Megan McLachlan talks to writer/director/actor Eva Victor about what makes Sorry, Baby different from other films that take on the topic of trauma.
Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby starts not at the beginning of the story or the middle — but after some horrific, life-changing events.
“I wanted to start the film with this really joyful reunion of two best friends,” says writer/director/star Eva Victor. “There are a lot of reasons, but one of them is I wanted to be clear: The film is about the friendship. And also, if the film were laid out chronologically, we would see this trauma happen and then meet Agnes through it. And I was much more interested in meeting Agnes, as you would in the real world, which is how she is now.”
As a college professor in a New England town, Agnes lives in quiet tranquility. There are some scenes of her just sitting in solitude in her little farmhouse. Through flashbacks, though, we learn that a quiet house can also be devastating. When Victor reveals what happened to Agnes, she focuses on one house in particular, hours passing from day to night.
“I Wrote the Film to Not Have Violence In It.”
“I wrote the film to not have violence in it,” says Victor. “And so there was never a time when that scene was going to be depicted because I really wrote the film for a version of myself that could not really sit through scenes that depicted that. I found it to be too difficult for my body to endure.”
Victor says by depicting the camera time-lapse of the house, she created a way to move through something that’s closer to Agnes’ subjective experience of it than if the camera were inside.
“So to me, it’s like this overarching sense of like doom being built over time, but we don’t totally know what happened.”
When she gets home to her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), that’s when she lets the walls fall, allowing herself to recall the events that had just taken place.
“Her face is totally exposed because she feels safe. And that’s when she tells us in her own words what happened. And Lydie’s the one who’s like, that’s ‘the thing’ [they never say sexual assault]. But it felt quite cruel to imagine being ahead of her in any way. And I wanted the film to believe her at her word and not have to see it to believe it. There’s also something about staying outside the house that feels truer to the experience of the body’s response to trauma being freezing. Like her body goes in, but her spirit doesn’t.”
“Like Her Body Goes In, But Her Spirit Doesn’t.”
While other films might show the assault, another thing that Sorry, Baby does differently is that it never gets justice but really forces the audience to sit with Agnes and her trauma — as well as experience moments of joy.
“I do think the reason for the joy in the film is because that’s how life is, and joy can be like a real act of rebellion against pain. And so this film is about this friendship, and a lot of the joy of the film exists in the connection of these two friends. And without that, I think the film would live in a very tragic space. It would be like a really bad version of Three Colors: Blue or something, where it’s just a lonely person trying to find life after losing someone or losing something. And because of Lydie, there’s this real lack of loneliness ultimately that I think is really life-saving.”
Sorry, Baby also concludes with a new life. Why was it important for Victor to end with Agnes talking to a baby?
“Well, the film is about this person who is very stuck in trying to unstick themself. And I think Agnes, because she’s trying to survive, has a very limited ability to see outside herself, which I think is totally valid. And the end of the film to me marks the end of this particular chapter in her life where she’s stuck in a certain way because Lydie and Fran want to go on a walk, and Agnes offers to babysit, which is obviously a really small favor. But for Agnes, it’s like a huge step of seeing outside what she wants and acknowledging what other people want.”
Victor says the moment with the baby is Agnes getting to feel a sense of purpose.
“I will be of use to you actually. And that’s because I now have this superpower of not being scared of something, of really bad stuff. And the gift that Lydie offers in the middle of the film of listening and not being scared, then Agnes vows to offer that to this baby.”
Sorry, Baby is streaming on HBO Max.
