Quick Study

With the high-wire, hilarious Sorry, Baby, a debut film set in academia, writer, director, and actor Eva Victor has leaped into the spotlight. Jen Wang meets a creative force to be reckoned with. Photographed by Tierney Gearon.

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Tucked away in the corner of the Chateau Marmont garden on a sunny Friday afternoon, Eva Victor, cloaked in black, is telling me about stumbling, unwittingly, into comedy. The story begins at Northwestern's prestigious theater program, where Victor harbored ambitions to perform Chekhov and Euripides. “No one would cast me in those plays,” the 31-year-old writer-director-actor says. “I kept trying to do serious monologues and everyone would laugh.” The recent Los Angeles transplant takes a sip of Earl Grey tea with oat milk. “It was so upsetting,” they recall, in a droll deadpan that neatly elucidates the problem: Victor can’t help but be funny.

It’s this “problem” that makes Victor's directorial debut, Sorry, Baby, thrilling to behold, a high-wire film that glides from hilarity to heartbreak and back again. The story centers on Agnes, a graduate student turned English professor played by Victor, who must piece her life back together after a traumatic event that is never shown and is referred to almost exclusively as “The Bad Thing.” Victor, previously known for viral comedy videos and a supporting role on the Showtime series Billions, can now add auteur to their résumé with Sorry, Baby, which was produced by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, debuted at Sundance, and was acquired by art house giant A24 for a ballpark $8 million. It will open in theaters in June and also stars Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges.