Having adapted James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk, writer-director-producer Barry Jenkins turned to another literary work by turning a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into an epic 10-part limited series for Amazon Prime.

The Underground Railroad, based on Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel, follows Cora (Thuso Mbedu), an enslaved woman living in the American south who flees via a subterranean train line, a fantastical element that provides hope amid the horrific acts of violence and psychological torture above ground. All the while she is pursued by the slave catcher Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton).

Jenkins assembled numerous members of the team that crafted his Best Picture Oscar®-winning Moonlight, including editor Joi McMillon, ACE (who edited Moonlight with Nat Sanders, ACE). Their shared history goes back to film school at Florida State University.

Other alumni were James Laxton, ASC and producers Mark Ceryak and Adele Romanski, who all worked on Moonlight, Beale Street and rejoined forces for Underground. “The first I heard about Underground Railroad as a project from Barry was in 2016, prior to the sensational reaction to Moonlight which was way bigger than we anticipated,” McMillon says. “Once we wrapped post on Beale Street, Barry and his writers were full time on the scripts.”

McMillon handled five episodes with Alex O’Flinn editing four and McMillon’s longtime assistant editor, Daniel Morfesis, editing one. Principal photography ran 112 days from August 2019 to early March 2020 in Georgia. McMillon started in September 2019 based in L.A. She visited sets in Atlanta and one of the principal locations, a plantation, where she discussed the series’ opening two-minute sequence with the director. “On the page the script read ‘We see Cora falling into a void’ but the question was ‘how are we going to do that?’

For the opening, we had to carefully choose the right moments that would give the audience glimpses of what’s to come while not giving away too much,” explains McMillon, who cut episode 1, “Chapter 1: Georgia,” while she was simultaneously working on “Chapter 10, Mabel,” which is set in the same location.

“Those initial opening shots in the very beginning of ‘Georgia’ were shot over two days against blue screen. We had to envision what the actual space might look like and then select the images of our main character so the audience can instantly identify that she’s our lead. We pored over footage to find the perfect shot of Cora so with that very first cut from black to Cora’s face as she’s falling the audience is immediately in sync with her.”

McMillon further explains the importance of the show’s heroine. “One of the things I love about Cora is she is so complex. She has so many layers. As the audience goes on this journey with her you are able to discover that there is a vulnerability to her. There is anger yet also a love that is yearning to be released. Sometimes she is selfish and fearless. I think she has basically the freedom to be all these things on camera. “I often feel with female leads and especially with female leads of color, they are not fully three dimensional. They are the kooky co-worker or the sassy girlfriend but, in this series, both Colson and Barry have written and portrayed this character as a kind of a superhero. She has this will to survive and a determination to escape.”

Neither the source material nor Jenkins’ adaptation shy from the heartbreak and sadism meted out by almost universally racist white characters on the black community. McMillon had to find the tone for this in episode 1 during which runaway Big Anthony is burned to death. “The extent of violence was a conversation Barry had not only with James [Laxton] but with us in editorial. He told us to choose our moments with careful consideration.

The series is hard to watch but necessary to watch. One of the things we’re trying to do is honor our ancestors and say, ‘We understand what you went through.’ We’re telling their story so we don’t forget where we came from. We’re showing the challenges that they endured in order for us to have the life we have now and to truly appreciate their sacrifice.

“Big Anthony is one of those moments I vividly remember reading in the book and being absolutely heartbroken. Every act of violence that Colson puts in the novel he is pulling from real life encounters. It would be a disservice and injustice to the ones who lived these nightmares if we did not include them.” Rather than showing the horror in graphic detail, the filmmakers choose to reflect the violence from the reactions of witnesses, plantation owners and enslaved alike.

“In Moonlight there’s a moment where our main character Chiron walks into a classroom and breaks a chair over his classmate’s back. You don’t see the physical violence – you see the visceral reaction from the teacher. To Barry and I that is more impactful than actually seeing the violence so in this scene holding the shots on the reaction of the other slaves who are forced to witness and process this murder was beyond powerful.”

The extreme violence here tightens the audience’s tension as Cora and her companion run away at the end of chapter 1. This gives way to more psychological torture in later episodes. “Chapter 2: South Carolina,” for instance, depicts white control through forced drug use and coerced sterilization – all based on fact. McMillon says, “What the novel did so well is capture these mythical locations which are also the names of states [illustrated in chapter titles but which could be read as states of mind].

