After the Olympics with Erica Sullivan
While the title of ‘Olympian’ may seem intimidating, Sullivan really is just another 20-something girl at heart. When out of the pool, she spends her time like the rest of gen z — watching movies, listening to Lorde, and obsessing over fandoms on the internet. She often finds herself meshing swimming with these hobbies, as seen in her “people in swimming as the 2021 oscar best picture nominees” Twitter thread.
After taking time off from school to train for the 2020 games, Sullivan is attending the University of Texas to pursue one of her other interests — filmmaking. While her social media followers have witnessed her love of movies over the years, she now has the chance to put that passion to work and is even writing a screenplay of her own!
As the whirlwind of the Olympics finally began to settle, Sullivan sat down with office to discuss her past experience and future endeavors. Check out the exclusive interview below!
Olympic Tik Tok is a relatively new thing that gave us outsiders an inside look at what the games are actually like. Was the experience at all what you expected?
Funny how that worked out. So, I normally hate Tik Tok. I don't like being in front of a camera, I like to be behind it — that's just always been my rule of thumb. But NCAA athletes can make money now, so I was on the phone with a company and they said that I needed to improve my social media following. Because before the Olympics, I had like 5,000 followers on Instagram like 900 on Twitter. I had a few mutuals, but like not really — and zero on Tik Tok. Never really posted — I hated to post, just liked to watch. And then me and my friends just started messing around just being like, ‘Okay, well we have to try to build our social media anyway.’ So we started making Tik Toks, and then after my medal, the gays found me and mine just kind of shot up. But it's been crazy because I've never really been a fan of making Tik Toks, so now it's just, like, my place to post whatever I want.
I saw the Tik Tok where you said you were the only gay girl on the swim team this year. What was that like?
It sucks, it really does. Especially because in the world of swim, I don't think there's that much queer represent representation yet in terms of the lesbian community. Yeah, it's a tough little situation to be in. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm more comfortable with my queer friends — more than a majority of my straight friends — just ‘cause they understand the struggles and the tribulations that we have to go through. But luckily my roommates are so accepting and so chill and they're all close to my age range, so they would somehow make it relatable and make sure I was in the conversation. Like, it was fun, but I hope we have more queer women in the world of swim in the future.
Do you have any pre-meet rituals?
Whenever we go over a railroad, we lift our feet and clap our hands for good luck. For me — it's more so fear-based — but once a meet starts, I don't wash my hair because with conditioner in your hair, your cap will fall off. Other than that, I think our pre-meet routine is just so straightforward. I do my dynamic warm-up exactly the same. I wake up three hours before my race. I get there two hours before my race. I put my suit on 25 minutes before my race. I have a set schedule and routine of how I do everything.
Since you're on stan Twitter, I know you’re not a stranger to fancams — but what was it like seeing a fancam of yourself for the first time?
It’s so cool! ‘Cause I made fancams — like, I made movie edits on Instagram — and the fact that people are making edits of me now is really bizarre. I love them and I will hype them up because I know how much time those take and they're a pain in the ass to make sometimes. I've done a few Taylor Swift edits, I've done ‘Little Women,’ and then I've done all of my favorite films. So, like, I made a collab with ‘Booksmart,’ ‘Moonlight,’ ‘Ladybird,’ ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ ‘Atonement’ — like those kinds of films.
You said you’re writing a movie. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Of course. It's called ‘Souls of Hooper,’ and it takes place in Hooper, Utah. It's an overwhelming arc of these two girls in Utah 2009 where the Mormon Church is really heavy. So, there’s this one girl who's a minority in a sense where she's not in a Mormon Church, and she's just kind of like, ‘Fuck the religion side of things.’ And the other girl is very heavily involved in the church. It's pretty much about their relationship and how it blossoms and how they have to stay closeted through the Mormon Church. And it's pretty much a giant ‘fuck you’ to the Mormon Church. I didn't grow up Mormon, but I grew up around a lot of Mormons in Vegas, so I just want to bring that to light. It delves into some pretty serious topics, so I want to make sure I do it right. Honestly, I would like to direct that myself, but I’m excited to see what I could do with it.
How'd you get into film to begin with?
I always knew I liked the overwhelming arc of cinema as a whole, just ‘cause my dad was into Western films and all that stuff. ‘Singing in the Rain’ was my favorite movie at three, which is, like, so pretentious and douchey of me. And then — I feel, like, just like every single lesbian want-to-be coming of age director — I saw ‘Lady Bird,’ and that made me want to be a filmmaker.
Is there anyone in particular that you aspire to in the film industry?
Yeah. I mean, Gerwig is up there. She's just so articulate with her writing style. I feel like ‘Portrait of a Lady of Fire’ was a little too mainstream for me, but Celine Scammia in, like, ‘Water Lilies’/‘Tomboy’ era would've been cool. I feel like, now, she's a little above the realm of the kind of movies I want to make — like, period pieces are not my typical cup of tea — but I really like her. I like Lulu Wang too. I just like the touch of delicacy that female directors have, you know what I mean?
Definitely. What film character do you relate to the most?
Ooh, I would say my go-to are typically Amy from ‘Booksmart’ and Nadine from ‘The Edge of Seventeen.’
How did you balance your time between training and your hobbies?
I didn't. Honestly, I feel like in May, June, July, and August, I've had no time to watch movies, no time to listen to music or podcasts — anything like that. But before that, all I did was just eat, sleep, swim, apply to film school, so I'd sit in bed all day and just watch movies. And since I'm so old — like, I deferred college for three years to try to make the Olympic team — most of my friends are off at college. So, I just had so much more free time and it was like, I could either hang out with the 15-year-olds who are all like boy crazy right now and going through that phase in their lives, or I could just sit at home and watch a movie. I think I was just leaning more towards the movie side of things.
You said like that there wasn't really any queer female representation in the swimming community, but was there anyone else you looked up to? How did you stay inspired to keep going even when you may have felt like you were alone.
Yeah, I would say a big one was — they were Olympians in this quad — Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson. They did marathon swimming, and Ashley's brother is openly gay so she's just been a really big ally for the community. When I was turning 17-years-old and just coming out as gay, she had a pride flag on her water bottle — it was just a little sticker. And at the Olympic trials this year, she had a pride flag on her cap. Even though she's not in the community, just her showing little things like that made me feel comfortable. I feel like she stepped up when there was no voice within the whole world of swim. I think she helped a lot of people, including myself.
Finally, what do you want to say to any young people who now look up to you as a source of inspiration?
I'm honored, simply put. At the end of the day, I've just been the nerd who likes to watch movies and obsess over Taylor Swift and tweet stupid things. And the fact that I'm inspiring people to come out or keep swimming or come out to their swim team — it's such a weird healing to me. It's just like, ‘How did I, the person who likes to put weird reviews on Letterboxd, get put in that kind of power?’ And at the end of the day, I'm so immensely grateful for that opportunity.
