'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Co-editor on All Those Surprise Stormtroopers
Film editor Maryann Brandon was one of the final power women to arrive at the Ninth Annual Women in film pre-Oscar cocktail party at Hyde Kitchen last Thursday. You may not know her name, but you certainly know her work: She and Mary Jo Markey were the editors on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and were nominated for the Oscar for Best Film Editing. (Mad Max: Fury Road’s Margaret Sixel won the statue Sunday night.) The duo have edited all 5 of director J.J. Abrams’ movies.
We asked the edit master if she could reveal any scenes from the movie that ended up on the cutting room floor, but she said we’d have to wait for the director’s DVD. “Everything that went into the movie is essential to the movie,” she said. “The rest of it is all good fun, but you want to have a movie that they audience is still enjoying when the leave the theater.”
Related: Read our complete ‘The Force Awakens’ coverage
Editor Mary Jo Markey, director J.J. Abrams, and editor Maryann Brandon in January (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Brandon was able to talk about some of the famous names who moonlighted as Stormtroopers in the movie, including, most famously, Daniel Craig who gets his brain scrambled with Rey’s Jedi mind trick. “[Craig] wanted to be in it,” she said. “It’s his voice; you’ll know when you see it again. Ben Schwartz [ the Parks and Recreation and one of the guys behind BB-8′s voice] was a Stormtrooper. Michael Giacchino, the composer on all of J.J. films except for Star Wars is one. Kevin Smith might be a voice, maybe.”
“There were lots of friends,” she said, laughing. “It’s Star Wars — whether you are a big star or not a big star, you want to be in it. But they’re in Stormtrooper costumes, so I just say it is them.”
Related: Ewan McGregor Reveals His Part in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
She also spoke a little bit more about Ewan McGregor’s brief bit in The Force Awakens. (Earlier, it was revealed that McGregor — who played a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels — recorded a new line for The Force Awakens that was heard in Rey’s Force vision.) “At the last moment, J.J. really wanted Ewan McGregor to come by and record a line for us,” she said. “We put it in, and it was just perfect. It was the best, last edition. J.J.’s the master. They worked together — they were in a room and recorded a bunch of lines, and we picked the best one. And it was great. He said, ‘These are your first steps.’”
Watch our interview with BB-8:
(Photo: Lucasfilm)
