On a night like any other, a girl is plucked out of an ordinary existence and chosen for something more. When Anora, a young sex worker in Brooklyn, played by the transformative Mikey Madison, meets Mark Eidelshtein’s Ivan in a neon-hued, satin-ensconced nightclub, a whirlwind romance quickly blossoms. It’s not long before the starry-eyed lovers run away to Vegas together and get married, their love story the makings of a real-life Cinderella fairytale. Still, reality finds a way, as it often does, to come crashing down upon their heads. Ivan’s the son of a Russian oligarch, and when his family catches wind of what their faraway offspring has been up to, they hurry to America to shatter Anora and Ivan’s nuptial bliss and have the marriage annulled as fast as possible. “Sean [Baker] reached out after a horror film I did came out opening weekend, and he went to go see it,” Madison tells me about landing the titular role in the Tangerine director’s latest project. “That same week, we met and had coffee, and he pitched me this interesting, crazy movie idea and said, ‘If you want to do it, I’ll write it for you.’” Of course, Madison immediately agreed to be the muse for Baker’s next film. “I was absolutely thrilled at the idea of working with him and just overjoyed that he wanted to create something for me. I’ve never had a director reach out like that and see something in me before, whatever it was that he did see. It was special from the beginning, the collaboration that we were able to have.” Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn with “Anora” Director Sean Baker on set. (NEON) Anora, or Ani, as she prefers to be called in the film, is familiar as a young woman questing for her sense of self, trying on different versions of her personality and seeking to be seen. When she crosses paths with Ivan, a wealthy young man with a similar plight of feeling lost in a crowd, Ani acts as his beacon in a storm, and in return, she finally feels recognized by one of her peers. Their confidence and ability to break language barriers through Ani’s native Russian tongue is a front for the fact that they’re building a dream scenario on a rocky foundation. Neither one of them can relate to anyone else, and they chase highs together night after night, completely oblivious to the idea that this enchantment could ever fade. “I mean, I think he’s someone who lives this incredible, fun life where he lives so comfortably,” says Madison about what draws her character Anora to someone like Ivan. “He gets to just party twenty-four seven, and have fun, and have adventures, and go to all these amazing places and wear beautiful clothes. Of course, that’s going to be attractive to her. Like, are you kidding? That’s her dream life. Why wouldn’t she want that? He welcomes her in such a grand way, I think that she’s like, of course, why wouldn’t I take this opportunity? And I think if there’s any possible flags that come up, she pushes them to the side because what’s presented to her at the moment is so magical.” They say only fools rush in, but if leading lady Madison is being honest, when presented with such a fantastical existence, it’s hard for anyone not to fall prey to rosy anticipation. After a few short meetings outside of the club, Ivan proposes the idea of hiring Anora to be his full-time, live-in girlfriend for a week. While she is initially trepidatious to be exclusive, Ani can’t help but be bowled over by Ivan’s innate charm and generous nature. (NEON) “It’s interesting, when I was doing my preparation for the character, I imagined that this is the first time that she’s had a client who’s as close to her age as Ivan is,” muses Madison, “And so I think the lines become blurred in some ways because he could be someone that she would date in real life, not just be hired to date. She’s having so much fun with him, and they get to be youthful together. He disarms her in lots of ways.”  Adds Madison, “I think that [Anora] is also someone who’s very intuitive, and so she knows what people think of her generally. It’s just whether or not she decides to take that on.” With Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket and now Anora, Sean Baker has cemented himself as an established filmmaker intent on championing the unsung through the power of his lens. Using his camera like a magical portal, the director beautifully captures crucial slice-of-life narratives by shedding light on very human and often neglected everyday characters, and putting the spotlight on their unique brand of sincerity.  (NEON) “I think Sean is really dedicated to telling those stories of people who are often overlooked or misunderstood in society, and so I really appreciate his dedication to authenticity, and also how much he respects and cares about his characters,” reflects Madison. “It was really exciting to be in a film like that and to play a character where I felt the same way, as if I completely fell in love with this character. Also, through my research into sex work, I’ve fallen in love with that community and respect it so much. I’ve met so many incredible people. So, that made me feel like, okay, I want to portray this in the most honest, realistic way possible, because I just want to do this character justice.” Preparation for this very multifaceted role meant months and months of hard work for star Madison, physically, intellectually and emotionally, but she was more than willing to rise to the occasion.  “I immediately acknowledged that she is someone who is very, very different from me in so many ways,” says Madison about sliding into Anora’s skin. “There’s a lot about her life that is foreign to me, and so I knew early on that I needed to completely dedicate as much time and all of myself into learning about those things.” Whether that be engaging in intense dance training sessions so that Madison may appear as though she is a seasoned dancer, learning how to speak Russian like an American-born girl with an extensive heritage, or cultivating a hyper-specific Brooklyn accent so accurate that even New Yorkers would find it acceptable, Madison poured every ounce of energy and perseverance she had into getting ready to be Anora. “I gave myself many months to learn about her,” the actress recalls. “So honestly, I think it was just a little piece at a time, and I was able to put those puzzle pieces together where eventually, I’m on set, and I know exactly who this character is. I’ve done all the work I needed to do: physical, mental and the emotional backstory of who she is, and things just fell into place.” (NEON) In order to achieve the physicality she desired for Anora, the star turned to Kennady Schneider for help, the film’s movement consultant for Madison.  “I wanted her to be someone who has danced for at least a couple years,” says Madison about her drive to create a character that is physically authentic. “So what does that look like? I took a couple of introductions to pole classes and I was like, this is so hard. I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off in the way that I want to.” Looking for guidance, Madison found an incredible Los Angeles dancer in Schneider to train her. “She taught me everything, from how to give a lap dance, to twerking, to certain pole tricks that I wanted to accomplish — and I wanted to do some pretty ambitious things. She was amazing.” Together, Schneider and Madison dedicated several hours a day to perfecting the actor’s aerobics, curating a highly desirable rhythmic expression while also providing the performer with a body believable enough to pass as an experienced dancer. “Learning to dance like that, it wasn’t just so that I could accomplish those dance scenes,” explains Madison. “It gave me a different body, a different physicality, like a dancer’s body. I was comfortable walking in heels. It gave me a sensuality I didn’t have before. I was more in touch with certain parts of my body, and I also think, in terms of physicality, like the hair and the nails add so much to that. When you walk around in high heels, it affects the way that you walk. You’re on your tiptoes, which is very vulnerable, but you’re so tall, which is also quite powerful. And then I have these long acrylic nails, and there’s so much attitude in the tips of my fingertips that I get to use and work with. It was all these little things that were important to me, that I was able to integrate into her physicality, which is a big piece of creating a character.” On their very first night meeting each other, Ivan enters the club where Anora works and asks for a girl who speaks Russian. Both Ivan and the actor portraying him, Mark Eidelshtein, know very little English, leading Madison to bridge the gap through the power of language. Working with Dialogue Consultant Albert Rudnitsky, the actress spent countless hours studying Russian and developing a way of speaking that felt like a proper fit for Ani. “I didn’t want her to fit in completely with any specific group of people, even when she’s speaking Russian to Ivan,” says Madison. “I wanted it to sound slightly American.” It was very important to the star to actually learn the words she was reciting, instead of just regurgitating lines from the script. “I didn’t want to be repeating sentences and memorizing things. Phonetically, I wanted to know exactly what I was saying, and the inflections, and understand what was being said to me. I was just stubborn in that way, where I spent a lot of time working on it and took lots of lessons.” From the get-go, Madison was fiercely devoted to the massive undertaking of learning a brand new language in a very short span of time. Still, she found joy in the pursuit. “There’s the fun part of it, where the first thing I did was, I was like, before we do anything, I want to know all the swear words,” she laughs, “I think that that was a good base to start off of, but yeah, it was definitely daunting, because it’s such a complicated language, and it’s very, very complex. I wanted to get it right.” (NEON) Using language like connective tissue was imperative to Madison, who also sought to mimic a Brooklyn accent, while simultaneously creating an individualistic sound that felt local to Anora’s specific block. “New Yorkers will tell you, there’s different variations of accents,” the actor relays, “So I worked with a dialect coach to create a base for the accent, and I was like, okay, I don’t think this is good enough. And so, I went to New York about a little less than a month early and lived in Brighton Beach.” By immersing herself in the local culture, Madison found it easier to connect to Ani. “I was able to fine-tune the accent, make it more specific to that area, to Brooklyn. Also, to the girls I was meeting at clubs. There was a certain modern inflection that a lot of young women have, that I wanted to implement into that accent as well because I found it to be very youthful and charming.”  Luna Sofía Miranda, who plays Lulu in the film, was also a big influence on Madison’s dialect. “I remember we were hanging out, and she was imitating her old accent because she was born and raised in Brooklyn. She’s like, ‘Well, I used to talk like this, and this is what it would sound like,’ and I was like, ‘Keep going, keep going!’ That was great because I was able to take inspiration from different places and different people. I got to a place where I was really happy with it, and it was like the back of my hand.” It’s not hard to see why Baker would want to build this movie around Mikey Madison. Anora is a rollercoaster ride of mounting intoxication and plummeting heartache, fueled by uproariously hilarious kicks and soul-shattering comments on capitalism, and it’s all anchored by an unabashedly moving performance by Madison, culminating in a fiery affair of the heart that might just be crowned as the best movie of the year. It already won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Mikey Madison and Sean Baker at the “Anora” New York premiere at Regal Times Square on Oct. 15, 2024 in New York City. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images) “To work with someone like Sean, who wrote this film for me, and saw me in a way that nobody has ever seen before, and gave me an opportunity to play this incredible character,” Madison pauses with a smile, as if lost in thought for a moment. “To have someone see you like that, and recognize you, it’s like the most incredible feeling. It made me want to go above and beyond, to dive into this character and push myself beyond any limit that I had before, any comfort zone. I learned a lot about my work ethic as an actor, my dedication, and then also just how important my voice is as an artist.”  Like Anora, Madison finally found a collaborator who didn’t just look at her, but really, truly saw her, and all that she was capable of becoming. “He wanted to hear all of my ideas,” says the actress about building the story with Baker, “And at first, I think it took me some time to grow the confidence to feel comfortable enough to share those ideas, because I had never necessarily been asked to collaborate with a director in the way Sean wanted to collaborate with me. But then I got to a place where I was like, oh, we’re in this together. I get to be involved in every aspect of this movie. It’s transformative to have that kind of experience, really. I think I just look at the projects that I wanna do next, the people I wanna work with next, in a different way — in a more thoughtful way.” Anora opens in select theaters this Friday, Oct. 18 The post How Mikey Madison Transformed Into ‘Anora’ — Her Breakthrough Role in the Cannes-Winning, Oscar-Frontrunning Film appeared first on LA Weekly.