“A Black Lady Sketch Show” continues to break barriers, not only in front of the screen but behind the scenes. Daysha Broadway, Stephanie Filo and Jessica Hernández are the first women of color editing team to be nominated for an Emmy, landing a nomination in Best Variety Picture Editing alongside such productions as “Hamilton” and “Saturday Night Live.” “For me, it’s been a gratifying moment,” says Broadway in an exclusive new webchat for Gold Derby. “It means that people are paying attention to how great the show is.” Watch the full interview with Broadway, Filo and Hernández above.
While Broadway has been with “A Black Lady Sketch Show” for both seasons now, Filo and Hernández joined for Season 2, where they had to adjust to the show’s specific rhythms and comedic style. “If you look at a live sketch show, there’s pausing for laughs,” explains Filo. “It’s interesting in this show if you watch it, how fast-paced it is. It’s very joke upon joke upon joke.” As the team reveals, sketches are edited individually without much foresight of which episodes they will be in, and the tones tend to vary from sketch to sketch. One might have a surreal element while another could be broad and goofy, allowing the editors to explore multiple genres throughout the season. “It just allows you to play around all the time,” adds Hernandez.
The editing team chose the episode “Sister, May I Call You Oshun” to Emmy voters, in which Gabrielle Union and Jesse Williams guest star. Sketches include Black Table Talk, the gender reveal party, the Last Supper and more. “All of the sketches in that episode are packed with jokes,” states Broadway, of why they chose it for consideration. “There’s just not a miss in the episode.” One highlight for Hernández was a sketch called “Living on the Edges,” in which Laci Mosley plays a woman who doesn’t have her hair ready for a sudden booty call. “We just packed it with every single improv that we could find,” recalls Hernández. “It was fun to do this genre piece of film noir.”
For all three editors, working on “A Black Lady Sketch Show” alongside star and showrunner Robin Thede has been a refreshing change of pace, getting to work with so many fellow women of color on a daily basis. “Post, in general, is just a very male-centric and white male-centric field,” observes Filo. “I’ve never been on a team that’s all women, ever.” Broadway adds that this commonality allows things to be left unsaid in this environment. “We understand things about each other, so we don’t necessarily need to break down everything in every step.” Hernández is hopeful that their Emmy nomination can show others who look like them that this career path is possible. “I hope people see this and think, ‘This an opportunity. This is a job I could do.'”
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