Catching up with Acclaimed Editor Maysie Hoy
We had the honor of sitting down with acclaimed editor Maysie Hoy (AFI DWW Class of 1977) who will receive the ACE Eddie Career Achievement Award this January. In the 1970s, Maysie began her film career acting in Robert Altman classics, including MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, NASHVILLE and 3 WOMEN. On set, she gained invaluable experience across departments before shifting her focus to post-production, where she began as an apprentice editor on BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS. Her credits include MAJOR LEAGUE, THE PLAYER, THE JOY LUCK CLUB, FREEWAY, LOVE JONES, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, CRAZY IN ALABAMA and 16 collaborations with Tyler Perry. Their latest film together, THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT, which stars Kerry Washington and is centered on the only all-black, all-female battalion to serve overseas during World War II, debuts in theaters on December 6.
AFI: Working with Robert Altman gave you a front-row seat to his creative process. In what ways did your time on his sets and observing his methods shape your own approach to storytelling?
Maysie: I was the creative director of an improvisational company in Vancouver when I got cast in MCCABE & MRS. MILLER. After we filmed it, I read that Bob was doing another movie called CALIFORNIA SPLIT, so I called him out of the blue and told him that I wanted to come down and hang out on his set because I was interested in directing. He said to me, “Do you gamble? Do you know how to play poker?” And I go, “well, sort of, but I can learn.” And he says to me, “Be here January 13th.” I decided after about a week of being on set that I was going to create my own film school. I would go to a different department every couple of days and observe, and once in a while I’d ask a question. Then the script supervisor got sick, so I filled in because I knew about script supervising from my theater program. I’d go hang out with the grips and the electricians and the costume wardrobe man, who had been the costume designer for Fred Astaire.
Being on Bob’s sets, I learned about cinema language. I learned how it felt to be on a set that was friendly with everybody working together as a whole. I also discovered what good dailies look like because he had perfect coverage. Bob would shoot all of this footage, but, at the end of the day, he always knew what the main story was. Because I understood all of the different departments, I know what people are supposed to do and if they’re doing it well. And if they’re not doing it well, it will show up in the dailies.
AFI: How did you first break into editing on the set of Altman’s BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS?
Maysie: Bob had shot a million feet of film on BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, and they were editing the film on the Kem (this was a decade before AVID.) You never let the film touch the ground because it would scratch, and it was expensive to get reprints. As I walked down the hallway, I noticed a pair of legs sticking out of the bin and there was film everywhere. I asked the editor Dennis Hill what he was doing. Without looking up, he said, “I’m looking for two frames.” I said, “I think I can help you reconstitute the reels and find them.” He told me to get Bob’s permission, so I went and asked. He looked down at me and said, “this isn’t a film school” to which I replied, “I know that, but they still need help.” He then said, “If it’s ok with the guys, then it’s ok with me.” I thanked him and ran out of his office like the Road Runner before he changed his mind.
AFI: What inspired you to apply to AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and how was your experience?
Maysie: While I was working in editing, in the back of my mind, I’d always wanted to direct. I read about the AFI Directing Workshop for Women in the trades, and I applied not thinking I would get in, but I was accepted! I shot my short film at a friend’s apartment, which was based on a chapter from my family life about my little sister and an uncle who took her everywhere – even the gambling houses – and looked after her because my parents worked. The story is about their relationship and the relationship that the gambler has with the family and the family that’s still in China. I directed that, and it was great because I was finally using everything that I’d learned on set. I knew then that I could direct, and I knew what to get and how to put it together as an editor. That was part of the dream that I had in coming down to LA, and it’s the one area that I never got into, the profession of directing. Nowadays I think that if I was 30 years younger, I would be able to do it because the business is more welcoming. But I had a good time doing that program.
AFI: How did you make the leap from an assistant editor to editor?
Maysie: I took eight years off to raise my two kids, but then my husband, who was a gaffer, had a bad year and was out of work. I called sound editor Bill Stevenson, who I had worked with, and got a job as an apprentice, and then I ran into editor Dennis Hill at a wedding, and that’s how I got MAJOR LEAGUE. Later, I worked with Danny Greene as an assistant editor on the TV show LIMIT UP. He was old school and would go drink at a restaurant or bar next to Paramount and come back to the cutting room and take a nap. The third or fourth time, I asked him if I could cut a couple scenes. Then I would tap him and ask him to look at what I cut, and he’d give me feedback. He never judged me. When he left the show, he put me in charge. Then I worked with him on another show, and after principal photography they promoted me to editor.
