William Goldenberg goes from Oscar-winning editor to director for ‘Unstoppable’: ‘It allowed me to go with the flow’
“My goal was to be authentic,” reveals William Goldenberg about directing “Unstoppable.” For our recent webchat he continues, “Let the story tell itself. Anthony’s story is so amazing I just wanted to get out of the way of that.” (watch the video interview above).
“Unstoppable” tells the inspiring true story of wrestler Anthony Robels (Jharrel Jerome) whose unbreakable resolve empowers him to defy the odds of being born with one leg to pursue his dream to become a national champion. It is the first film Goldenberg has directed. He explains, “I walked onto the set at the Galen Center USC, a 12,000 seat arena, the night before we were going to shoot. I thought, ‘Why did they think it was a good idea to let me direct this?’ It was so huge. I was never more aware of the time. You are constantly looking at your watch.”
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While new to directing, Goldenberg has an extensive film editing career. He won the 2012 Oscar for “Argo” in a category where he was nominated against his own work for “Zero Dark Thirty.” His editing experience helped him manage the time pressures associated with directing. He explains, “My experience as an editor freed me up. On the day things are always a little different than you think. Actors come up with an idea or other people come up with an idea. It allowed me to go with the flow because I knew as an editor what I needed to make things work.”
Something he learned on the film was how to get the best out of actors on a cast which included Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, and Don Cheadle. Goldenberg admits, “Working with actors is the thing I’d had the least experience with. I used how I liked directors to talk to me as an editor, not telling them exactly what to do but the intentions and the subtext.”
The director also reveals, “As many times as I heard the dialogue in my head, when you get on set they do it some way you never thought of, and it’s even better. That was such a pleasant surprise at so many different times.” In one particular scene Anthony is trying to get his mom’s (Lopez) attention. Goldenberg says, “He finally yells ‘mom’ really loud and I think that surprised everyone, even Jennifer. You need that dynamic range in the scene. You need the highs and lows. It put a blast of energy into the scene that was terrific.”
The film deftly balances the public pressure of wrestling against the intimate pressure of family life as Jerome supports him mom at home while she supports his fighting. The director explains, “One of the choices I made was to shoot the film in kind of cinéma vérité style. The whole film was handheld. I wanted to put the audience in the room with the family and on the mat with the wrestlers, and I think that served the film.”
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