'Anora' Exclusive Interview: Mikey Madison

Moviefone speaks with Mikey Madison about 'Anora' and Sean Baker. "To have a director like that want to work with me, I've never had that experience before."

Opening in theaters on October 18th is the new film ‘Anora’, which was written and directed by Sean Baker (‘The Florida Project’, ‘Red Rocket’). The movie stars Mikey Madison (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’), Mark Eydelshteyn (‘The Land of Sasha’) and Yura Borisov (‘Petrov's Flu’).

Related Article: Movie Review: 'Anora'

Mikey Madison stars in 'Anora'. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mikey Madison about her work on ‘Anora’, collaborating with director Sean Baker, preparing to play her character, and physically preparing for her action sequences.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Madison, Mark Eidelshtein, Vache Tovmasyan, Karren Karagulian, and director Sean Baker.

Mikey Madison as Ani in 'Anora'. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.

Moviefone: To begin with, filmmaker Sean Baker wrote the role of Anora with you in mind. Knowing that, was there added pressure for you while playing this part?

Mikey Madison: Oh my gosh, yes. To have a director like that approach me and want to work with me, I've never had that experience before. I did put a lot of pressure on myself to do this character justice and to live up to any expectations that he had of me. I think that I channeled that into just the immense amount of preparation I put into the character, all the mental preparation and the research, and then all the physical preparation I did, and the dance rehearsal. I think I overcompensated by doing all of that and then obviously learning Russian.

(L to R) Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in 'Anora'. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.

MF: Can you talk about how you prepared to play this role?

MM: Everything. I think I went into the process and the preparation quite naively. I had been to a couple clubs and watched how women danced and moved. I did not expect it to be so physically demanding and difficult. It is the most physically challenging thing I've ever had to do, but it looks so effortless, which is the purpose of it. It's supposed to be very sexy, effortless and erotic, and all the while you're just holding yourself up, your upper body with your inner thighs. So, that to me was so challenging and really informed the way that I approached the character and what some of her mentality would be, and just how psychological that job is as well. You must be very intuitive to be in that line of work. Then the Russian was very difficult. It's a very complicated language. I could go on and on, but my eyes were open to the kind of world that she lives in.

(L to R) Sean Baker, Mikey Madison, and Mark Eydelshteyn on the set of 'Anora'. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.

MF: Finally, can you talk about how Anora defends herself in the movie and preparing for the fight scenes?

MM: It was very fun. It was funny, and very challenging. I was exhausted at the end of the day and covered in bruises that we were just covering up every day on set. But I knew that I did my job at the end of the day when I would just slump into bed because I knew I was exerting all the energy that I had into this sequence and her fight, and I wanted her to fight hard, and I wanted her to fight dirty and scrappy. So, I needed to just jump into it as much as I could. But oh God, yeah, there was so much laughing going on in that scene because there's aspects of it that are just ridiculous. We had one take where I kick a character’s head into the glass table, and it shatters. One take to do it. So, it was so hard not to laugh afterwards because it was ridiculous just kicking this grown man through a table, but awesome.

Anora

"Love is a hustle."

R2 hr 19 minNov 1st, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Anora Online

What is the plot of ‘Anora’?

Mikey Madison captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya's parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.