Each chapter/state has its own tone.” Laxton and colorist Alex Bickel at Color Collective devised a different LUT for each state which helped the editorial team distinguish each episode. For example, “Chapter 5: Tennessee – Exodus,” is set largely in a barren wasteland of scorched earth and charred trees. In the second episode the runaways are in South Carolina. “On the surface it looks great. Cora is excited. She is in a yellow dress. They are free. But as the episode starts to unravel you realize that this freedom comes with a condition. We start to peel back the layers and see all is not right here.” McMillon took charge of episodes 1, 5, 6 (“Tennessee – Proverbs”), 9 (“Indiana Winter”) and 10 with O’Flinn taking chapters 2 (with Luke Doolan and Matthew Willard), 3 (“North Carolina”), 4 (“The Great Spirit”) and 8 (“Indiana Autumn”). Morfesis took chapter 7, (“Fanny Briggs”).

The most challenging episode for McMillon was “Indiana Winter.” It’s also the episode of which she feels most proud. “In ‘Indiana Autumn’ we’ve been introduced to new characters and you’re as invested in their story as much as Cora’s when you get to ‘Winter.’ Therefore, this episode needed to maintain these new characters’ stories while not forgetting that Cora is our focal point. We have a battle, a love scene, there are new characters in town and so balancing all of this and making sure we’re not missing any of the links in our storylines was very important.

Barry and I worked on it quite extensively together.” One of the keys to the approach in editing the whole series was the character of Mabel, Cora’s mother. Revelations about Mabel are told in episode 10 but it was only when crafting this character’s story that McMillon and Jenkins unlocked the tonal balance of the other episodes.

“So much of Cora’s anger and of her being very guarded and protected stems from her being abandoned by her mother. So, taking the Mable character and weaving her in throughout the episodes in flashbacks, added to the mystery of the series and gave it an anchor.” For instance, when Cora meets Ridgeway for the first time he talks about her mother and there is a flashback to Mabel. This was not scripted. “Utilizing these flashbacks is something we organically arrived at while working on chapter 1 and once we realized how integral they were in defining Cora’s story we sought out other areas to include these moments.”

In “Mabel” the audience learns that instead of being aban[1]doned as a child, Cora’s mother was trying to get back to her. “Cora never knows this. In spite of everything that has been taken away from her she still has the ability to love and to hold onto what may come in the future.”

The central concept of Whitehead’s novel is to re-imagine the network of safe houses and human handlers as a literal underground railroad. In Jenkins’ version, production designer Mark Friedberg devised a series of different ‘subway’ stations which act as an escape from the horrors above ground.

“One of the things we did in ‘Indiana Autumn’ is a dream sequence where Cora escapes to a station where you don’t know if it’s real to her or not. Cora sees all these people going off in different directions underground. It’s one of the moments I really love because it offers this ‘what if?’ moment – an escape to a world of possibilities.” McMillon continues, “That is one of the takeaways from the series. Our past is horrific. What our ancestors had to endure was tragic and unimaginable. But what this series creates is the possibility of what the future can hold. I think that this is what the stations throughout the story represent. It’s a way to tell the past with a hopeful look toward the future.”

Laxton’s gorgeous cinematography [shot on ARRI Alexa LF with Primo 70s and T Series Anamorphics] is paired with an immersive, disturbing and dreamlike soundscape designed and led by the show’s supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer, Onnalee Blank (Game of Thrones).

McMillon also praises the late rerecording mixer Richard Portman (Deer Hunter, Nashville) for impressing upon her and Jenkins the importance of sound to them while at film school. “I’m thrilled so many people recognize the sound on the series,” she says. “We really wanted to create an experience that is both visually and sonically engaging for the audience. We never do it just for the razzamatazz of it all. There’s intent and purpose behind everything.

For instance, the first time we see Ridgeway you hear a hammer on anvil which casts forward to ‘The Great Spirit’ and every time we see him we hear a ticking clock, as if the past is trying to catch up with him.” Shooting had to close with just three days left to go due to COVID-19 but it restarted to finish in October 2020.

Meanwhile, McMillon kept working on the edit in L.A. “Working on the series during the pandemic was challenging,” she admits. “Usually, after a long day you can go out and grab dinner or a drink with your colleagues to unwind. Not being able to have that bit of escapism while working on such heavy material was tough. Yet, I think through this experience Barry and I really bonded with our editorial team while working together and we’re truly proud of what we’re able to finally present to the world.”