The enormous popularity of Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” limited series took editor Michelle Tesoro by surprise.
She thinks the pandemic played some part in keeping people confined to their homes, and once viewers got a glimpse of Anya Taylor-Joy as determined orphan chess prodigy Beth Harmon, they were hooked.
And then, of course, the ’60s glam appeal of sex, drugs, alcohol, and rock music kicked in, along with the fascination of chess as a metaphor for power and control in a male-dominated sport.But the editorial objective from the outset was finding the sweet spot between the right amount of chess and the emphasis on Taylor-Joy’s beguiling face.
In fact, after cutting Netflix’s acclaimed western “Godless” with writer-director Scott Frank, Tesoro was particularly conscious of pacing on “The Queen’s Gambit.” “We had a lot of conversations about pacing after I read two drafts of the script, because I remember feeling that,
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