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Eva Victor\u2019s first brush with celebrity came through viral comedy videos, most famously one on Straight Pride, which earned them a\u00a0writing gig for the satirical website Reductress. Taking the road less travelled, their next step was to write, direct and star in Sorry, Baby<\/i> a\u00a0rare work of traumedy (trauma + comedy) that stands as an antidote to cinema\u2019s glib and exploitative history of sensationalising sexual abuse and simplifying its impact. There is no lurid depiction of a\u00a0violation by a\u00a0college lecturer, instead the film shows how it seeps into every part of grad student Agnes\u2019s life, affecting her in ways that go largely unseen by others. The tone is alternately very funny and very sad, as the film depicts horizons beyond her trauma, while showing that years later, she is still wrestling with \u200b\u201c<\/span>the bad thing\u201d. Following a\u00a0Sundance premi\u00e8re and Directors\u2019 Fortnight slot in Cannes, the film finally arrives on these shores and we had the pleasure of speaking to Eva over\u00a0Zoom.<\/p>\n LWLies: Do you happen to be a\u00a0fan of the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-L\u00f8ve?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Victor: <\/span>Things to Come <\/span><\/i>is one of my favourite movies, I\u00a0love that\u00a0film.<\/span><\/p>\n Perfect, I\u00a0wanted to present you with a\u00a0quote as, like you, she works in the domain of autofiction. She said: \u200b\u2018<\/span>I felt it wasn\u2019t totally over until I\u00a0had told the story. There\u2019s something cruel about fiction or making films. It\u2019s a\u00a0way to turn present into past. You put something that you still have within and that occasionally makes you suffer into fiction, and it becomes memory. If it\u2019s too early then I\u00a0can\u2019t tell the story. There has to be some distance. But then there comes this perfect moment where it\u2019s far away enough, but not too far, so that it can still touch the emotions.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Wow. That\u2019s so beautiful and so true. I\u00a0don\u2019t know if you can identify the exact sweet spot until it\u2019s over. And there was a\u00a0time I\u00a0tried to write it a\u00a0little bit earlier and it was just too soon. So it tracks exactly with my experience. I\u00a0think the beautiful thing about being able to fictionalise an emotional truth is getting to tell the story. Like, things in life happen randomly, but in a\u00a0story you plant a\u00a0seed at the beginning that then turns into a\u00a0tree by the end and you create all of these things that support this person. Everything is purposeful in a\u00a0story that in life, it doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s always threads of meaning. So I\u00a0love that quote, it\u2019s so beautiful. It\u2019s so true.\u00a0Wow.<\/p>\n I\u2019m really glad that it resonated.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m new to this feeling of releasing a\u00a0film into the world. The making of it feels so important and essential and euphoric and difficult in a\u00a0lot of ways. But the release is this other emotional thing that I\u00a0didn\u2019t expect was going to hit me as hard \u2013 having to really <\/i>release the film that was in my body for so long and now exists outside of me. I\u00a0keep looking up symptoms of postpartum depression. I\u00a0know I\u2019m not going through that because you have to have a\u00a0baby and that\u2019s a\u00a0really different thing and this is not as crazy as that. But I\u00a0am experiencing the baby blues. So it\u2019s been a\u00a0whirlwind. But it\u2019s also a\u00a0dream come true that the movie gets to have a\u00a0life outside of\u00a0me.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in postpartum now, what was the peak of creative excitement in this process?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I think there were a\u00a0few moments in the edit\u2026 There was a\u00a0lot of catharsis for me on a\u00a0personal level getting to perform the part, because the words had lived inside me for so long. Training as an actor, and then getting to actually say the words for the real run of it \u2013 these are actually her words that she\u2019s getting to say finally <\/i>\u2013 that felt so good. Then the edit was so mind-bendingly difficult, just on a\u00a0spiritual level, having to watch this and having it all strung together was so weird, but in looking back on it I\u00a0have only good memories. I\u00a0feel like I\u00a0look back on it already with nostalgia, like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Ah, the edit.\u2019 When, really, I\u00a0got my bellybutton pierced, I\u00a0dyed my eyebrows and my hair. I\u00a0was not well, but I\u00a0liked the private creativity of it a\u00a0lot.<\/p>\n So, you got your bellybutton pierced as a\u00a0direct response to a\u00a0hurdle in the\u00a0edit?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I was watching the film and I\u00a0was like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>That is not me. I\u2019ve decided that\u2019s not me,\u2019 so I\u00a0bleached my eyebrows blonde and then I\u00a0pierced my bellybutton and it got infected immediately. Six months later someone was like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>If you don\u2019t take that out, you are seriously gonna have an issue forever.\u2019 And so I\u00a0took it out. It\u2019s still infected. But, you know what, it\u2019s a\u00a0good memory. It\u2019s not the most destructive thing that could happen.<\/p>\n Was <\/strong><\/span>Sorry, Baby <\/strong><\/span><\/i>always the title? Or were there other working titles en route? At what point did you settle on\u00a0it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I used the title as a\u00a0way to reward myself once I\u00a0wrote it. So I\u00a0finished it and I\u00a0remember making a\u00a0little list and it was the one that stuck. I\u00a0remember looking at it and thinking: I\u00a0like how these words look and how it sounds, and the comma feels literary. It feels like within it exists these two tones \u2013 one that\u2019s earnest, like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 and the other one sort of like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Life is crazy.\u2019 I\u00a0liked that the title doesn\u2019t make sense until the end of the film. No one ever challenged me on it. So, it\u00a0stuck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n