Patrick Z. McGavin
Susana Benaim has had an impressive career.
After arriving in Hollywood, the Venezuelan-born photo editor turned an internship at ACE into a career launch.
Beneim has since edited Netflix’s Rags to Riches: Inspired by the Life of Mrs. C.J. Walker (2020), Hulu’s The Dropout (2022), and Disney Channel’s National Treasure: The Edge of History (2023) of episodes.
She recently cut the pilot and three episodes of “Clipped,” FX’s six-episode limited series on Hulu about race involving Donald Sterling, the controversial former owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. scandal.
CineMontage caught up with Benaim to discuss the project and her career.
CineMontage: How did you go from growing up in Caracas to becoming a picture editor in Hollywood?
Susana Benaim: My father had a production company in Venezuela that produced late-night talk shows. I grew up in a production environment. He took me to the station. Sometime when I was 13, I found myself playing with editing software just for fun. It’s available for free on one of the Sony computers and is very rudimentary. After seeing me play and struggle with the machine over the years, he realized it was more than just a hobby.
I believe when I was about 15, my dad finally brought me an editor, sat me down, and said, “Study.”
I commend him because that’s how you learn as a professional in this industry. I am studying at Syracuse University in the United States. The school is very committed to providing you with a well-rounded education. I took a lot of classes on production and screenwriting. I ended up editing other students’ work because no one wanted to do it.
When I was finishing school, my college advisor insisted that I should try to come to Los Angeles. I didn’t originally plan to do this. If you grew up abroad, it’s so far-fetched: make it in Hollywood and live your dreams. He really believed I could have a better opportunity in Los Angeles. I moved here with a few college friends and I gave myself a year. Within the first month, I had a paying job on a reality TV show.
CineMontage: How much of an impact did your ACE internship have on you?
Susana Benaim: It completely changed the course of my life. I was applying for a few things when I first arrived in Los Angeles. I’ve never heard of it. It’s not common to learn that in Syracuse, where writing and producing are two major careers. You’ve never heard of this plan in Venezuela either.
I didn’t know much about it when I applied, but I found someone who had been through the program. He used these very big adjectives to describe the program. I know this is a big deal. I got an interview, then an internship, and everything just took off from there. I can track where I am today because of the program, the mentorship I received, and the people who recommended things I do.
The rest is history. I ended up meeting a guy through this program, Hunter M. Via, who I was just following. I helped him for a few years, and he helped me get promoted to an editorial position.
CineMontage: Is there anything that feels right to you about editing?
Suzanne Benjamin: Absolutely. I really enjoy working with one or two people. My father is a producer, but my family are all psychologists. I’ve been open to psychology and behavior since I was a kid, and I find it’s a huge part of what we do.
To be honest, I don’t know much about technology. Tools you can learn on the go. I always try to have my assistants teach me stuff all the time. In reality, what’s really important is not knowing everything about all the tools you’re using, but being adaptable and a quick thinker when it comes to solving stories and solving problems. This is more important than doing something quickly on the keyboard.
CineMontage: How did you get involved with Clipped?
Suzanne Beneim: It’s actually a weird story because I got a call from Francesca Greni, the director I worked with on “Drop Out.” We are in talks to film her feature film “Hurricane” (2024). She booked episodes three and five of the show. Francesca really liked the scripts and she wanted me to be a part of them.
She is a fierce advocate. I met with Gina Welch, the show’s producer, and Kevin Bray, the production director. We discussed tone. I’m actually getting ready to go to Namibia with my husband for our honeymoon. When they were doing table reads, I zoomed in from Africa to listen to that stuff. That’s how crazy and fast it all is.
CineMontage: Clipped touches on all these provocative themes—race, sexuality, class, sports. How does this impact your work?
Susana Benaim: I feel like this show is a bit like a soap opera. It started as a department store scandal with a mistress and wife, and then snowballed into something bigger.
Issues about power and race in America are at the forefront of the story we want to tell, and we also want it to be funny. The themes we create about America, Black players, and systemic racism in the NBA are snapshots of something greater than what we are showing.
CineMontage: What started out as quite independent was amplified by social media like never before.
Susana Benaim: One of the things we wanted to show was how people react to things and whether that becomes part of the storytelling. I thought the script was beautifully written but very simple. The reaction from the internet and the media, that’s all we came up with in the edit.
We wanted to try and find some stylistic transitional organization for the show. This was mostly because Gina and I had been discussing how this story was going viral thanks to social media. Otherwise, it would never have gained as much traction. Because the characters were so quirky, they were perfect for memes and tweets of the time.
One morning, Gina and I were trying to figure out how to get the audience to interact with the story, and we came up with “Scrolls.” This ended up being a huge undertaking as we had to source a lot of materials and get permission. It must have been a reaction to what was happening at the time.
It must be true to the moment, true to the scandal. The whole post team got on board because it became something really special for all of us, adding to the motivation but also the comedy and poignancy because of people’s reactions.
CineMontage: Take a character like Donald Sterling (Ed O’Neill), who is undoubtedly a great dramatist, but he’s also a man who expresses some pretty disgusting things through racism and sexism. point of view person. How do you maintain factual accuracy while still making the storytelling engaging?
Susana Benaim: As far as Donald Sterling and every character on the show, you can only take the pieces that are publicly known and go from there. Through research and talking to players and (Clippers coach) Doc Rivers, I think Gina has a good understanding of each character in the script and then fills in the gaps with a human level. For example, the character of V. Stiviano, when you look at her public persona, I find that she is an enigma, she is a very strange person.
I think the content of the script and what the actress Cleopatra Coleman brought to the role gave the character a whole new humanity. You have a weird feeling for her and root for her. She’s not necessarily a likeable person, but she’s someone you want to see succeed. Instead, Donald Sterling is a character whose humanity we never find. He gives a speech in episode five where he talks about power and how things are and have been, and he’s part of that system. It’s always been like this, he didn’t do anything wrong. This may be his most human moment.
CineMontage: How would you describe your ideas or theories about editing actors and shaping performances?
Suzanne Beneim: Personally I think I was just reacting to the presence of the camera. My experience has taught me to respond first to performance, which determines my editing style.
On this show, we had to adjust a lot in terms of tone because there had to be a balance between some comedy and awkwardness and dramatic moments. For example, a lot of the moments between Donald Sterling and Doc Rivers were awkward and uncomfortable, but also kind of funny.
As we move forward with this process, we have to go back and forth trying to find this. Any show, as far as tone goes, you can find it in what you receive. In your mind, before you receive anything, you can say, “I think it needs to have propulsion.” We talked about it needing to have propulsion, and then you have to figure out one from the footage you receive method to achieve this. With “Clipped,” we talked about how it needed to have propulsion and it needed to be funny, but also have that awkwardness.
You have these great performances and you have to balance them and let them tell you how to create the rhythm and the moments that you want to feature.
CineMontage: Over the course of your career, have you developed a special technique?
Susana Benaim: What I do on every show is work with my assistant before the daily dailies. We sat down to discuss the footage that would be released the next day. We often talk about what are called emotional anchors. Whose scene is this?
You’re emotionally prepared to accomplish something in a scene, not tone and pacing. I really needed to set this scene up emotionally, and that was my north star for everything I received. The tone and style come from that, because emotion is king is what we do.
If you’re not feeling any emotion—whether it’s anger, frustration, or laughter—I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago writer and cultural journalist. He writes about movies at www.patrickzmcgavin.substack.com
