Unpacking the Craft: Affonso Gonçalves on Editing Key Don’t Worry Darling Scenes
The psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde, captivated audiences with its stylish visuals and unsettling atmosphere. A crucial element in building the film’s mystery and tension lies in its editing, masterminded by Affonso Gonçalves, ACE. An Emmy nominee and ACE Eddie winner (True Detective), Gonçalves brought his expertise from acclaimed films like Carol and The Lost Daughter to shape the narrative’s twists and turns. This exploration delves into Gonçalves’s insights, focusing specifically on the editorial decisions behind some crucial don’t worry darling scenes.
Understanding the film’s nonlinear nature is key. The narrative doesn’t unfold chronologically, employing flashes and fragmented memories that challenge the protagonist, Alice (Florence Pugh), and the audience. When asked if this nonlinearity granted more freedom, Gonçalves offered a nuanced perspective. “Yes, it gives you freedom,” he acknowledged, particularly concerning the “language of the flashbacks” – deciding which image, how long, and what information to convey. However, this freedom was tightly bound by structure. “You have to be careful,” he stressed, “You can’t give too much away, and you have to be very specific and precise. Otherwise, ultimately, it won’t make sense.” The wealth of imagery required meticulous selection and placement to maintain intrigue without sacrificing coherence.
The process of determining how much to reveal and when was iterative. While the film’s initial structure was laid out when Gonçalves joined, he and Wilde actively experimented in the cutting room. “We played around and tried different structures and different ideas,” he explained. A unique aspect was the interplay of visual and sonic cues, particularly the humming motif associated with Alice and Jack (Harry Styles). “So many of the triggers — if not the biggest trigger — is actually a piece of music,” Gonçalves noted. Deciding how and when to deploy this – as Alice humming, Jack humming, melody only, or with lyrics – was pivotal. The structure remained fluid, constantly adjusted based on how much information should be revealed versus kept abstract or ambiguous, aiming to “pique your interest… but doesn’t really reveal that much.” The precise length of these visual flashes was intensely scrutinized, sometimes down to a single frame determining whether an image registered effectively or became merely a subliminal blip. Gonçalves recalled experimenting extensively, finding that even a couple of extra frames could reveal too much, while too few failed to register. The shortest effective flash settled at around four frames, a testament to the precision required.
Sound and Silence: Crafting the Auditory Landscape
Music and sound design play an integral role throughout Don’t Worry Darling, working in tandem with the visuals. Gonçalves, who has experience as a music editor, emphasized the importance of silence as a counterpoint. “I find the silences are so important because it’s the only way to have a contrast,” he stated. While Olivia Wilde hand-picked much of the period-specific source music, Gonçalves collaborated closely with music editor John Schultz and composer John Powell on the score. He aimed to establish the tone and musical ideas before handing them off to the composer, a practice honed from his independent film background where resources are often tighter.
The strategic use of silence often coincided with moments drawing the audience closer to Alice’s internal experience. Collaborating with renowned sound designer Paul Urmson and mixer Skip Lievsay was a highlight for Gonçalves. “The sound design is musical,” he observed. In scenes like Alice’s venture into the desert, silence emphasizes her isolation and the stark environment. “You want to feel how dry and really away from civilization she is. That’s definitely one of the places where the quietness was super important.”
A particularly striking example of sound design occurs when Alice reaches the mysterious headquarters atop a mountain. Gonçalves described the careful calibration needed. Initial sound design was dense, but working with Wilde, they decided to pull back, emphasizing Alice’s breathing and a specific “singsong thing that’s part of the music” – a sound luring her closer. “That place needs to be something that kind of like there’s a vibration that comes from it,” he explained. As Alice approaches and touches the structure, the sound intensifies dramatically, incorporating elements like a lion’s roar mixed with the score, creating a potent sense of danger and allure.
Alice (Florence Pugh) approaches the mysterious Victory Project headquarters dome in a key 'Don't Worry Darling' scene, highlighting the film's unique sound design challenges discussed by editor Affonso Gonçalves.
Building Tension: Pacing and Psychological Pressure
Sustaining and escalating tension was a primary goal for Wilde and Gonçalves. The editor identified pacing and its variation as critical tools. “It needs to have contrast sonically, but the cutting has to have contrast too,” he asserted. The film begins with an idyllic 1950s facade, which gradually cracks. Gonçalves points to Shelley’s (Gemma Chan) rigid ballet class as an early indicator of unease: “Somebody’s controlling your cadence and the people around you. Any kind of control to that level is tense.”
