Anora depicts events leading up to — and spiralling down from — an extraordinary set of nuptials. Filmmaker Sean Baker reveals all to Screen about the creation of four key scenes.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and nominated for seven Bafta Film Awards, Sean Baker’s Anora is the riotous story of Ani aka Anora (Mikey Madison), an exotic dancer from Brighton Beach who turns tricks on the side. After she meets Russian oligarch’s son Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) at the club where she works, he asks to see her again, a sexual transaction that becomes a week of her time and services, culminating in the pair getting married in Las Vegas. But on returning home to Ivan’s mansion, the newlyweds discover not everyone is happy about their recent union.
As writer, director, producer and editor, Baker’s work has frequently focused on characters who trade sex for money, beginning with his fourth feature Starlet, and continuing with his filmed-on-iPhone breakout Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket. Anora is no exception. Anchored by Madison’s central performance, it features another talented ensemble, Russian actor Yura Borisov and Baker regular Karren Karagulian among them.
“I always encourage my actors to improvise within [the script], doing alternate takes, or if there’s air in a certain spot, they’re more than welcome to try a one-liner here or there, or throw in an expletive,” says Baker over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, his wife and fellow producer Samantha Quan in the background, clarifying the occasional detail for him. “I’ll always take an expletive.”
Ani and Ivan meet
The scene: Ani and Ivan meet at Headquarters, the club where she works, then go to a private room.
Sean Baker: “That scene had to establish Ivan had money, was a little cocky but fun, and show how an interaction like that would play out completely, because the ones up to that point had been little snippets, with Ani suggesting they go to a private [room], which is her goal in these interactions. Headquarters is an actual club. It was fictionalised — we’re in no way saying escorting happens from this place. It’s a lap-dance club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s actually two clubs, one on top of the other: it’s called Rosewood on the ground floor, upstairs it’s called Headquarters. We liked the name so we made it all one.
“When they go upstairs [to the private room], it’s a little nod to [Krzysztof] Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Red because there’s that moment where it looks right out of that film. Downstairs was shot with traditional coverage. Upstairs was blocked out very specifically to show you what happens without being explicit. That’s why when she does go full nude, we got as far back as we possibly could, as wide as we could possibly be.
“As a producer, it’s very important for these sets to be safe and secure and comfortable for the actors. She [Mikey Madison] could have her parents there. She could have her agents. She could have an intimacy co-ordinator. Him [Mark Eydelshteyn] as well.
“We got to a place where we were so comfortable having worked together for a month leading up to production, we were saying, ‘It will be way more efficient and comfortable if it’s just us.’”
Ivan and pals party in Las Vegas
The scene: Ivan takes Ani and his friends to Las Vegas to party, before he proposes and the pair end up married.
Baker: “We wrapped New York, and then had about 20 days down[time] before going to Vegas. When we got there, it was a nice reunion. It was also celebratory, because we were wrapping the film. The Palms [Casino Resort] gave us almost full access and this wonderful penthouse suite, and allowed us to do what we wanted. Over the course of three days, we did a travelogue, in a way. We shot it docu-style, most of it handheld except for the proposal in bed and everything to do with their running to the chapel and getting married. That was very controlled with dollies and lockdown camera.
“There was one important improvisation in the middle of the proposal, when Ivan goes, ‘I party like this all the time’ and she says, ‘I love it.’ I think that’s important because it shows that Ani, who’s only 23, can see his lifestyle as appealing and something she would love to have a part of. She works every night until dawn. Her work is gruelling. And this kid gets to do whatever he wants. I love that little immature naivete that comes out with that line. Because she would like a different life — even if it’s childlike partying. That was Mikey who did that little bit of improv and I really appreciate that.
“The rest was young actors having fun… but it was also very tight. We were running out of money. We scheduled for a week and were given three days and had to pull it off. It was running and gunning, 20 minutes here, an hour there, trying to grab everything.
“I had a real desire to shoot on Fremont Street — which is old Vegas and attracts a lot of interesting tourists and wild Americans. We basically crashed Fremont Street. We had a permit but didn’t announce it to the public. We had them marching down Fremont Street announcing they got married and anybody who was featured enough, we would ask to sign a release.
“When we got to our final shot, which is one of the dancing shots, we went to a club, had them do it, then were able to say, ‘That’s a wrap on Anora,’ and everybody kept dancing. Then we went back to the penthouse where we had our afterparty. It was beautiful. The sun came up over Vegas. It was very bittersweet because everybody knew they were saying goodbye until, possibly, the film premiered.”
