Eva Victor: 'Sorry, Baby' is 'punching up' at oppressive institutions

UPI

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1 of 5 | Eva Victor stars, wrote and directed "Sorry, Baby," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of A24
LOS ANGELES, June 26 (UPI) -- Warning: This article contains references to rape.
Writer, director and star Eva Victor says her movie Sorry, Baby, in theaters Friday, finds humor in difficult subjects by targeting the corrupt institutions involved. Victor plays Agnes, a thesis student who is raped by her faculty advisor (Louis Cancelmi).
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Victor, 31, said the film points out the absurdity of institutions that exacerbate trauma when they are intended to help. Agnes and her friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) mock a doctor who questions Agnes' handling of her rape, and the film shows the college HR department as incompetent.
"There's this comedy rule in writing that is about punching up and not punching down," Victor said. "All your jokes are at the expense of institutions that are hurting people and people in power. You never point the finger at making fun of someone who's victimized or not in power."
It was important to Victor to point out the film is not just a criticism of said institutions; Sorry, Baby also celebrates the friendship between Agnes and Lydie.
"There's also just joy between friends," she said. "The film is funny in moments but it's funny because they're in their own perfect little world and life is weird."
When discussing her experience in private, Lydie never says the word "rape." Victor said the specific language Lydie and Agnes use to discuss the traumatic event was intended to feel comforting to the audience, as well as Agnes.
"It's actually like they figured out a way to talk about it that doesn't scare either of them," Victor said. "It's only the people in the film that are failing them that use harsher words, like the doctor says that word and it's obviously pretty shocking to both of them."
Victor called Sorry, Baby "a very personal story" but clarified the specific situations in which Agnes finds herself were her creative invention. Victor previously acted in TV shows like Billions and Super Pumped, and wrote and directed her web series Eva Vs. Anxiety.
"I got to be an artist through it still," Victor said. "I did build the world and I got to talk about things that are emotionally intense inside me that I wanted to talk about but I did find a lot of joy in building characters and the worlds to support Agnes's journey."
In one scene, Agnes meets a stranger, Pete (John Carroll Lynch), who recognizes she is distraught and stays to comfort her.
"I think Agnes feels this comfort in him because he's a stranger," Victor said. "Something about being with a stranger lowers the stakes of what you could say that could scare someone. She could finally be honest with him and say what happened to her and what she's dealing with on her own terms."
Agnes also realizes she does not necessarily want to see her professor punished. Her desire to prevent future attacks is even more difficult to realize.
"She says, 'I want him to be someone who stops doing this, not someone who does this who's now in jail,'" Victor said. "She also says, 'I don't want him to die' and I think she's reckoning with the fact that though he enacted this cruelty on her, that doesn't mean she wants to enact cruelty back."
Nor was Sorry, Baby intended to be a how-to manual for overcoming a crisis. Victor crafted a four-year journey for Agnes that is as unique to her as any human being's situation, and concludes with complex feelings rather than a neat ending.
"I wanted the film to feel honest," Victor said. "It's definitely not a film that's meant to be about from being hurt to healing. It's about what happens for this one person in these four years and how does she emerge in those four years a bit different?"
In portraying her growth, Agnes represents the kind of person Victor says she aspires to be.
"I wrote her to be pretty blunt and pretty comfortable in silence," Victor said. "I was excited to enjoy silence playing her and to say things that I wouldn't feel comfortable saying, but [that] I think."
As director, Victor cultivated silence by locking off the camera and letting scenes play out from a distance. The rape occurs while the audience watches the professor's house from daytime through sundown, and other shots linger on Agnes alone in her house.
"We're going to wait sometimes," Victor said. "The film will take time to reveal itself to you but I hope it'll be worth it for you. Definitely, I wanted it to feel really simple."
Sorry, Baby will have a wide release in theaters Friday.