From that point, the editorial task was to “tighten the screws,” manipulating pace – quickening then slowing, giving metaphorical rope then pulling back – until Alice’s internal unraveling accelerates the narrative clock. The unsettling visual flashes contribute significantly to the viewer’s discomfort. Furthermore, the pervasive presence of Frank (Chris Pine), the project’s charismatic leader, adds another layer of tension. “She wakes up in the morning, and Frank’s on the radio. It’s sort of like Big Brother,” Gonçalves observed. “If you don’t see him, you hear him.” The tension needed not only to exist but to constantly ratchet up, reflecting the literal and figurative walls closing in on Alice. Initial shuffling of scenes in the film’s first 15 minutes aimed to prolong the “fresh, happy world” slightly, establishing Alice’s baseline reality more firmly before the unsettling elements take hold, making the subsequent shift more impactful.
Deconstructing Key Sequences: Editorial Choices in Action
Several specific don’t worry darling scenes presented unique editorial challenges, requiring careful balancing of performance, information, and pacing.
The Intercut: Jack’s Dance and Alice’s Revelation
A standout sequence intercuts Jack’s increasingly frenetic stage performance at a company gala with Alice experiencing a psychological breakdown and crucial memory recovery in the bathroom. Gonçalves confirmed this intercutting was scripted but required extensive work to balance effectively. The scene juggles multiple elements: the public performance, Frank’s manipulation, the charged looks between Frank and Alice, and Alice’s private moment of realization with Bunny (Olivia Wilde). “This is the point where things start becoming clearer in her mind,” Gonçalves explained. “She fully remembers what happens to her neighbor… And she realizes Jack is just a pawn in Frank’s world.” The edit involved meticulously deciding how much time to spend with Alice and Bunny versus Jack’s escalating dance, a process Gonçalves described as lengthy and complex, aiming “to hopefully get it right.”
The Dinner Scene: A Masterclass in Dialogue Editing
Immediately following the dance sequence is the pivotal dinner scene, which Gonçalves identified as arguably the most critical and editorially challenging in the film. “This is the real showdown between Alice and Frank,” he stated, “but it’s eight people around a table.” The complexity lies in managing multiple perspectives and reactions as Alice confronts Frank and lays out her suspicions. “You have to feel like everybody’s involved in what’s happening,” Gonçalves emphasized. The edit needed to capture not just Alice’s accusations and Frank’s responses, but also how the other guests react to the revelations and how Frank reacts to them hearing it. Referencing the famous multi-character meeting in The Godfather as inspiration, Gonçalves highlighted the difficulty of such dialogue-heavy scenes compared to action sequences. “That scene was really the one that we worked on the longest and had to be most careful about how long we stayed with each person around the table.”
Navigating Steadicam and Actor-Director Dynamics
Other scenes presented different hurdles. A conversation captured in a circling Steadicam shot required careful editing to prioritize dialogue flow while letting the camera movement land naturally. Gonçalves noted the scene was well-directed, allowing the dialogue to guide the cuts despite the continuous camera motion.
Editing Olivia Wilde, who played Bunny in addition to directing, introduced another dynamic. Gonçalves navigated this by consistently referring to her character by name (“Bunny”) rather than addressing Wilde directly about her on-screen portrayal. He recounted working on Bunny’s final explanatory scene, where Wilde initially wasn’t satisfied with her performance. By focusing the discussion on what “Bunny” needed to convey, they could objectively refine the scene. “You just have to be conscientious that that’s happening, that the director is a performer in the film,” he advised.
Olivia Wilde as Bunny in a tense 'Don't Worry Darling' scene, illustrating the unique editor-director dynamic when the director is also an actor, as explained by Affonso Gonçalves.
The Editor’s Process and Perspective
Gonçalves typically watches all dailies meticulously when starting a project from scratch, focusing first on performance and marking key moments. He then shapes the scene architecturally before refining dialogue and pacing. However, on Don’t Worry Darling, he came in after an initial assembly, reviewing existing cuts and diving back into dailies primarily for scenes needing significant rework, like the dinner sequence.
Audience screenings provided feedback, particularly regarding clarity. Navigating this feedback is delicate. “It’s super hard to decide how much you give away and when,” Gonçalves admitted. While aiming for clarity, there’s a risk of over-explaining or, conversely, leaving the audience confused. He also wryly noted the potential skew of industry-heavy Los Angeles test audiences, contrasting it with the more intimate feedback sessions common in independent film. Ultimately, the editor relies on instinct and the feeling in the room during a screening. “You can feel, ‘Oh, this is so slow,’ or ‘This does not work at all,'” he explained, highlighting the almost intangible shift that occurs when viewing work with others present.
For Affonso Gonçalves, the core challenge of editing Don’t Worry Darling lay in managing the intricate balance of tension, information release, and the effective use of visual and sonic language. His detailed account reveals the painstaking craft involved in shaping the audience’s journey through the film’s unsettling world, demonstrating how thoughtful editing was essential in bringing the psychological tension and narrative complexity of key don’t worry darling scenes to life.
