Editing Podcast:The Road Less Traveled

This Gaius/Tyrol scene is kind of interesting in that it's- one of the few times that there was an actual loud difference of opinion on the scene, let's put it that way.  The actors wanted to play the scene this way, which is Tyrol saying nothing and Baltar coming in and giving the whole speech. Now this wasn't the way the script was written. The script was written where Tyrol had dialogue and Gaius- it was more of a- two-hander. It was Tyrol saying things and Gaius saying things and kinda getting to the same point by the end. The actors wanted to play it this way, where Tyrol says nothing and Gaius comes in. I sort of pitched a fit and said, "Fuck you. No. You can't do this," and "You're gonna do it as written," because I was kinda fed up and just said, "No. We're not gonna do it that way," and "You can't do this on the day of the set- on the day of shooting," and sorta had a whole thing, by long distance on the phone. Well, they shot both versions, and I saw it in the editing bay, and as I watched both versions play, I decided that the version that the actors wanted was the correct one. And it's one of those times when you lay down the law, and you say, "No, this is the way it is scripted, and this is they way it has to be done, because I'm not gonna reinvent the show right here on the day, in the moment, and just throw the script out the window, and just do something completely different. No. This has to be- we have a script and you need to bring your concerns or your take on the scene to me earlier and too fuckin' bad." And- so they did it. And they did do it both ways. And weeks later when I watch it in the editing room, I watch their version, and it was better. And so that's the version that we used. It's one of those moments in a production where there's a genuine creative clash between the writer/producer and the people on the set and at that moment in time I felt like it was more important to say, "No. We can't just throw the script away, because you need to come to me ahead of time. You need to, like, give me a little time to think about it. You can't just do this in the spur of the moment." And I got pretty pissed about it, actually. But in retrospect, when I was watching the episode, and I watched the two versions, I really felt that this- was the more effective version, and ultimately that has to triumph everything else. That you have to be able to control the show and say, "No. This is the vision of the show and this is where we're going and this is what we're going to do." And be true to that. And you have to have the courage of your convictions in those moments. But you also have to be willing to admit when you're wrong and I was kinda wrong about this and I didn't see it at that- moment, but the actors had a better instinct on it and it's just one of those learning experiences. Sometimes you realize that you're wrong and they're right and what's the cost of admitting that you're wrong? Not much. You just decide to go with their take and you make that the show. And ultimately it's for the betterment of the show because ultimately it's for the betterment of the show because ultimately everyone- one of the great things about this series and one of the things that I will- excuse me- one of the things will be hard to replicate on any other project that I do is the commitment of all hands to doing the very best episode that they can possibly do. It's not often you find actors who are willing to- who are advocating giving themselves less material, less lines. That's essentially what Aaron was doing. He didn't have any lines in that scene. He cut all of his lines. Usually actors want more lines and Aaron wanted none. And at the time I was like, "What the fuck are you talking about? No. That's not what we're doing. We're gonna do this the way it's written and fuck you." And I was just fed up because it was a long week and a lot of shit had gone down and I just didn't wanna hear this and I just shut 'em down. And I said, "This has to be the way, 'cause you have to come to me with these ideas ahead of time. I have to- I can't be in a situation where you're calling me from the set and wanting to do something different." But they were right. And for me it's been- I've tried to take away from that the ability- or- I try to take away from that the lesson that sometimes you have to listen to your actors, even when they're pissing you off. Even when they're advocating something that you just feel like is crazy. If you have a cast and an ensemble like this one where you start to trust them implicitly, sometimes you just have to take the leap of faith and trust them implicitly.