Learn How This Editor Helped Craft the Action and Comedy of ‘The Fall Guy’

Did you see The Fall Guy?

It’s a movie pretty much tailor-made for the No Film School audience, and they’re not paying me to say this. It’s a movie all about making movies, with a heavy focus on the often-overlooked stunt performers who carry some of today’s biggest action.

Sure, there’s some rom-com storytelling stuffed in there, too, and that’s all very enjoyable as well. But film fans and filmmakers will probably more appreciate the IATSE shirt Ryan Gosling’s character wears at one point, or the fun crew hats and jackets that pop up throughout, or the fact that characters discuss oners and split screens.

It’s also just a fun action movie with some truly amazing stunt work from the 87North team and David Leitch. Frequent collaborator Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir is the film’s editor, and we were elated to get the chance to jump on Zoom and chat about her work on the film.

Strap in!

The Fall Guy | Official Trailer

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Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

NFS: I would love to learn more about your background and how you got started as an editor. I know that you were doing a little bit with cinematography.

Ronaldsdóttir: Yes. I was super interested in cinematography, and that’s what I wanted to become. I went to film school.

When did I go to film school? Probably ’89, ’88, ’89. I went to film school. It was fun, enjoyed it. Had my focus on cinema photography. I went to London Film School in Covent Garden in London. So much fun.

And then I ended up being an editor, but I was also a single mom when I went to film school. And then I had another child when I came out from school. And as we all know, anyone that has ever been on set. It’s a lot of people there that are dependent on you turning up to work at the right time and staying there sometimes very long hours. And as a young mother with another kid, with my second child, it was too much.

So it was kind of by accident that I got introduced to editing, and I fell in love with it. But it’s also just the beauty of post that you have more control of your own time. So it suited me very, very well.

NFS: Your work is very diverse. It’s not only action, it’s not only film, it’s so many things. What I would like to focus on first is your work in action.

Ronaldsdóttir: I do very diverse types of work as an editor. And I just want to say this because in the beginning people kept telling me, “You can’t do all those things. You can’t be doing films and shorts and TV and documentary because no one’s going to know what you’re about. You have to concentrate on one genre and stick to it.”

But it didn’t turn out to be right for me because when I came to Hollywood … the reason I came to Hollywood was that a very small independent movie I did in Iceland was remade in the U.S., and I edited the small-budget movie, and I was offered to edit that big Mark Wahlberg movie, Contraband, the remake in the U.S. And that’s how I came here.

But what happened is, because everything is changing so fast, and I remember on Contraband they filmed this scene with, I don’t know, it’s too long ago, but it was so many drones. It was the new thing. So just the ability to be able to go through that material comes from my training and documentary where you have to go through—you have to be very fast thinking, realizing, “Is this going to work for us? Is this going to work for us?” So everything I’ve done up until now, as diverse as it’s been, has given me tools to work on big blockbuster action movies.

But I don’t, how do I approach editing an action scene? I really don’t approach it in a different way than anything else I edit. … I don’t do the stunts myself. There are other people, stunt men, who should be getting an Oscar acknowledgement from peers that they are a valid contribution to the film industry. So they do all the stunts, and then I just put it together.

But I do feel that we need to keep emotion within the stunts. So I try to also help by carving out those emotional bits when you have actors fighting just to keep the energy and the emotion and the story even though you’re fighting. But that’s also, that’s not only me. It’s also that I work for people, David Leitch and Kelly McCormick with 87North, their focus is doing story-based action movies.

I don’t like when people get—I don’t mind my pigeonhole because I’m very happy where I am—but people get pigeonholed. But an editor is an editor, and if you can do a music video, you can do action.

Behind the scenes of The Fall GuyUniversal Pictures

NFS: I really enjoyed seeing that little flash of Atomic Blonde in the movie. Again, more of your amazing work. I’m wondering if you have anything similar in how you approach comedy, because you’ve done a lot of comedy, too.

Ronaldsdóttir: Yeah, but I do believe timing and payoffs are very important in everything. I always say that action is easy. It’s the dialogue that’s hard, and that’s just something you have to concentrate on what feels like a normal reaction between people. And when it’s comedy, it’s the same.

I guess you have to [have] rhythm and you have to have pace in your blood. But yeah, it’s about timing. Everything in editing is about timing.

