You might not know Eva Victor’s name yet, but you will. Ever since Sorry, Baby, the filmmaker’s writing and directorial debut (in which Victor also stars), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it has received widespread acclaim and has been included in awards conversations.
Sorry, Baby follows a college literature professor, Agnes (Victor), struggling with depression after being sexually assaulted by an advising professor during her graduate program at a liberal arts college in rural New England. The film, which is about healing from trauma and watching friendships evolve as others move on with their lives without you, also stars Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges and John Carroll Lynch.
Born in Paris in 1994 and raised in San Francisco, Victor starred in director Jonah Feingold’s 2021 debut feature, Dating & New York, and has appeared on Billions and Super Pumped. A stand-up comedian, Victor also has gone viral on Twitter/X and TikTok with satirical observations on everything from a proposed straight Pride parade to Fleabag, depression and astrology.
Sorry, Baby was born during the COVID pandemic, when Victor couldn’t perform on New York stages, but that turned out to be “totally relieving — it taught me that I didn’t want to do that,” Victor, who uses they/she pronouns, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“I started watching movies because I was wanting to write a film, and I didn’t know how, and I didn’t want to tell anyone I wanted to write a film,” Victor says. “So I watched a million films. I knew I wanted to write a film about trying to heal in the aftermath of this kind of trauma, and it was really helpful to watch films that feel structurally supportive of the theme of the film and less structurally classic.”
Victor points to movies like 1997’s Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, 2000’s In the Mood for Love and 2016’s Certain Women as inspirations. “Romy and Michele made such an impact on me, like how it feels to have a friend through everything,” says Victor.
Victor headed to Maine for a couple of months to write the screenplay, taking over their cousin’s house.
The film, however serious and affecting, has intentional moments of humor. One of the funnier scenes comes when Agnes asks to see her partner’s penis, calling it small when flaccid, before clarifying that she’s just never seen one in that state before.
“I feel like comedy can be a tool that doesn’t deflect from the pain, but actually reinforces it in a way that’s kind of like a dagger,” says Victor. “It feels like the film, when it’s comedic, it heightens enough to remind you that it’s a film, so that then you as an audience member feel safe enough to laugh, because you know that the film is laughing at someone who should be laughed at.”
Victor always imagined they’d star in the lead role. “Isn’t that crazy?” Victor confesses. “My whole thing was, I was just going to say that I’m acting in it until someone fights back, and no one ever fought back. They just made the budget of the film really small … which is fine!”
Of the three hats Victor wears on the project, directing was the biggest challenge. “It’s all so encompassing as a job,” they admit. “You never get a break like you would while writing. I was preparing to direct the film, then I had to go through this kind of two-year journey of accepting that I desperately wanted to direct the film — I just needed to build my skills enough to make the film I wanted to make, and to build my confidence enough to feel that I could lead in that way. Then, you’re directing yourself as an actor and other people as actors, and then everyone leaves after the film wraps, and you go to the edit room, then to sound, color, etc. It’s just the biggest umbrella of a job I’ve ever had.”
While it may have taken some time for Victor to believe in themselves as a filmmaker, Barry Jenkins, who served as a producer on the film, saw the potential from the beginning. “I was making videos on Twitter, and he DM’d me and was like, ‘If you ever have a script, send it to my production company,’ ” Victor recalls. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m not gonna not do that. … I sent it to them, and no one else. And then we spent two years preparing me to direct it.”
Jenkins wasn’t wrong. At Sundance, Victor saw her low-budget film (Sorry, Baby had a reported budget of $1.5 million) get acquired by A24 for $8 million among several suitors — this after it won Sundance’s Waldo Salt Award for Screenwriting. Flash forward to almost a year later, and the film still holds a stellar 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and earned a nomination for best feature at the Gotham Awards, competing against such perceived best picture Oscar contenders as One Battle After Another, Hamnet and Bugonia.
Sorry, Baby had a box office run of about $3.2 million worldwide — yes, that’s no box office hit, but Victor says they always foresaw people experiencing this movie in a different, more intimate way.
“I always imagined people finding the film while cuddling with their cat in bed, or with their best friend or something — that’s the best way for this film to happen, to just have that security around you,” says Victor. “I look forward to seeing who it reaches, who maybe couldn’t see it in theaters.”
Victor says they miss the character of Agnes. “I took some of her clothes with me after we wrapped, but not too many, because this movie is kind of heavy,” they note. “I have this box of her clothes, and every once in a while I’ll open it, just to check it’s still there. When we were evacuating for the [L.A.] fires, I was like, ‘We’re not leaving Agnes’ box.’ ”
Victor will next star in Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! alongside Pedro Pascal, David Harbour and Olivia Wilde — a film they’re looking forward to just acting in, rather than directing as well. “It’s a real fun thing to remember what it’s like to be in charge of your character and not a whole film,” Victor says. As for writing plans, the filmmaker says, “I’ve got to get back to my little cave and get my laptop going.”
Asked about directing a big-budget film, as many indie filmmakers have done after they’ve found success, Victor says, “The real dream is to get to make the film you want to make, and whatever allows me to do that, that’s all I need. If you look at One Battle After Another, that’s a film that you build to, if you want to get to that level. I don’t think, honestly, that I have that kind of career ambition about a big, big budget — that’s not really what calls to me. And getting to make this film without that kind of financial pressure was really important.
“I don’t know what’s next, we’ll see,” adds Victor before joking, “Cut to me announcing that I’m doing a $900 million film.”
This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
