Editor Todd Downing wraps up Nick and Charlie’s love story with Heartstopper Forever. In completing Alice Oseman’s series with a feature film, director Wash Westmoreland and Downing wanted the story to mature with the characters. More introspection and silence for Nick and Charlie as they love and struggle.
“We wanted to make something a bit more filmic just because it’s two hours long rather than 30 minutes long,” Downing told What’s on Netflix, “but not lose the audience of the TV show, not be too drastically different.”
Previously, Downing edited episodes of Difficult People, Hello Tomorrow!, and Russian Doll. The editor spoke with What’s On Netflix about crafting the intimate finale for Nick and Charlie.
Was there anything about the pace or style of the original series you wanted the film to carry over?
A little bit. As it went on, we started doing longer takes and longer moments of silence. I think it starts a bit more like the TV show. And then as everything falls apart in their relationship, it gets a bit more somber and sad.
You let those silences breathe, too. Was that an immediate choice, not to trap this story in a 90-minute movie?
You never know with runtimes. Sometimes execs are very adamant about how long things have to be. I would’ve been really worried if they said this had to be a 90-minute movie. I don’t really even know how we would’ve done that.
It was a little bit under two hours, and I don’t think anyone ever told us you have to [cut it down]. It was nice. Things could be what they were meant to be or what felt right. It wasn’t like a lot was cut out of the script. Maybe this is 15 minutes shorter than the editor’s cut or something.
What flow are you looking for when cutting more romantic scenes?
It’s funny, the romantic thing too is everything is a bit more adult in this one than the series too. They went a little further. The series is not super explicit, but it’s a little bit more explicit here than it was before. That was another thing too, trying to keep the sweetness between them, but realizing that they’re 18 now and they’re doing things that they didn’t do when they were 14.
How do you try to emphasize the intimacy between Charlie and Nick?
We didn’t want to be prudish, but we also didn’t want to be exploitative. Also, you watch things in the context of the rest of the film sometimes and you’re like, “Oh, that’s actually more shocking than you thought it was or you could go a little bit further.” It’s always just trial and error just to see where the scene ends up. You can watch it by itself and then watch it in context and one feels right and one doesn’t sometimes.
Picture: Netflix
Considering movies are often very sexless these days, it’s refreshing to see a movie that shows physical intimacy in a romance.
Well, it’s funny, when we were cutting it, we did realize it was a bit bold for Heartstopper to do that because they didn’t get anywhere near that in the series, that kind of explicitness. But I remember after we locked the picture, Heated Rivalry came out, which was much more explicit. It was really shocking to me like, oh, maybe there’s something in the air where people are just ready to see a little bit more than they used to.
Because I’ve done stuff, I’ve edited other things and they do testing and people sometimes freak out. Sometimes if you have nudity, people will comment on it and be like, “Why is there nudity in that?” You’re kind of like, “Well, because they’re human.” I think you’re always going to get people who just don’t want to see that.
Narratively, they feel very crucial.
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, because it’s a coming of age, and that’s part of coming of age. It wasn’t excessive and trying to be titillating or anything.
It’s just intimate. When crafting a love story in the editing room, what rings as truthful to you when you’re watching footage of Joe and Kit?
I always think about the breakup scene. There’s something about that that feels so perfect where there’s this push and pull between them where they’re breaking up, but then they kind of say that they’re not. He says, “You want to break up?” But then he’s like, “But I didn’t really say I wanted to break up.” That felt very familiar and honest of them working through their emotions in real time and getting more upset about it and making bad decisions in reaction to what the other person’s saying to them. I think that feels like one of the most honest scenes to me.
What did you appreciate about Joe and Kit’s work?
It was kind of great because they were playing it differently too. They were playing it more adultly. They weren’t playing the same way that they were playing it three or four years ago when it was on TV. They do feel like they’ve grown as characters and they’re both very talented actors, so they get that they should be doing something different than they did before. Wash, the director, is very good with actors. He directed Julianne Moore [in Still Alice] and she got an Oscar.
Do you feel protective when cutting actors’ performances?
I cut Willem Defoe a couple years ago, and it was just so incredible. You have to just see what they’re doing first, because it’s a little bit different than standard acting. They have their own kind of style. So, I guess it’s protecting that.
I feel there’s also two types of actors. There’s some actors that give you a different thing every take. There’s other actors who have, they’ve chosen what they’re doing and in every single take, they do the exact same thing. Some of those actors are brilliant, too. I think you just have to work with what you have and figure out what’s best for that role.
Picture: Netflix
You worked on Russian Doll. Nobody acts like Natasha Lyonne. Does she give you a lot of options?
When I edit Natasha, I edit with her because she’s always the producer or showrunner. I mean, it’s amazing. You’ve never seen the things that she comes up with. You have a wealth of choice, but they can be vastly different. Sometimes she’ll just go off on something that’s completely insane and amazing. Then sometimes you get to bottle the insanity, but she knows that.
She will always give you a performance that’s the more straightforward one, but she’s definitely going to do, I guess this is a Netflix thing, so you guys know. She’s definitely going to do her own thing every once in a while. It’s genius. Editing with her is so fun because you’re sitting in a room with one of the funniest people on the planet just doing her thing.
It was a very good show. Do you ever miss cutting it?
It’s one of the most satisfying creatively because she’s just bursting with creativity at the seams. It’s just coming out of her all over the place, and it’s great. But then you got to figure out, okay, this could go on forever if we don’t… But she did teach me something about editing.
What was that?
About not over-editing. Sometimes you can just whittle things down too much. You know what I mean? And so, that’s something I do keep in mind now, even with Heartstopper. You don’t want to polish too much sometimes because then it gets rid of the distinctiveness and originality.
