bravo. The story centers on a young Black aspiring writer who uncovers secrets about her family’s past when she finds herself mysteriously being pulled back and forth in time to a 19th century plantation. Showrunner/writer is Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen) while other EPs include Bravo, Darren Aronofsky and Courtney Lee-Mitchell, Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.
Dexter Fletcher
First establishing himself in the industry as an actor–dating back to his childhood–spanning features and TV, Dexter Fletcher in more recent years has expanded his creative reach into directing. On the latter score, he’s earned two BAFTA Film Award nominations–first in 2013 for outstanding debut by a Brit for Wild Bill, a feature he wrote and directed, and in 2020 for British Film of the Year on the strength of Rocketman, the Elton John biopic he helmed. In between those two motion pictures, Fletcher directed Eddie the Eagle, based on the real life story of Olympic ski jumper Eddie Edwards; the film debuted at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. And though uncredited, Fletcher took over the final weeks of production and post on Bohemian Rhapsody, which went on to win four Oscars, including Best Actor for Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury.
Heavily steeped in features, director Fletcher has now made an auspicious entry into television–appropriately enough for a limited series, The Offer (Paramount+), which takes us behind the scenes of a legendary feature, Best Picture Oscar winner The Godfather, based on the perspective of its producer, Albert S. Ruddy (portrayed by Miles Teller), who made the transition to the big screen from television (as co-creator of Hogan’s Heroes). The Godfather received 11 Oscar nominations, winning three–the other two being for leading actor (Marlon Brando) and adapted screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo).
Fletcher jumped at the opportunity to serve as an executive producer on The Offer and direct three episodes. “All my films have been about U.K. subjects. This was the first project I made in America,” said Fletcher, adding that it was particularly exciting to take on The Offer on the occasion of The Godfather’s 50th anniversary.
Oscar (The Player) and Emmy-nominated (Escape at Dannemora) writer Michael Tolkin created The Offer, with Nikki Toscano serving as showrunner for all 10 episodes. Teller, Russell Rothberg and Leslie Greif were also exec producers. Ruddy himself served as an EP on The Offer which chronicles the many obstacles he had to overcome to bring The Godfather to fruition, including fervent opposition and threats of violence from the mafia, angst over the prospect of casting the erratic Brando, resistance to casting a then young, unproven Pacino, myriad problems with and power struggles within Paramount and Gulf & Western, and efforts to stymie writer-director Coppola’s creative vision for the film. Ruddy was the sole producer of The Godfather, a rarity in today’s Hollywood, and is depicted as a staunch defender of Coppola as the film’s auteur. Ruddy is a two-time Best Picture Oscar winner–for The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby.
As for the challenges that The Offer posed, Fletcher shared, “How do we create this world with predominantly well-known, larger-than-life characters” to do justice to what went into making a legendary film? We had to portray them as whole people, not caricatures or impressions. We were dealing with personalities that were huge like [Paramount Pictures chief] Robert Evans. We had to make him layered and complex.”
In addition to Teller, the cast includes Matthew Goode as Evans; Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt, Ruddy’s assistant; Dan Fogler as writer-director Coppola; Giovanni Ribisi as mafia boss Joe Colombo; Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo; Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn, the head of Paramount parent company Gulf & Western; Justin Chambers as Brando; and Anthony Ippolito as Al Pacino.
Having such a talented ensemble cast and the chance to work with them “to build the characters from the ground up” was a gratifying experience, said Fletcher. “All the actors wrote their characters’ bios. We filled in those blanks, created that world, their inner lives, which brought that layered dimension.”
Working with the actors–given his background as a performer–is “a huge part of what I do,” affirmed Fletcher who observed that an actor is inherently in “a very exposed position.” Fletcher is “empathetic towards that position,” noting that a director needs to build a trust with actors so they feel safe and secure. “That’s when you get your best work from people. Matthew is going for it in his performance [as Evans]. That only comes with a certain sense of security and safety….same for Giovanni [as Colombo] who made big, brave choices.”
There are parallels to Ruddy on The Godfather in terms of building trust. If he believed in someone, he supported and protected that person. That’s what enabled him to get The Godfather made even in the face of so many potential stumbling blocks which could have outright killed the film or resulted in one being made that would have been a faint, compromised shadow of itself.
Additionally Fletcher cited the need to reflect the cinematic scope of the movie within the TV series itself. Towards that end, Fletcher bonded with cinematographer Salvatore Totino, ASC, AIC who lensed six episodes, including the first two (directed by Fletcher) which helped lay the foundation for the look, feel and tone of the series. Fletcher said he long respected Totino’s work but the clincher was their first phone conversation when the DP immediately grasped the vision and scale of the show and talked “the same cinematic language,” as Fletcher. “We connected very quickly on that front, the working methodology, referencing projects and films in terms of our approach,” related Fletcher.
The path to directing was paved in a sense for Fletcher by his experience as an actor working with other actors while getting to interact with and observe accomplished filmmakers. He appeared on screen over the years alongside such actors as Pacino, Robert De Niro, Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren, and worked on projects directed by the likes of David Lynch, Mike Leigh, Ken Russell and Guy Ritchie.
