Alisa Lepselter, ACE
Born 1963
Alisa Lepselter, ACE succeeded Susan E. Morse in editing all of Woody Allen’s films, beginning with Sweet and Lowdown. She began as an intern on Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild and was Thelma Schoonmaker’s assistant editor on Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence. Her first editing credit was for Nicole Holofcener’s first film as a director, Walking and Talking. She was nominated for an Eddie Award for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris.
“I learned a lot about how to work with directors by watching all these different personalities. Some editors could explain themselves in a way that ultimately got them what they wanted. They were diplomatic. And some people weren’t cut out to be editors because they were too confrontational. You have to have the kind of personality that can work with the director to achieve the director’s vision; you can’t be fighting for your own vision. And that’s something I’m okay with because I thought editing itself was so much fun.”
— “Making the Cut” in Duke Magazine. The full text can be found in the Appendix.
Susan Morse, ACE was Woody Allen’s primary editor from 1977-1998, during which time she edited twenty-two of his films, from Manhattan to Celebrity. She got an Oscar nomination for Hannah and Her Sisters, and five BAFTA nominations for various films by Allen. Morse has forty-one credits, and in the 2010s, she edited the third season of Louie and three episodes of Billions.
