By Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When director Sean Baker approached actor Mikey Madison with the lead role as the title character in the film “Anora,” Madison felt both honored and intimidated.
“I’ve never had a director write a film for me, you know, tailor-make a specific character for me,” Madison told Reuters.
Her worries eventually eased because she and Baker were “on the same page” when it came to the direction of her role as a sex worker who gets married.
Baker had seen Madison’s film work, including her performance as Susan Atkins in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and decided that if the 25-year-old actor wanted the role, he would write the film script specifically for her to be the lead.
“Anora” follows a sex worker named Ani, whose legal name is Anora, from Brooklyn, who meets and spontaneously marries an immature young man named Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov, the son of a Russian oligarch.
Ani’s fairytale life is at risk when Ivan, played by Russian actor Mark Eidelshteyn, must reckon with his parents, who want his marriage to a sex worker quickly annulled.
“Anora,” distributed by Neon, won the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and arrives in theaters on Friday.
Baker wanted audiences to experience two different films when watching “Anora,” as it goes from a “romantic comedy” to a “sobering reality” for its lead characters.
The “Take Out” director characterized the first part of the film as a Cinderella-like love story, and for Eidelshteyn, that rings true for his character.
“He (Ivan) had no love before Anora, and it’s a story of first love,” Eidelshteyn said.
While his character may be seen as a “bad guy,” the 22-year-old actor believes that Ivan’s complicated life may be misunderstood.
However, Madison has a different view on the relationship between their characters.
“I think maybe it’s a love story, depending on who you ask, maybe I have more of a cynical perspective,” she said, noting that she sees it as less of a love story for Ani.
One the most important things for both Baker and Madison was being able to authentically portray Ani’s life as a sex worker.
“I did a lot of research on the character, into the world of sex work and what that would be like. I talked to consultants and went to strip clubs and read memoirs,” Madison said.
Madison added that there was no need for an intimacy coordinator on the set because Baker created such a comfortable environment, often showing examples of the sex sequences with his wife for the actors to reference.
Baker, known for films that explore the lives of sex workers, doesn’t want his films to imply that the experiences of all sex workers are homogenous.
Rather, he hopes “Anora” will dispel the “unfair stigma” that sex workers face while also allowing viewers to connect with Ani’s unique journey.
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Omar Younis; Editing by Mary Milliken and Nick Zieminski)
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