Kimmy Gatewood
Director, actor, writer, comedian and producer Kimmy Gatewood is no stranger to the awards show circuit. She was part of the twice SAG Award-nominated acting ensemble on GLOW. And last year she won a Daytime Emmy for her directing on Sesame Street.
Now she’s generating some primetime Emmy buzz for her directorial efforts on Girls5eva (Peacock), the Meredith Scardino-created musical comedy series which centers on four women (played by Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell and Renee Elise Goldsberry) who had their pop music moment in the sun as a one-hit-wonder girl group in the 1990s. Now they’ve reunited to give it another shot, looking to find elusive success and creative fulfillment on their own terms.
Gatewood proactively pursued the Girls5eva directorial gig, drawn to the series when she heard about it–not only for its premise but also the involvement of EPs Scardino and Tina Fey. Gatewood originally started out doing comedy in NYC, testing for Saturday Night Live. Fey and Scardino are SNL vets whom Gatewood has long admired–not just for their work on that show but extending elsewhere including their pairing on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Gatewood recalled contacting everyone she could think of for recommendations that might help get her an interview for Girls5eva. At the time residing in Los Angeles, Gatewood flew herself out to New York to meet with Scardino and colleagues. “I even told them I lived in New York City,” smiled Gatewood, thinking that might help her land the job.
Land it she did, directing a pair of episodes in season one and being asked to return for more installments, including the season two finale.
Gatewood has found it creatively fulfilling to work with the talented Girls5eva ensemble, noting that the performers are a triple threat–comedy, music and dance. It’s a trifecta difficult to attain properly under normal circumstances but all the more impressive when grappling with the COVID pandemic. But whatever hurdles the coronavirus posed logistically and otherwise, cast and crew were up to the task–including cinematographer John Inwood, ASC whom Gatewood worked with for the first time during season one. “He’s incredibly collaborative, the kind of DP that’s in it for the adventure and the creative story, which I really love.”
Gatewood noted that Inwood shot one of her favorite indie films, The Daytrippers, as well as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Gatewood saidthat Inwood reflects the mix of artisan attributes–flexibility, discipline and craft–needed to bring a show like Girls5eva to fruition. She teamed with the DP on elongated storyboard sequences in which, for example, they mapped out the staging, lighting and unfurling of big concerts replete with audiences.
Girls5eva, continued Gatewood, afforded her the opportunity to work with actors, writing talent and crew “at the top of their game,” adding that many had previously teamed on both Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and 30 Rock, meaning they had a shorthand, working rapport and confidence in one another that made it possible to push boundaries and overcome even the most daunting challenges. Gatewood observed that the nature of Girls5eva–its pacing, the comedy, the music, the dancing–requires “every artist to fire on all cylinders.
Girls5eva adds to TV series directing credits for Gatewood which include the comedy drama The Baby-Sitters Club, Ghosts, Single Drunk Female, Just Add Magic and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,
Gatewood started out as a stand-up comedian and together with Rebekka Johnson and Sarah Lowe founded a comedy group called The Apple Sisters. Gatewood then made her mark in the acting sisterhood with GLOW.
Gatewood’s feature directorial debut came in 2021 with Netflix’s rom-com Good On Paper, written by and starring Lliza Schlesinger. Short films first established Gatewood as a director, including Control which garnered official selections from more than 40 festivals in 2019. Gatewood’s short titled Consent won the JFL’s (Just For Laughs) highest award. Additionally her short film Navel Gazers won the Outstanding Sci-Fi Award at the 2021 Micheaux Film Festival.
Her short-form exploits also span music videos such as Ne-Yo’s “Directionality” for Apple TV’s The Helpsters. Gatewood also helmed musical shorts for actress/comedian Rachel Bloom–”Ladyboss” for Vanity Fair and “I Don’t Care About Awards Shows,” which opened the 2017 Creative Arts Emmys (emceed by Bloom).
Gatewood also recently joined the directorial roster at production house Caviar, marking her first representation for commercials and branded content. She shared that telling a story or getting a laugh in 30 seconds can only serve to make her a better director. “It’s exciting as an artist to expand yourself in short form,” said Gatewood, noting that earlier work in sketch comedy similarly informed her direction of TV series comedy, just as helming short films did.
Regarding what’s next, Gatewood wasn’t at liberty to discuss upcoming projects in great detail. She only offered that a new Muppets project is in the offing, a Team Coco comedy audio project is set to break this summer, and some prospective feature film work is in the hopper.
Douglas Crise, ACE
Awards season speculation has editor Douglas Crise, ACE in possible Emmy contention for two projects, both of which he collaborated on with director/producer Barry Levinson, first on The Survivor (HBO) and then Dopesick (Hulu).
