If you haven’t already heard of Mikey Madison, don’t worry because that will change very soon. The actress who turned heads for small roles in Scream and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is getting some of the best reviews of the year for her performance in Sean Baker’s latest, Anora. The Palme d’Or-winning dramed stars Madison as Anora aka Ani, an exotic dancer and sex worker from Brooklyn who thinks she’s found her Prince Charming when she meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). The son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan sweeps up Ani in a Cinderella dream for the ages, only to find that this fairy tale doesn’t have the happy ending she’d been hoping for.
There’s a reason Oscar buzz has been building for Madison. Ani is a complex character in a full-meal of a film that bounds from character study to screwball comedy and back again. Baker, keeping with his theme of humanizing sex workers and those who live on society’s fringes, wrote Anora with Madison in mind based on what he’d seen of her earlier work. His faith in her was rewarded as she brought the scrappy Brooklynite dreamer to life with passion and vulnerability in equal measure.
Mikey Madison was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me about Anora. This was a real treat for me as she was top of my list of people to speak with this awards season. Madison talked about the differences between her and Ani, the surprising physicality of the role, Baker’s guerrilla shooting style, and more.
Check out the interview below. Anora is open in theaters now. You can find my review here.
