Abigail Wilson is a London-based writer, director, and actor whose work often explores emotional extremes and overlooked realities. After winning UKMVA awards for her music videos with Modeselektor and Stone, she directed Triple The Vote, a powerful campaign seen over 2 million times. Her award-winning short film Overdrive dives deep into the lived experience of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), using sound, stunts, and storytelling to express what words alone often can’t.
We spoke to Abigail about the making of Overdrive, from directing her own fight scenes to translating the chaos of PMDD into film language. Along the way, we touched on the phases of the menstrual cycle, her creative process, the role of sound in showing mental strain, and how filmmaking can open up new ways of talking about menstrual and hormonal health.
1. The title feels almost metabolic. What does “Overdrive” mean to you?
Feeling like you are trying to stay calm and steady whilst an outside force that feels much bigger than you, is trying to throw you off course pushing you into literal overdrive.
2. How do you translate the feelings and frequencies one experiences PMDD into film language?
‘Calm to chaos’ was my mantra from the very beginning, because those words perfectly encapsulated the emotional arc of a debilitating menstrual cycle. Any time I needed to figure something out in production I’d revisit it. It was an anchor that grounded and informed every single department.
3. The action sequences in Overdrive are truly impressive. Can you tell us a bit about how that was, directing your own stunts and fight choreography?
During the fight sequence I had to mostly rely on my EPs, stunt director, coordinators and producer to give their eyes to the playback monitor. Only replaying key moments. We shot this in two packed days – being pedantic just wasn’t possible – and as someone who’s inherently detail oriented, that was a big lesson in letting go.
Having stunt doubles for driving and fighting also helped, it meant the effect of feeling at war with this other side of you could work by shooting everything in camera and rarely relying on visual effects.
4. Most cinematic hormone?
Oooh, great question - I have to say Oxytocin. Its influence enables us to feel empathy for characters in films!
5. PMDD is often downplayed or mistaken for ‘just bad PMS.’ How important was it for you to push past that narrative and show something that felt more true to the lived experience, even if it made audiences uncomfortable?
I think women are taught from a young age to downplay their pain, and emotion.
I think it’s a product of social conditioning and survival in the world we live in today. I wanted to make something on the more extreme end of the spectrum in order to evoke a reaction. This needed to be intense to watch, it needed to be impactful, and it needed to stand out.
6. Sound in Overdrive seems to bypass logic and go straight to the nervous system. Was that your way of communicating the mental toll of PMDD when language often fails to explain what’s happening?
Absolutely - sound is a super important part of filmmaking - it can be highly emotive - music and sound just hit different. The music needed to go on a journey too. Again, circling back to the mantra from calm to chaos, to then calm again. You and Who’s Army by Radiohead was an important track for me to have. That song to me represents a sense of going through this totally alone.
7. Which cycle phase do you trust the most for your creative process? Any rituals for hormonal clarity?
I really trust my spring (post bleeding). It's when I get busy planting seeds of ideas, they mostly come through then. I’m often careful and protective and don’t talk about them much, so I guess that’s a ritual I’m in sync with. Being calm and quiet during this creative idea phase.
8. Your favorite film that feels like Day 27?
Day 27 is usually when I bleed - so let’s go for a good old slasher movie like Carrie!
9. Do you think filmmaking is cyclical?
Totally! Film making, if I were to break it down like a cycle, has similar phases, from idea conception, to funding to production to post to releasing them into the world!
The only thing is these cycles last a lot longer than a month...
10. How do you think art and film can change the conversation around menstrual health, particularly lesser-known conditions like premenstrual psychosis or PMDD?
Tremendously. There are no limits with how you can create art. It's a highly personal process with the sole purpose to connect with others in whatever way it needs to connect!
11. Any words of inspiration or wisdom for our creative readers out there with PMDD?
Trial and error, finding what works for you might not work for someone else. Look at your health holistically.
Menstrual cycles can be incredibly powerful in communicating with us, getting in tune with what it’s trying to say to you is key.
Watch Abigail’s short film Overdrive here and visit her website to explore more of her work. If you’d like to continue the conversation around PMDD, hormonal health, and shifting cycles, head to our Instagram @TwoMoonsHealth.
In Conversation With
Abigail Wilson is a London-based writer, director and actor. Her music videos for Modeselektor and Stone won UKMVA awards in 2021 and 2023. In 2024, she directed Triple The Vote, a viral campaign film for Upvote seen over 2M times. Her short film Overdrive premiered at the 2025 London Short Film Festival, was longlisted at the 1.4 Awards, and won Best Short for Positive Change at the Creative Circle Awards.