Once I made that jump, I got a phone call from producer Scottie Bushnell, and she said, “I understand that you’re editing. Bob needs this one scene cut for THE PLAYER.” We got on the phone, and I told him I was working with Danny Greene, who it turns out had cut M*A*S*H for Bob in another full circle moment. He told me that he needed somebody to look at all the footage and tell him what to do with this one scene of all these movie stars at a museum. I went down to his cutting room in Santa Monica, watched like 30,000 feet of dailies, and told him, “Well, you take all the good stuff,” which he used to say when we first worked together, “and then you do a voiceover like you’re Entertainment Tonight. You see all the actors, and then you jump cut all over the place and go into the museum.”
AFI: What was your path to becoming involved in THE JOY LUCK CLUB and how did you use sound in your editing process to bridge the time jumps throughout the film?
Maysie: After THE PLAYER, I was out of work, and then I was let go from this little, no budget picture. I went home not knowing what to do, and my husband says to me, “you’ve been in this business long enough to know that something bigger and better will come your way.” At that same moment, the telephone rang, and it was producer Patrick Markey asking if I was available to come up to Berkeley to meet Wayne [Wang] for THE JOY LUCK CLUB. If you look at that movie, there are no fade outs or dissolves. We decided to do all the transitions with sound and music. We had a great sound designer, Tim Chau, and we floated the idea that each of the four women could be represented by an element – wind, fire, water and earth. At the end of Auntie Lindo’s story, it’s very subtle, but when she says, “I took the first train to Shanghai,” you hear a train in the background. Then we transition and by the time we get to Lindo in the present day, you’re hearing cable cars in San Francisco. When you watch the movie, you don’t even realize that there are no dissolves because the sound and music take you to the next place.
AFI: Tell us more about working on Tyler Perry’s THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT which comes out this month.
Maysie: Tyler knows his audience like nobody else, and he does a lot of improvising. During my time working with him, we have had a great team where we all share ideas. You’re working with people that totally trust you and know that you’re experienced. I think THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT is going to surprise people. FOR COLORED GIRLS was the start of Tyler doing more serious material and then cut to A JAZZMAN’S BLUES – one of the very first scripts that he wrote – which earned him more respect and acclaim. With THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT, he’s upped his game even more and it’s also a very good story. It’s heartwarming, it’s emotional and it’s a chapter in history that nobody really knows about. During World War II, 855 Black women were tasked with moving 7 million pieces of mail in 6 months. However, they managed to complete the task in just 90 days. The white women’s unit couldn’t handle it, and the expectation was that the Black battalion would fail too. But they didn’t.
AFI: Looking back, what key lessons have you learned, and what advice would you give aspiring editors?
Maysie: When I was coming up in the business, it was all older white men, but they didn’t treat me any different, partially because of my demeanor. I tell my Asian colleagues, “You belong in this room as much as anybody else.” What has carried me through is my sense of humor and not taking things too seriously. I interviewed once with a director who said, “Oh, I never thought about a woman cutting a boxing movie.” I said, “How about Thelma Schoonmaker? She cut a boxing movie.” My advice to young editors is that you’ve just got to keep going. You can’t let people bring you down – I just refuse. You have to have a positive outlook in life and also be patient. With THE JOY LUCK CLUB, I was out of work for a whole year, but when it was time, I was ready for the opportunity.
My career has been a lot of luck, but also a lot of hard work and a lot of hours. I didn’t know how deep that relationship was with Robert Altman, but he opened up his company to me. Getting this Career Achievement Award is more than I ever dreamed of, but when I was a kid, I knew somehow that I was going to live in Los Angeles, and I’d be in show business. I tell people to always think about the golden rings at the end of the tunnel. Never deviate from your goal and go pursue it. Looking back at my films, FREEWAY is a cult classic now, LOVE JONES often comes up in conversations – especially with African American students or editors, and THE JOY LUCK CLUB altered my life. People love that movie. As editors, if you’re lucky, you get the chance to work on a film that you’re super proud of that touches an audience and changes lives.