How did you get involved with Deadpool & Wolverine?
About three years ago I got a call from a producer friend of mine, Rebecca Skinner, who had a music video for Taylor Swift that Blake Lively was directing. It was Blake’s first time directing and Rebecca thought I would be a great fit for her and deliver a cut she and Taylor would be happy with. Blake turned out to not only be incredibly talented but also extremely kind and generous and we were very locked in creatively. She and Ryan [Reynolds] work so closely together on everything they touch and so by proximity I was introduced a lot to Ryan, either by phone calls, or texts or emails. I reached out to Blake when Ryan announced they were making Deadpool & Wolverine and just asked if there were any position on the film I’d love to be considered and I really thought Ryan and I would have very similar sensibilities.
Turns out Blake was simultaneously working very hard on selling Shawn Levy on me. I was working on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Shawn knows Jason Reitman, so he was asking him about me, and received a very enthusiastic response. I remember Shawn called me saying, ‘how are all these people pushing you so hard?’ I think he trusted Blake, Ryan and Jason’s opinions so much he felt like he should give it a shot. Then I remember out of the blue getting a text from Ryan: ‘I’m going to pitch you to Marvel in 30 minutes’. It all felt so surreal but I did a few interviews with Dean Zimmerman, Shawn’s long time editor, Wendy Jacobson, the executive producer on Marvel’s side on the film and Chris Russell the head of post production and it was a good vibe so we all made it work and here we are now.
I’ll never forget the text from Ryan saying, ‘Welcome aboard, Shane!!!’ I felt my life shift in a big way. But it started with the one and only Blake Lively, to whom I owe so much.
How much pressure did you feel working on a project that has been so anticipated by fans?
I don’t really feel the pressure from the fans, I feel the pressure from the filmmakers first and foremost. It was all about Shawn, Ryan and Dean liking the work that I was doing. I take bold swings, I throw in lots of big needle-drop ideas and not only do I do my best to execute extremely well-thought-out assemblies but I’ll always try and present something that pushes the film to another level. If I get them excited about it and we all feel like the film is working then you feel like you’re that much closer to presenting to those fans full of anticipation something that they will love and cherish as their own.
What were your aims as you were editing the film?
I love the Deadpool movies so much, I really just wanted to work with great collaborators and filmmakers to make the best film possible. I had no selfish motives, I just wanted to contribute to something that we loved and I wanted Ryan to be proud of the continued legacy of Deadpool.
Read the rest of this article in the September issue of TVBEurope