Enforcers invade the mansion
The scene: After Ivan’s parents learn of his marriage, they send Toros (Karren Karagulian) to force Ani into an annulment. But neither he nor his backups Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) are prepared for her reaction.
Baker: “That scene was very important, striking a balance between absurdity and seriousness, because it is absurd what’s happening, these men don’t know how to handle the situation. And this young woman, who is probably half the size of these guys, is holding her own. So the comedy comes from this absurd situation.
“At the same time, this is a very serious moment for Ani. Her life is flipped on its head at that point. So I wanted to have a moment in which we could laugh, then later be in grounded reality, to recognise the seriousness of the situation. My actors were all on the same page, they knew when they could get a little broad with their comic delivery and when they had to bring it back and keep it grounded.
“We scheduled for six days; it took eight. Because we shot in order, we saw it evolving. I’m also the editor, so I was keeping my editing cap on the entire time, knowing exactly how one moment was going to flow into the next.
“Yura was incredible. Not only as a performer, but also the ideas he brought to the table were wonderful. Later, in the diner, when he’s shoving hamburger in his mouth during that whole scene, that was his idea. In the home invasion, we were trying to find what the crescendo of the scene would be to allow us to do a smash-cut to [Ani] with the scarf gagging her. It was Yura who said, ‘I’m going to scream back in her face, asking her to stop screaming, but I’m going to be louder than her.’ I said, ‘Okay, I don’t know what that’ll look like but let’s do it.’ It was amazing. It made the scene work because suddenly it pumps up the absurdity, where this guy is screaming for her to be quiet, and when he did that ‘stop screaming!’, I knew it was our cut point.
“Karren has been in every one of my films. I think he’s wonderful. With this, he’s been able to show his comic chops a little more. We made Prince Of Broadway back in 2008, which is coming out on Criterion in April. He’s one of the leads in that. At the time I asked an agent, ‘Will you please rep Karren because he needs a break?’ I remember they said, ‘I don’t know… Can he play a terrorist?’ But that’s how Hollywood thinks. He’s only good for terrorist roles? He’s gotten one role from Anora. I hope the industry finally recognises his immense talent.”
Igor drives Ani home
The scene: After the marriage is annulled, Igor drives Ani to her house, and she initiates sexual contact.
Baker: “I don’t want to get too much into the meaning of it because that’s the whole point and I love the fact people interpret it in different ways because that’s how it was designed. We’re not hearing her inner thoughts; we don’t have narration and I don’t use any music to say anything specific. It’s up to the audience to come to their conclusion or at least think about the reasoning behind her actions. But it is a moment, at least the way it begins, in which she is trying to regain some of the power she once had and was stripped of by all these people.
“We shot it over the course of three different afternoons. It took three because there were so many technical cues and emotional cues, and if you compare it to the published screenplay, you’ll see it’s pretty spot-on. I shot the scene eight to 10 times and chose the one in which everything came together, including her single tear, which I wasn’t expecting. I scripted for her to cry at the end, but did not know she would deliver this very poignant one tear. I was in the back seat. But, for the most part, I just let it play out.
“It was quite a relief, because we went over schedule, and the NYPD were removing our [parking] cones. Very, very stressful, but we got there. Maybe the stress we all had around that, knowing this scene was the most important in the film, really got us on our A-game and even affected the actors’ performances.
“Yura is incredible and does so much with so little dialogue, and even less dialogue than originally intended. After she got on top of him, they had a few more lines back and forth, and a final line from him. During our rehearsal, we realised it was not only unnecessary but would weaken the scene, because there was this wonderful thing that was going on between the two of them. There were two people who were finally communicating. And non-verbally, which was so interesting.
“One of the themes we were tackling with this film is communication, or miscommunication, or non-communication. An actor always wants more lines, but Yura showed he was thinking of the film before himself.
“Then to hear Mikey talk about how Yura was there for her, as an actor, as scene partner. She’s very vulnerable as an actor in that moment, having to break down for the first time and show all this emotion and Yura was there for her in terms of comfort, in terms of warmth, giving her whatever she needed in that moment. And Mikey puts it all out there and gives just enough.
“Another actor might play it in a way that’s too subtle or too hysterical and over the top. In my eyes, she played it just right. I don’t see how anybody cannot feel for her in that moment. And not only empathy but sympathy. That character deserves that. And Mikey is the one who brought that.”
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