So even if it’s comedy—but I do have to say this, it doesn’t have the same timing. There’s a different timing, which is kind of like horror movies have a different timing than drama or action movies. So you just have to find the correct timing for it. But I’ve learned through the years to just give it time. You know what I mean? We don’t cut too tight on comedy, and it’s an old truth that comedy is best in the wide shot.

NFS: The Fall Guy is very meta. You have the oner in the beginning, and then you have the split screen. But one thing I thought was really interesting was the use of intercutting.

Ronaldsdóttir: All the intercutting was done after the fact … we are telling a love story. The first intercutting in the beginning is done for two reasons, mainly. One is that I don’t like repetitions. And us knowing that he is a valet is kind of boring when [Gail] starts telling us on the phone that he is a valet and he starts telling her he is a valet. So [we] intercut that, to minimize the repeat-ness of it, but then also to emphasize his decision to go to Australia and help Jody out. And that was emphasized by him being put down at work and then driving off to Australia almost in that fancy car.

Yeah. And then we did this again and again and again, mainly to keep Jody and Colt—even though they were apart—keep them together as much as possible. Keep them in the same energy.

NFS: What was the most challenging sequence for you in this film?

Ronaldsdóttir: Most challenging sequence. I mean, sequences can be challenging for many reasons. Sometimes things don’t go as planned on set. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s just time. And so that’s always something you have to be prepared for on any movie.

If it’s a small-budget movie or a big blockbuster, something’s going to happen on the ways where you have to figure out and be on your toes to figure out how we can get this working. But nothing was super challenging.

I mean, there’s a lot of gold on the editing floor, which is always heartbreaking. A lot of stuff that never got mated into the movie. But we are brave and which I like. You have to be brave making movies and brave in the sense that you have to be able to kill your darlings and leave stuff behind for the greater good of the story.

Behind the scenes of The Fall GuyUniversal Pictures

NFS: I know that it’s a collaboration, but do you have any more insight on how you arrive at those decisions? How do you decide what to leave behind?

Ronaldsdóttir: Well, through dialogue, both with the director, with the producer, with the studio, then we do test screenings, and you might learn through test screening that this is a bit too long, we need to cut it down, or this is a bit, or we need more of this. So you kind of fine-tune the movie after the test screenings. Yeah. But it’s all in collaboration.

And that’s the beauty of this art of filmmaking is the community you live in while you’re making it and work with the people you work with and the people you communicate with every day. And I think it’s important for everyone who’s interested in films and making films, but you have to be honest all the time. That does not mean being mean because mean has nothing to do with creative anything. But just be honest and put your heart in it.

NFS: Is there a sequence on the film that you’re most proud of?

Ronaldsdóttir: Well, I’m very proud of the trash/car/karaoke sequence. I’m also very proud of how we landed the opening of the movie, both with the introduction to stunt people, but also the intercutting between the valet and Gail on the phone with Colt. That was a fun, and I like when we are allowed to be brave because it is a very extreme intercut in many ways, but we are working with people that are brave and they are willing to experiment that way. So that was fun.

NFS: It is an interesting way to learn and to see him make that decision. I like that it’s not totally linear. Is there a common mistake that you see beginning editors make and how can they avoid it?

Ronaldsdóttir: Well, it’s something I battle with myself all the time, and I have to remind myself of it all the time that you might have a sequence and you think it work, but you have to go through it again and in a vicious way. Even if you just think, what is the shortest version of this sequence? And even if you think, oh, is this the and just what if it’s even shorter? It doesn’t mean it’s going to end that way. It just means you learn more about the scene you’re working with, you learn more.

What is the essence of that sequence? Of that scene? So just do it even just as an exercise. What is the shortest possible version of that scene? Because sometimes we tend to just sit too long and stuff.

And we also just always have to remember that the audience is not a carte blanche. They come with a lot of knowledge to the theater. So you have to be willing to use their brain as well. What does that character need to say? What does the audience already know without us telling them?

NFS: Is there anything you wanted to discuss that I didn’t ask?

Ronaldsdóttir: Only that I hope people go and see in the movie [theatre] because I think it’s an amazing cinematic experience, especially seeing it with other people. It’s that kind of a movie, but it’s so beautiful. It’s shot by Jonathan Sela, directed by David Leitch. It’s just stunning. It’s a stunning cinematic experience, I would say.