When Eva Victor brought Sorry, baby At the following this year film Film Festival, she knew she wanted to keep her intrigue as much as possible. The film, a calm and contemplative campus tale, is not the type of project that would generally arouse this level of obscure, but Victor – which wrote, realized and stars – strongly felt not to reveal what makes dark comedy dark. “We knew that it was our pure chance of bringing into the film without knowing anything, so we chose a line line that said nothing,” she said The Hollywood Reporter. “Everything we said was:” Something wrong has happened in Agnes, but life goes to everyone. “”
Victor’s instincts have proven to be fruitful, and Sorry, baby was one of the biggest successes of the festival, winning glowing criticism and selling A24 for distribution quickly. The author still prefers not to explain the premise too much, so when he will be released on June 27, most viewers will only know the bases: Victor plays Agnes, a professor who has remained in his rural New England College despite a persistent trauma. His best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), returns for a visit, causing big questions about what means going on. Post -undance, Victor described his beginnings as a film on the suites. “It’s about trying to heal when you are stuck, and how to come back to love and joy,” she said. “What is happening to her is part of her life, but I was really intentional not to make her a person defined by something wrong that happens to her. I hope the film is not defined by this either. For me, it is really more friendship and to keep someone for a difficult period than this violent act.”
Can you talk about what it was in this post-sufrance and pre-liberation limbo?
There is a little sorrow for me that the creative work is finished. Now, it’s just talking about the film to bring people to see it, and my dream would be that people just will see it and then we could talk about it. Because the film has everything I already want to say. It is also a kind of euphoric to release it. Maybe that’s what my mother felt when I went to university.
When you brought the film to Sundance, did you have a dream distributor or an ideal result of the festival?
Who is the team, who is your dream buyer? And honestly, I just wanted to see in their eyes that they understood why this film is important to me. I was scanning rooms to understand where the eyes were that I needed. It’s like bringing any collaborator in the creative process, you are looking for someone who has the impression that the script is also theirs, that they have fire on this subject. There was a time when I met A24 when I was, these people could be my midwife. They will support the way I want to have my baby. I continue to use this baby metaphor.
To this end, what did you like in the way Naomi Ackie saw the film?
When we were looking for someone to play this role, I thought it as, I think that Angnes is the moon and Lydia is the sun. They are both poles of light, but they are different. I met Naomi for the first time during a zoom call and she was so warm and funny. I had seen her work, but everything she had done was then really serious. So meeting her, I was surprised by the way she is clumsy and warm and silly. We read together and he just clicked immediately. It was very romantic how it happened. We never repeated, we just spent time together and we got to know each other and it was very effortless and I am grateful. I think it is why the film works.
So you hadn’t seen Flashing twice Or Mickey 17 When you threw it?
She had pulled them both when she arrived, but I hadn’t seen them. It was really cool to look at the two outings. I was like, Jesus fucks Christ, what can she not do? Whenever I talk about her, I receive chills.
Eva Victor in “Sorry, baby”.
MIA CIOFFI Henry / Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Do you feel confident that people get what you are trying to say with this film and that people understand both the film and you as a person who did it?
I think it came to the first Sundance where I watched people watch the film, and they laughed very early. I remember that when I was trying to obtain funding, I kept saying that I wanted people to have permission to laugh very early. When we made friends and family projections, I sat and I was trying to understand where I lost people, or where they had checked emotionally. By Sundance, no one checked. People felt what they were supposed to feel. People can lie about what they think, but vibrations don’t like.
How did you decided to mix, toneally, comedy and the most serious moments?
The script moved very much between the tone. But then, on the set, there would be things I had written as more comical, it did not seem to be. I remember interpreting the jury scene and I wrote it largely funny, there was a lot of physical comedy. But on the set, I realized that Angnes should feel really claustrophobic and frightened, she tries to retain the real fear and she is forced to say something about what happened to her that she is not ready to say. Performance has become more moving. The same with the doctor’s scene, for a while she was really heavy, and we thought, and if we do that wide? Almost like Juno. The question we have always asked was: what is the balm we need? And the balm does not mean that the character feels better.
I read somewhere that you wrote this by staying in a Maine house, and you also shot in New England. How did it affect you?
It’s crazy, but every time I think about where I want to live one day, I imagine the house Mother. The way it is at the beginning. It is a lake house, it is made of clay or something like that. I think my dream is to live in a clay house and maybe Jennifer Lawrence is there too. But I permanently aspire to New England.
How was it to have Barry Jenkins as a producer – especially for a project that is so personal?
There was a moment just before locking the cup when Barry called and was like, I have an idea. And when Barry says that, you unlock the cup. But it is so collaborative. We just had some experiences on his way, then I took a weekend to think about what I wanted. I made, ok, the film works in these different ways, how is he the one that matters to you? And I chose a version which was sort of a combination, which was more between the two.
How did you throw the kitten?
There were two cats playing a kitten, they were for a local refuge. Their names were Evan and baby. They were very cute. We had a cat cat, and he put the chicken on my face to make the cat want to look at me and touch me. They had been adopted before they even occur, but the crew continued to ask him if they could adopt them.
