Sean Baker wrote the role of the gutsy exotic dancer at the heart of his Palme d’Or winner for the actress.
When writer/director Sean Baker saw Mikey Madison play one of Charles Manson’s followers in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, he knew she was one to watch. After seeing her in 2022’s Scream, Baker – best known for The Florida Project, Red Rocket and Tangerine – decided he wanted her for the lead of his next film, Anora. No audition required.
“I’ve never had a director reach out like that and want to pitch me an idea,” the softly spoken Madison tells Screen International. “I remember talking to my agent and she said, ‘You have the role.’ I was like, ‘Even before meeting him? I don’t even know what this movie is about. I don’t know what it is he sees in me or how he’s able to trust me like that.’”
Madison met Baker and his producer and wife Samantha Quan for coffee, and he told her “a loose idea for what the film would be. The storyline was a little different and I didn’t know much about my character. I don’t think I even knew what her name would be. He would go into detail about certain scenes, and I could see how excited he was. He said, ‘If you want to work together, I’ll write this movie for you.’ I said yes, because he’s a talented filmmaker and I love his films.”
This was January 2022 and, with Madison on board, Baker set about writing what would become Anora. The story follows Ani (Madison), a steely exotic dancer from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn who turns tricks on the side and marries pampered Russian oligarch’s son Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) in a Las Vegas wedding, then must contend with his family’s desperate desire to have the union annulled.
“I’ve seen his films. I know he’s told stories about sex workers. I trusted him immediately,” says Madison. “When I read the script in its entirety [and realised] she’s a sex worker and there’s nudity, it seemed natural to me. I was excited to explore that character and dive into the research.”
And dive she did. “I committed more to the preparation process and dedicated more time than anything I’ve ever done before,” she reveals. “I started small, working on her backstory, to create this character from the ground up. I sat down at my computer early on and wrote a hundred or so questions. What kind of cigarettes does she smoke? How did she like school? What were her grades? I filled in all the blanks.
“On set, the first day, I was, ‘I know exactly who this person is. I am her. I’m wearing her clothes. I have her nails on.’ There’s no question someone could ask me about her life I wouldn’t have an answer to. I’ve never done that kind of preparation before, but I really enjoyed it.”
Dance moves
As part of her prep, Madison worked with a choreographer to learn how to dance. It was a training regime that included three months of pole-dancing lessons for just 20 seconds of screen time.
“I underestimated how difficult it was going to be, at least to get to the level I wanted. I wanted her dancing to be impressive. I wanted it to be realistic. I wanted her to have some pole tricks in her back pocket, things that look very effortless, because, even in those short scenes, you learn so much about the character and her history.”
The training, which continued even while she was filming Apple TV+ miniseries The Lady In The Lake, improved her physicality, which further impacted the character.
“It made me move in a different way, made me walk differently. I was more in tune with my body in a way I wasn’t before, which was necessary for her and her sexuality and how she presents herself,” says Madison. “I avoid conflict like the plague, but she’s so sure of her place in the world and fights tooth and nail for the life she feels she deserves. She will not back down. I liked that about her.”
On set, Madison eschewed a stunt double for her fight scenes. “I was covered head to toe in bruises, which is why in the end we added that line: ‘You bruise easily.’ I was totally beaten up by that point.”
She also decided to learn Russian, as it is Ani’s linguistic skills that initially put her in Ivan’s orbit. “My first Russian session, I was crying at the end because it’s an incredibly complicated language,” she admits. “But I didn’t want to memorise the lines phonetically, I wanted to know what I was saying. I wanted to understand what the other actors were saying.”
Madison also wanted to nail Ani’s accent, working with a dialect coach and moving to Brighton Beach a month before shooting to hone it further. In addition, she read memoirs by sex workers and visited strip clubs in Los Angeles and New York, either with a friend or with Baker and Quan, to talk to the women who worked there.
“The emotional preparation was a huge part of it. The research into sex work was vital. I shadowed dancers and that was incredibly impactful to understand the etiquette of the club she works at, how difficult a job it is, and what it entails. I was able to pick up bits of conversation and add nuance to the character.”
Madison was born and raised in Los Angeles, but away from the glare of Hollywood (“I grew up deep in the Valley”) and initially wanted to be an equestrian. But during her teen years she found herself drawn to the films of John Hughes, specifically those starring Molly Ringwald.
“I fell in love with her as an actress. Pretty In Pink, something about it spoke to me and I didn’t know what it was. I was, like, ‘Maybe I want to be a seamstress or a fashion designer.’ I took sewing classes, and I was like, ‘No, that’s not right, I think I want to be an actress,’ which was very difficult because my mom and I didn’t know where to start. But we found some random acting class and I loved it.”
When she was 16, she was cast as Pamela Adlon’s eldest daughter in FX comedy drama Better Things, which ran for five seasons, during which time she made Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood.
Anora premiered at Cannes last May, winning the Palme d’Or, before opening in the US through Neon and internationally via Focus Features/Universal. At the time of writing, it has taken $12m in North America and $17.2m worldwide, giving Sean Baker his biggest box-office hit to date. It has also put Madison firmly in the best actress awards conversation, with Critics Choice, Independent Spirit and Golden Globe nominations already in the bag.
Yet she still finds the hype a little mystifying. “The only time I hear people talking about it is when journalists ask,” says Madison, who is contemplating her next cinematic move. She says she is “looking for that project that really speaks to me and feels special. I don’t know what it will be yet. I’m hopeful something will come along that I fall in love with.”
No comments yet