Annette Davey served as an editor for two of the year’s biggest Emmy contenders— Netflix’s Maid starring Margaret Qualley and Hulu’s Pam & Tommy starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan. Two very different miniseries requiring Davey to exercise a myriad of skills as an editor.
Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Davey details her favorite sequences and her approach to deft editing in the context of different genres, tones, and styles.
Awards Daily: You served as an editor on two episodes of Pam and Tommy and four episodes of Maid. I wanted to ask your general approach to editing, how you see your craft and how that related to these two projects in particular.
Annette Davey: Well, those two projects were very different. Although, there was one sort of unifying theme, which is, I feel they’re about a sort of female journey. Maid obviously is a very different journey than Pam & Tommy‘s journey. But I do feel like Pam & Tommy focused well on Pam’s journey, which I personally liked a lot. So, there’s that kind of similarity, but other than that, they’re very different aspects of life, you know?
But I feel like I generally bring the same kind of approach to most things. I read the script, I think about it and I like to work quite intuitively. So, I’ll watch the dailies and think about it again; and then I like to pretty much just jump in and have my intuition and instincts lead me to a certain amount. So, I’m very much inclined to do that. Obviously, I will structure that first pass of this scene or the TV show based on the script. But I do like to really capture those moments for the first time you see them.
Awards Daily: When you have a limited series, there’s multiple directors that you have to work with. So what impact, if any, does that have on your day-to-day?
Davey: Yeah, I mean, each director is a little bit different. On Maid. I worked with two different directors even though I did four episodes. Both directors did two each. Block shooting where they shoot two episodes at the same time is very common now. So that’s generally why you get two episodes per director. Everybody is kind of different, but at the end of the day, they obviously want the best show that they can possibly get, and they were all kind of working towards common goal. On Maid in particular, John Wells and Molly Smith Metzler were the showrunners, and they were super involved and very helpful. And then on Pam &Tommy, it was a kind of completely different style of show. But, again, we had really great show runners. Craig Gillespie was involved for a lot of it. Seth Rogan was a producer as well. Everyone was giving a lot of time and energy, which is what I like most: when everyone is really committed.
AD: With Maid, you did episodes four and five, and then you did the last two. Does that impact your work to have these two middle chunk episodes and then those ending episodes?
Davey: Well, I really enjoyed doing both of them for different reasons. I actually did episodes three and four first, and they were really fun for me because I felt like it was a time in the series where it wasn’t as serious, and Alex (Margaret Qualley) wasn’t having as much of a difficult time. So, I really enjoyed being able to sort of explore that in those episodes. I wanted to bring a little bit of joy into it, so it wasn’t always just like cleaning and horrible problems with money and welfare and…I embraced that quite a lot. And then, episodes nine and ten, I felt like you really had to feel the journey that she’d gone on. I wanted it to be really emotional. All the relationships that she’d forged, the journey she’d gone on, especially with her mother and with the boyfriend and all that kind of stuff. And also, the women’s group, which I thought was fabulous. I love all those scenes with the ladies from the shelter.
AD: And then you have “Pamela in Wonderland,” which is one of the key episodes of Pam & Tommy, but it’s very different. I would say “flashy” almost, with going back and forth in time and different versions of Pamela. What was your approach to that? Because that’s one of those episodes where I feel like if it doesn’t work then a lot of the other things around it fall apart.
Davey: Yes, I agree with that. And actually, again, that was for me, I really enjoyed doing that episode because I enjoyed all the focus on Pamela’s story. I wanted to really take her story seriously in a way and really make you feel who she was originally and who she came to be. And I think that helps you have a lot of sympathy for her and why it was a difficult period of her life with the whole tape being released and all that kind of stuff. Because she was from a very nice background in Canada and all that kind of stuff, I felt it was really important to lean into that so you could see the contrast between where she came from and where she sort of ended up. It was great doing an episode that was so focused on her issues and stuff, especially compared to…I actually worked on the first three episodes, as well. Which I loved, but, they were very different totally.
