by James Mottram
When we join Sean Baker, the filmmaker is still “processing” the remarkable journey that his new film Anora has been on, in particular, its sensational win at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Since our interview, the film has of course won multiple Oscars, including Best Film and Best Director.
Baker became the first American filmmaker to claim the prestigious top prize since Terrence Malick was awarded for 2011’s The Tree of Life.
As much as this story of a spirited Brooklyn lap dancer was a surprise win, it’s not like Baker is a rookie. Films like The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021) have played in Cannes.
Still, Baker was taken aback when jury president Greta Gerwig awarded Anora the Golden Palm. “This was my dream come true,” he says. “This is what I’ve been focusing on for the last thirty years. And that is no embellishment there. And I actually thought it was going to happen later in life. I thought I was going to have to travel a very long road and maybe win it at 80. So, I wasn’t expecting it. I did hear some buzz, and I thought we might be getting something, but never in the world that I thought that we’d be taking home the Palme d’Or.”
This raucous comedy-drama stars Mikey Madison, previously known for her role as one of Charles Manson’s murderous acolytes in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She plays Anora – or Ani – whose life as a sex worker changes overnight when a client pays for her company for a week. The son of a Russian oligarch, the seemingly smitten Ivan (Mark Eidelstein) soon proposes marriage, whisking Ani off to Vegas to complete the ceremony.
What follows is anything but happy-ever-after, as Ivan’s incredulous, infuriated parents send in their fixer Toros (Karren Karagulian) and two goons, Igor (Yuri Borisov) and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) to forcibly annul the marriage.
For Baker, again exploring those on the margins of mainstream society, the story began with a “desire to shoot something involving the Russian-American community in New York, specifically, Brighton Beach, Coney Island.”
This came in part from Baker’s long-standing friendship with Karagulian [below, centre]. “We’ve worked together on every film of mine, and we’re always sharing ideas. And he is a New Yorker, very linked to that community. We know that it’s been covered in the past by some filmmakers, but we thought we could bring something new to it.”
Movies like James Gray’s Little Odessa and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises spring to mind. “I thought we could do something different with it and humanise it a little bit more.”
Initially, Baker began concocting a story concerning “a young bride who is held against her will, when her young husband abandons her”, one that eventually got folded into the plot of Anora. “I did not want to do the Russian gangster thing. I thought that was overdone,” Baker continues. “So, we were saying, ‘How else can we cover the themes of power? And what other scenario would this young bride find herself in, if it didn’t have to do with the mafia?’”
It was soon suggested that Baker switch the controlling force to an oligarch, setting the film in 2019, before both the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At this point, he started thinking of who should play Ani, eventually settling on Mikey Madison, who had caught his eye on both the Tarantino movie and the recent Scream reboot. Impressed by Madison’s physicality, Baker felt she was ideal for Ani. “I knew that Ani was going to be a scrapper and have to hold her own.”
They met early on for a face-to-face. “I said to Mikey over coffee, ‘Would you be interested in taking on this role?’ And she was very excited. And I said, ‘Okay, now, give me time. Now I’m going to go off and write the film for you, with you in mind, picturing you as Ani’. It took me about a year to do it. But it was really wonderful to be able to write this entire screenplay, always picturing Mikey as Ani, and Karren as Toros.”
What results is a wild ride that picks up speed when the frightened Ivan scarpers, leaving Ani to face Toros and his hired hands. This leads to the film’s centrepiece showdown, a staggering 28-minute real time sequence, as Ani fights back, trashing Ivan’s parents’ living quarters in their luxury American abode. “We had to keep the reality there,” says Baker. “We had to believe that she was in peril, that she was also fighting back, that she was holding her own some of the time.”
To ensure the scene felt real, Madison and her co-star Yuri Borisov did their own stunts. “We went about it in the safest way, making sure that she was safe, and Yuri was safe, and we got that one take, which I’m still amazed about, because it excites me, and it’s a rarity… when he pulls her back on the couch and the lamp goes and smashes, that’s all one take, and it’s incredible. So, I give it up to my actors. I give it up to my wonderful stunt coordinator who helped me choreograph that moment.”
Madison also spent months learning pole dancing, which chimed with Baker’s insistence on ensuring that the world of sex work was authentically represented. The film’s chief consultant was Andrea Werhun, who recently authored Modern Whore: A Memoir about her time as an escort and stripper. “And she was just fact-checking – numbers and accuracy,” says Baker. “Giving me little details that I need to flesh out that world, little details that sex workers will point out and say, ‘Okay, they knew what they were talking about’.”
Baker was also excited about shooting in a lap dancing club. “I’ve never seen a lap dance club in a movie,” he says. “Then, of course, when Mikey got involved, she came to New York and spent hours at that club getting to know the dancers. And we had a few dancers who were cast in the film, and so they were always watchdogging us – in a good way, in the best way – making sure that our depiction was accurate, respectful and responsive.”
We wonder if Baker was a fan of Martin Scorsese’s own nocturnal New York odyssey After Hours. “I’m very aware of that film, and I love that film, but I have to be honest, I don’t think it was a direct influence. This is my fourth film that takes place in a short amount of time. This takes place over two days. But my other films…Four Letter Words [Baker’s 2000 debut] and Tangerine [2015] specifically, take place within a 24-hour period of time. So, I’m kind of used to that. And I’m comfortable writing for a condensed period of time.”
Since Cannes, Anora has continued its upswing, recently garnering six nominations at the Golden Globes, including Best Picture in the musical or comedy category and Best Director and Screenwriter for Baker. An Oscar run now seems a certainty, although Baker isn’t about to change direction. “I like the movies I’m making. I like the wheelhouse I’m working in,” he says. “This cost a little bit more than Florida Project, yet it still allowed me to cast unconventionally. It still allowed me to exercise some guerrilla filmmaking tactics. So, I was comfortable here, and I would like to continue that.”
Anora is in cinemas on Boxing Day 2024
