How – and why – did you get into directing?
It’s something I always wanted to do but put off for as long as I could because it sounded kind of embarrassing to me, the whole idea of being an artist. I was just way too self-conscious for it. But then, in 2018, I was struggling intensely with endometriosis and the disease cut me off from the rest of my life in many ways. I spent a lot of time alone in my bedroom that year, and it was writing and still life photography that brought me comfort during my isolation.
I ended up combining some of that writing and the style of photography I was doing into a short film called Birth Control Your Own Adventure. I sent it to The New York Times on a whim and, to my surprise, they published it. That little film really took off — it went viral, got me two Sundance Institute fellowships and was nominated for an Emmy. After that, everyone started treating me like I was a director and I played along. Four years of ‘fake it til you make it’ later… now I’m a director!
