By A.J. Catoline
As a lyric from the musical “Wicked” promises, editor Myron Kerstein, ACE, “couldn’t be happier” — yet the road to finishing “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good” was marked by circumstances few editors could imagine. He had begun editing the film remotely in his house in Altadena, and worked in various locations including from an Airstream trailer on the set.
Then in early January 2025, wildfires tore through Altadena and the Palisades. While Kerstein was not working from this home during the evacuation, the disaster was devastating in a very personal way. Surrounded by uncertainty, with his family displaced and his neighborhood devastated, he continued shaping one of the most ambitious musical projects in recent memory.
Kerstein remembers watching the Oscar nominations announcement from a friend’s house, his life temporarily packed into boxes. The nomination for Best Film Editing arrived with complicated emotions.
“Our kids’ clothes were in boxes and smoke-damaged,” Kerstein recalls. “It was really emotional at the time, but it has even more resonance now. Seeing Altadena devastated put a hole in my heart — but there’s also a healing nature to it.”
The editorial journey down the yellow brick road had to continue. The 2005 ACE Eddie Awards were postponed, and when the ceremony finally arrived in March, director Jon M. Chu was honored with a Career Achievement Award. Kerstein and Chu had collaborated on the hit films “Crazy Rich Asians,” and another musical “In The Heights.”
Later that night, Kerstein took home the Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film (Musical/Comedy). Sitting in the front row, Chu laughed when Kerstein joked during his acceptance speech that they couldn’t stay long at the after-party — they had get back to work in the cutting room the next day.
“We were in a race from January to get the second film finished,” says Kerstein. “Jon wanted assemblies of both movies as soon as the shoot wrapped. I brought in my friend and colleague Tatiana Riegel, ACE to cut scenes from the second film while I worked around the clock on the first. The goal was to give Jon something solid to watch — even if it was still rough.”
Cinemontage chatted with Kerstein about resilience, collaboration, and the creative synergy of editing “Wicked: For Good.”
Cinemontage: You’ve become a source of inspiration for many editors — not only for your work on both “Wicked” movies, but for how you navigated finishing these films under such difficult personal circumstances. What has that journey meant to you?
Myron Kerstein, ACE: This community means a lot to me — not just how I might inspire others, but how they inspire me. To make anything that people connect with is a miracle. I’m grateful that “Wicked: For Good” seems to resonate, and if people have connected to it, that means a lot to me.
When I see my peers’ work, it pushes me. This career has ups and downs — strikes, expansions, contractions. When you’ve been doing this for decades, you’ve seen it all. Editors are the greatest humans — and also weirdos. I’ve always felt like a misfit or an underdog. I think that comes with the territory, but we work so hard to make this magic. We’re alchemists and magicians. To be part of this craft, and to help others get better, means everything.
Cinemontage: There’s a powerful moment when Elphaba urges the animals not to leave Oz, but to stay and fight for their home. For many in our industry who are struggling right now, that scene feels especially resonant. Do you see audiences connecting to “Wicked: For Good” because, and especially this second film, mirrors our current moment?
It definitely resonates — fighting for a place that doesn’t even love you back. And in many ways, we’re fighting for this industry.
Altadena was a real tragedy. I was supposed to be celebrating finishing the movie, and it just wasn’t the time for that. At the same time, I had to focus on making the second film. I knew there was a certain amount of joy we could bring into the world by finishing it. I felt motivated not just for the studio, or for Jon, or for Cynthia and Ariana — but for the fans. Even though this is a darker film, a mirror of darker times, there’s still love in it.
Cinemontage: You’ve collaborated with Jon M. Chu on multiple films. How does that creative partnership shape the edit?
Jon gives me a lot of freedom in my assemblies, which become the foundation of the director’s cut. I also have to be ready if he wants to tear it apart and start over. We did that on “In the Heights,” stretching and reshaping songs in ways that differed from the musical.
On “No Good Deed,” we had a strong cut — and then Jon wanted to make it messier, to hold longer on Elphaba’s face, to make the power of that closeup work. That meant starting over with VFX. I love stretching things until they break.
Cinemontage: With so much visual effects work, how did you envision the final cut while scenes were still evolving?
