Hollywood lore has it that character actor Edmund Gwenn–while on his deathbed–quipped, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”
The second part of that darkly witty utterance remains all too true today as Craig Henighan–a Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Oscar nominee in 2019 for Roma–can attest in that he had to grapple with the sonic of being comic for this year’s box office hit, Deadpool & Wolverine (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios).
The degree of inherent difficulty was ramped up even further because Deadpool & Wolverine had to seamlessly bring together high action-adventure exploits with moments and dialogue that tickled the funny bone. There’s a mesh of humorous banter–a staple of the franchise–along with major spectacle replete with explosions, fights, an impactful score and off-the-wall musical numbers.
Henighan explained that among the prime challenges for him from a sound perspective was having to make sure every joke landed within the construct of a superhero film. The tendency for a tentpole movie of this variety, he noted, is to gravitate towards big, loud audio spanning music, dialogue and sound effects. But the unique comedic element of Deadpool & Wolverine necessitated that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Henighan strike a delicate balance. “You need to get out of the way for the comedy,” he related. The jokes in a superhero film become “a real dance” as Henighan had to establish a rhythm that did justice to both the comedy and the action as the narrative moves back and forth between them–and sometimes the funny and the high energy, high decibel superhero dynamic unfold simultaneously in a scene or sequence. The “sonic fabric” has to accommodate all of this, affirmed Henighan.
Helping him in that vein was his long-time fruitful collaborative relationship with Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy. They initially worked together on the first Night At The Museum movie and then subsequent installments of that franchise, as well as the comedy Date Night, action fare such as Real Steel, and Free Guy. The latter was the first complete action comedy Henighan teamed on with Levy; it also starred Ryan Reynolds whose performance acumen brought the Deadpool character to life. The experience on Free Guy in particular–with its marriage of comedy dialogue and action/adventure–helped inform Henighan when he tackled Deadpool & Wolverine. “Comedy can be hard but very rewarding when cut correctly, when sounds are give the room to live,” related Henighan who’s found working with the picture editor to get several extra or fewer frames here or there can make all the positive difference in the world.
As for getting the most sonic bang for the buck in terms of action-adventure on Deadpool & Wolverine, Henighan tapped in part into his work on Stranger Things for series creators the Duffer brothers (Matt and Ross) and executive producer Levy. “You can call it [Stranger Things] television but there are episodes as much as an hour-and-a-half long,” said Henighan, noting that for these “mini-movies” the Duffers and Levy want the sonic element to be as big and cinematic as possible.
Henighan noted that Levy is accessible and collaborative by nature, as they share ideas and he gives feedback to sounds and sonic approaches throughout the process, often working in tandem with the picture editors–such as Shane Reid and Dean Zimmerman on Deadpool & Wolverine. Henighan, for example, will get an assembly cut and do a quick pass on an action scene as the core sound design and sonic ideas start to take shape. Sound design and sound effects then grow and develop from there, continuing to be honed. There’s a film preview session, a dress rehearsal of sorts putting the movie together with dialogue, music and sound effects. A few weeks later it’s screened for people and the refinement process continues. “By the final mix, we have the real score, all the dialogue, ADR recorded, cleaned up, sound design,” shared Henighan, adding that at this point they are free to make creative choices, not scrambling to get the soundtrack built.
Overall, Henighan shared that Levy “runs a tight ship but it’s a fun, comfortable space where you can express ideas. Nothing is out of bounds when it comes to making the film better.”
Henighan has won six primetime Emmy Awards–five of them for his work on Stranger Things. (The other for Love, Death & Robots). He has a total of a dozen Emmy nominations over the years, the most recent coming earlier this year for an episode of All the Light We Cannot See, a limited series directed and produced by Levy.
In addition to Levy, Henighan enjoys close-knit collaborative bonds with such noted filmmakers as Alfonso Cuaron and Darren Aronofsky. For the former, Henighan not only took an Oscar-nominated turn on the aforementioned Roma but also most recently worked on Disclaimer, which rolled out last month on Apple TV+. Cuaron created Disclaimer, serving as writer-director-producer on the miniseries which stars Cate Blanchett.
And for director Aronofsky, Henighan has contributed to such films as Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Noah, Mother! and The Whale. For Black Swan, Henighan earned a Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures. He has a total of four CAS Award nods, the others coming for the movie Prey, Stranger Things and All the Light We Cannot See.
This is the third installment of our weekly 16-part The Road To Oscar Series of feature stories. Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2025. The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