AD: And do you ever worry about too much editing or editing that is “too obvious?” I mean, how do you handle that? Because it’s a fine line, right?
Davey: I mean, I do really think about that. Often, I find the first parts of a cut that I do will have more of a bigger variety of shots and maybe more cuts in it. I often tend to reduce things as I go along because I am trying to simplify it and get to the real kernel of the story. I don’t want to sort of mess it up too much. Then on the other hand, for instance, in episode four of Maid I had to do multiple montages, but that was really fun. That was a really nice contrast. And then my favorite scene in episode four is I had to do this scene where it’s kind of a fantasy on behalf of Alex. She’s like fantasizing about the Tinder guy and with the way they shot it, some of the time he’s in the room, sometimes he’s not. That was a really fun thing to work on and just to figure out that balance of how much you should really see him and how much you shouldn’t. I like it when you can do something a little bolder and fun.
I always want to simplify it and I want it to feel kind of natural and effortless, you know? And it’s good if people don’t notice the editing, unless you want them to. Unless it’s like a flashy montage or some sort of fantasy sequence or whatever, then you probably want people to notice what you’re doing. I just want to tell the story. Ultimately, that’s what I’m really thinking about. I want to have the characters have the right emotions, so that the audience is feeling the right things at the right times so they can follow that journey.
AD: And how do you handle an episode like that, or a series and like Maid in general, that has a lot of tonal shifts? What does that mean for you in terms of the editing?
Davey: I do enjoy that sort of thing, and because it makes you think outside the box a little bit and you have to sort of figure out, “how am I going to make this work so that it is a tonal shift, but it’s not out of character for the show so that your audience still goes along with it?” But again, I enjoy those kinds of challenges. I really liked doing things like the fantasy scenes and all that sort of stuff, because you get to sort of have a little bit, not necessarily more fun than normal, but a different kind of fun. You can experiment and try things that you wouldn’t normally be able to do.
AD: And montages, I would say, are a bit controversial. [Laughs]. I love a good montage. What is the key to a good montage in your opinion?
Davey: Well for me, I think you just have to have fun, to be honest. I think you just have to really just react to the footage and grab things and just really go for it and sort of not be too scared or tentative about it. You can always revise it later. I think it’s good.
AD: You know, this is such a big year for you. I mean, two massive projects. How does it feel?
Davey: It’s very exciting to be honest. Like I said, for me, that’s not only if they’d been high profile, but they’re also about things that I care about. I like telling women’s stories, things from the female point of view. It was also really good that they’re both very different perspectives. So, yeah, it’s been very exciting. I’ve really enjoyed it.
AD: What are you working on now?
Davey: Right now I’m working on a movie called The Estate, which is a comedy with Toni Collette, Rosemarie DeWitt, David Duchovny and Anna Faris. I’m probably forgetting a few, but it’s a really fun ensemble piece.
AD: Do you find that editing is a very insular thing? Are you able to be social and interact?
Davey: It is quite insular, but I don’t dislike that. I’m very happy in my editing room and working away. I like it when you get into that sort of zone where you’re not really thinking about anything else, but work. To me, that’s really enjoyable. Some people hate it, you know, and they find it incredibly dull and say like “why would you want to do that”? But for me, it’s really enjoyable.
AD: Lastly, are there any particular sequences or something that I didn’t ask you about that you wanted to highlight?
Davey: No, like I said, the sequence I like most in episode four of Maid is the fantasy with the guy she meets on Tinder. In episode ten of Maid, that was one of my favorite episodes. I love all the stuff with the women at the end and the intercutting of the group scenes with Alex’s journey. That’s one of my favorite scenes. And in Pam & Tommy in particular, that Wonderland episode. I really enjoyed all the deposition stuff. I really enjoy seeing her in the courtroom sticking up for herself. The transitions in and out of time were really good to do, as well.
Maid is streaming now on Netflix; Pam & Tommy is available on Hulu.