I learned so much from Visual Effects Editors Ed Marsh and Lara Mazzawi. They guided me through cutting a VFX-heavy film. “The Girl in the Bubble took a year to build — with many hidden edits — and even late in the process we wanted to change things.
If I felt there was another way into a scene, I had to ask hard questions. I knew it might cost money or time, but if there was another emotional perspective to explore, we had to try. Without our amazing VFX team, I never could have pushed as far as we did.
The cut is a living organism. When you’re making a musical, anything’s possible — stretching a song, reshaping structure. “No Place Like Home” originally had a reprise of “Defying Gravity” at the beginning. We refined it to focus on Elphaba flying, then discovering the Yellow Brick Road. It was always about finding the best path to connect the audience to her.
Cinemontage: This film moves fluidly between comedy, drama, spectacle, and even horror. How did you manage those tonal shifts?
We used Batman as a reference for Elphaba’s first appearance — hiding her face as she flies, building anticipation, then giving her that superhero reveal. Bach’s transformation into the Tin Man is frightening by design. It’s a wild reinterpretation of “The Wizard of Oz”.
What I loved was playing with genres — action, horror, rom-com — without it feeling schizophrenic. That balance is hard, but I love films that keep audiences on their toes.
Cinemontage: The scope of these films are enormous. How did you approach building an editorial team that could support something this ambitious?
As the song goes, I “couldn’t be happier” to talk about this team and the last three years. Hiring my first assistant, Lara Khachooni, was huge. I told her, “We need the Avengers of post-production — in the UK and the US.” They can’t just be superheroes of turnovers; they have to be incredible artists and kind people.
I like using the team any way I can. If it’s building temp sound design before the sound crew comes on, or rudimentary music editing before the music editors start. If I want them to cut something for me, I’m not afraid to to give them a shot at something to to show me a different way.
In editorial, I just want a big family. I want to make sure that we are all feeding off each other. It was really important for me to build a community where we all felt like we’re making these movies together.
Cinemontage: Did you prioritize working together in person, even as remote workflows became more common?
I really wanted to bring back the idea of an editorial community — like an edit realm! It sounds romantic, but I believe all that passion pours into the film. You can’t fully do that when everyone is isolated. You need conversation. You need community.
I had a remote system in London, both at the studio and in my flat, and in Altadena before the fires. I had a remote system in a little airstream trailer on set. I had lots of options. But I liked having my team close by. I wanted to be able to walk down the hall and say, “come look at the scene. What do you think? How can you support this? How can we build these worlds towards the final edit?
Cinemontage: As post-production moved into sound and music, how did your team’s collaboration evolve?
Anything’s possible in the edit. Working with Stephen Schwartz, Jon, and Marc Platt, ideas are always flowing. Music editors Jack Dolman and Catherine Wilson were my lifelines — tearing apart stems of the score, building mashups, helping us find tone and connective tissue.
We were constantly experimenting. There might be four or five turnovers in a day for one idea. Working with supervising sound editors John Marquis and Nancy Nugent Title and re-recording mixer Andy Nelson was incredible. Andy builds worlds by feel — dialogue, sound design, music all humming together.
I had worked on other musicals where there was fear about not using too much sound design or foley during a song. Jon Chu and I learned on “In The Heights” that we wanted to make things an immersive experience. Just because a song starts doesn’t mean that everything else drifts away.
So John and Andy were great at integrating everything. For example, working on the monkeys scenes, there could be over a hundred monkeys. How much do we want to hear them?
And they would ask how many munchkins do you want to hear in the background? We want to make it feel like a built world. We would challenge each other to build these soundscapes, and what it sounds like to listen to a musical.
Cinemontage: When you begin cutting a scene, what anchors your process?
I watch dailies in a theater every day. It’s sacred — experiencing them as an audience member. Then I cut as quickly as I can, whether that takes hours or weeks. I lean into rhythm and emotion. If I connect emotionally, that’s all that matters.
Sometimes that means slowing things down — letting a goodbye feel painful and awkward. For me, “Wicked: For Good” reflects what’s happening in the world. It’s an American fairy tale, part of who we are.