For the latter, Crise earlier this year earned an ACE Eddie Award nomination on the basis of the “First Bottle” episode directed by Levinson (who also served as an EP on the series). Dopesick delves into opioid addiction in America, drawing us into a distressed Virginia mining community, a rural doctor’s office, the boardrooms of Purdue Pharma, and the inner workings of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Based on Beth Macy’s 2018 best selling nonfiction book, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company That Addicted America,” the series spans the past 25 years with different storylines that personalize a drug epidemic fueled in large part by Purdue’s insidious behavior.
Dopesick performances include that of Michael Keaton who portrays Samuel Finnix, an old-school, good-hearted doctor from a small mining down in Virginia. Convinced by a Purdue salesman (played by Will Poulter) that OxyContin is pretty much “nonaddictive,” Dr. Finnix prescribes the drug to relieve pain. Among the patients we meet is a young mine worker, Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever), who becomes addicted. Her parents (Ray McKinnon and Mare Winningham) desperately try to save her. Other prime characters in the narrative are Richard Sackler (played by Michael Stuhlbarg) as the mastermind behind Purdue’s push for profits via OxyContin, Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard), the Assistant U.S. District Attorney who leads the Justice Department investigation into Purdue Pharma, DEA agent Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson), and Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer (John Hoogenakker).
Dopesick was a learning experience for Crise–in terms of subject matter and further honing his collaborative relationship with Levinson. On the former score, Crise said he discovered much about the opioid crisis. “You learn about how much corporate greed overtook everything. They didn’t care about what they did to the country or to people.”
As for his working dynamic with Levinson, Crise noted that they developed a strong creative bond over the course of The Survivor and Dopesick–even though their interaction on Dopesick was largely remote due to the pandemic. Crise and Levinson developed a free and easy give-and-take dialogue as reflected at the juncture when they thought they had a good assembly of the first Dopesick episode (“First Bottle”). There was a scene in act four of that episode in a bathroom where Betsy kisses her girlfriend. Levinson asked why the scene was there to begin with. It didn’t add anything to the story. The scene was taken out. A couple days later Levinson and Crise revisited the scene, realizing that it would be relevant if instead placed in act one, revealing that Betsy was gay. In act four, we already knew her sexual orientation. That’s the kind of open-mindedness and spirit of ongoing discussion that results in restructuring and different placement of a scene for the benefit of the story.
In a recent SHOOT Chat Room interview, Levinson talked about the connection he made with Crise on The Survivor, sharing, “He’s a very good editor. You have to find some kind of rapport. You’re talking about seconds at a time–a little faster on that, a little slower on this. It has much to do about rhythm on one hand, and how to unfold the story in general. How do we rethink a scene, maybe create something stronger than what we originally thought. He’s very good at that. When I shoot, I leave room for a certain amount of improvisation. He was very good at blending content, performance and visuals. We found a comfort zone.”
Based on the book “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano” by Alan Haft, The Survivor stars Ben Foster as Harry Haft who survives both the unspeakable horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the gladiatorial life-or-death boxing spectacle he is forced to fight in with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his Nazi captors. Haft, though, remains driven to survive by his quest to reunite with the woman he loves–from whom he was separated during the Holocaust. After a daring escape, he makes his way to New York where he makes a name for himself as a boxer, even landing a bout with the great Rocky Marciano. Haft hopes that the press coverage he gets as an athlete may help him find his lost true love–she will realize that he is still alive as he continues to believe that she too has survived.
Crise recalled being emotionally moved by a story Levinson told him about his great uncle. “When Barry was a little boy, his uncle stayed with him and would wake up in the middle of the night screaming.” After a stretch, the uncle moved out of the Levinson family’s house. Barry Levinson later learned that his uncle was a Holocaust survivor and had problems for much of his life dealing with what had happened. Back then there was no diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome. You were told to get on with your life–but it’s not that simple. “To survive is one thing,” Levinson told SHOOT in the Chat Room interview. “To live is quite another.”
The emotional dynamic looms large for Levinson, particularly in a story like The Survivor, related Crise. “You never want to lose that sense of what you feel for the first time,” said the editor, explaining one of the big takeaways he had from working with Levinson on The Survivor. “You’ll cut a scene together. It will have an emotional impact. As you rework and retry it, you want to hold onto that. You don’t want to lose that in all your iterations of the film.”
Crise added that Levinson very much wants “the characters to shine through.” However, there were some shining moments that ended up on the cutting room floor because they didn’t serve The Survivor plot and/or ultimately its characters. Levinson and Crise worked together to make those hard decisions.
The Eddie nomination for Dopesick was the third of Crise’s career. He was first nominated for and won the Eddie in 2007 along with Stephen Mirrione, ACE for their editing of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Babel. Crise and Mirrione were again nominees in 2015 for the Iñárritu-directed Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Crise and Mirrione’s work on Babel also scored a Best Editing Oscar nomination in 2007.
This is the fifth installment of a 16-part weekly The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories which will explore the field of Emmy contenders and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, writing, producing, showrunning, cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, music, sound and visual effects. The Road To Emmy Series will then be followed by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy winners in September, and then the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony that month.
