PH: How did you approach the challenge of balancing comedic performances with the dramatic elements at the heart of No Good Deed? Can you share specific scenes where this balance was particularly crucial?
Nicole Brik: Working with Liz previously on Dead to Me, I was familiar with the approach we were going to take on No Good Deed.Not that we wanted to exactly emulate the two shows, but we knew it could and would be a challenge. The goal was to keep the comedy and drama as grounded and real as possible. The show itself deals with a heavy topic of loss and grief, but we certainly didn’t want to shy away from the comedy. For example, in the kitchen scene in the pilot when Paul tells Lydia that a developer wants to buy their house, and they start to argue about it. Lydia frustratingly grabs the knife she used to chop mushrooms and comes towards Paul, waving it around, and he tells her to put it down. There’s banter between them at this moment, which is quite funny, but they’re still arguing. A more subtle example is in the finale when Lydia tells Paul she doesn’t want to live with him anymore, and he tells her not to go. She asks why, and he pauses for a moment and finally answers, “Because I will.” Before we go to the main title, we stay with Lydia until she says, “mmhmm, that’s right.”
PH: You worked closely with Siddhartha on the piano-based score for Lisa Kudrow’s character, a former professional pianist. How did this collaboration influence your editing choices, especially in scenes where the music and story intersect?
Nicole Brik: I certainly cannot take any credit for Sid’s work, but he is an incredibly collaborative and proactive composer. Based on conversations he had with Liz on the script, he started to experiment with themes even before production started. The piano score was one of the first pieces he wrote. Because Lydia is a concert pianist, it made sense that the overall score would feel orchestral, but when it came to Lydia specifically, the simplicity of the solo piano made sense and really highlighted the nostalgia and heartbreak she was feeling. The first time we hear this score is in the pilot right after the open house. She is placing her family photos back on the mantel and has a memory of her kids running around the house. We reprise the score towards the end of the episode when she’s leaving her (SPOILER ALERT) dead son another voicemail, and we see the flashing lights for the first time. It then establishes a theme between Lydia and Jacob. When editing scenes, you don’t want music to dictate your choices unless it’s a montage. My approach is to let the scene dictate the feeling or emotion, and the score is the final brush of paint on the canvas. When laying down this piano score against the picture, it fit like a glove. That’s the best achievement and incredibly satisfying.
PH: In the piano-tuning scene, you opted for fewer cuts to let the performance shine. Can you walk us through your thought process and the impact this had on the audience's connection to Lisa Kudrow’s character?
Nicole Brik: That’s one of my favorite scenes of the episode. Lisa just exudes the most incredible pathos and makes you not want to cut away. When she sits at the piano and starts to play, we linger on her face and get lost in the music with her. Just before or as you start to question, “Wait, what’s happening…is she actually playing?” I cut to the slow reveal that her hands are on her lap. I think it contributed to the heartbreak. There was a version that I cut where I lingered on her face and broke the music with the piano tuner asking her if she was okay and then cut to the wide to reveal that her hands were on her lap, but it didn’t feel emotional enough. It worked, but I wanted to have more of an impact.
PH: Flashing lights are used as a symbol of flashbacks and loss throughout the season. How did this motif evolve in the editing process, and what was your approach to weaving it seamlessly into the narrative?
Nicole Brik: The flashing lights in the flashbacks were first developed in the 2nd episode. The editor, Pam March, worked with Liz on that, and it ultimately became a motif for the flashbacks. It works in 2 folds: it establishes the two timelines and also incorporates Jacob into the story since that is how he is communicating to Lydia. The original idea was only to have a hard cut of the same frame from past to present, but using the flashing lights was a great addition. The more we kept Jacob’s presence in the house, the more heartbreaking it was.
PH: The house itself plays a significant role in the story, with Easter eggs like the pipes in the pilot. How did you use editing to make the house feel like a living, breathing character?
Nicole Brik: The house was definitely another character. We had all these characters admiring and lusting for the house, wanting to be the next ones to own it. The transitions were written into the script to help make the house feel alive and show its bones and secrets. The transitions were done with VFX, so a lot of planning needed to be done from concept to production. The pilot was really the only one who had a secret reveal with the gun in the pipes. The rest of the transitions showed the bones of the house. Our Production Designer, Nina Ruscio, did such incredible work on the interior of the house that any opportunity to be in the wides gave life to the house as well.
PH: Episode 8 features Willis in a James Bond-style watch commercial. How did you blend reality, commercial sequences, and flashbacks to keep the narrative cohesive and engaging?
Nicole Brik: By episode 8, we learn more about what has happened to Willis’s brother. This episode, in particular, was very cerebral; we see all the anxiety, guilt, anger, and avoidance that Willis is going through, and all these emotions are being represented in the commercials. He’s a rising star, becoming a detective. With stardom comes opportunities, which is why this episode was heavy in commercials. In the Bond-like watch commercial sequence, we’re led into it by a beautiful woman named Ana (“not to be confused with Lana”). As the commercial is playing, we have these random dips to black where the action is supposed to take place while Willis is expressing his confusion. She pulls him into a hall and says, “They’re watching us. Everyone is watching you, Willis”, which is echoing what his brother has been saying in the surveillance footage about himself. There’s a bomb that needs to be diffused and suddenly interrupted by a phone call that supposedly came from his brother. A tense countdown continues for Willis to diffuse the bomb, in which he succeeds, and it’s revealed the watch commercial is for Vermeidung, which means avoidance. Just like the show itself, I had to lean into the oddness.
PH: Interior Chinatown combines a unique mix of formats and tones. What were some of the biggest editorial challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them to maintain the show's distinct voice?
Nicole Brik: The show was so fun to cut because it wasn’t a straightforward show. There’s so much subtext in terms of identity and how one is perceived in this world. There’s also a question of reality: is this world real or made up? We go from what the audience perceives as reality straight into a police procedural. The blending of the worlds was done visually, both in production and post. The light changes (ironically like in No Good Deed) are what visually brought us in and out of those two worlds. I think the team spent most time on that, making it as clear as possible when we’re in the “real” world vs. procedural.
PH: Both shows involve characters with rich, layered backstories. How did you tailor your editing approach to emphasize character development in Interior Chinatown, particularly in episodes you worked on?
Nicole Brik: The simplest answer to my approach is that my choices are always driven by the character(s) and story. I’ve always been a quiet, observant person and am a pretty great judge of character. It helps me a lot when editing. On Interior Chinatown, I felt a connection to the story of being a first-generation American, assimilating American life with a completely different culture and language. I sympathized with a lot of the characters. I don’t necessarily relate to ALL characters or shows I edit, but I try to understand them and their motivations, good or bad, and lead with that.
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