Dijitaliks News

The actor’s directing debut has been acclaimed for reimagining the ‘trauma plot’. Victor discusses bootcamp with Barry Jenkins – and what you can learn from working in a bridal shop

In late 2020, the actor and comedian Eva Victor decamped from New York to their cousin’s house in rural Maine with a surprise window of time and an urgent subject. Covid had shut down production on Billions, Showtime’s soapy finance drama on which Victor scored their first regular acting gig. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, a fan of Victor’s short comedy videos on social media, had DM-ed to offer encouragement and a request: send a script when you’re ready.

That year, everything felt incomprehensibly big – global pandemic, political upheaval, social fracturing. But alone in wintry Maine, Victor turned far inwards, towards a quiet personal trauma. “It’s like a stone gets shoved into the river of your life. There’s a lot of pain in trying to remove it and you can’t,” says Victorrecalling a comparison made by her friend and co-star Naomi Ackie. “You just have to find a way for the water to move around it. It’s so unfair that someone threw a stone into your life. It’s hard to wrap your head around any of it.”