Despite having one of the most devastating endings in recent cinematic history, Sean Baker’s PGA Award-winning “Anora” definitely offers a few giggles, and not just in the film‘s centerpiece slapstick scene featuring Ani taking on three henchmen trying to keep her in her place.
In a recent interview with GQ, the film’s star and Oscar nominee Mikey Madison said, “I found in the script that there was a lot of, like, humor and silliness involved in some of the sex scenes.”
In this sense, Madison felt the script for “Anora” humanized sex work and, in turn, wanted to connect with the world of this vocation before the cameras started rolling.
“It was important to me to try to research as much as possible,” she said. “I wanted to try to understand that community in a really specific way, so that I could portray Ani’s life as realistically as possible. I didn’t want it to be sensationalized or dramatized in a negative way. I just wanted it to be what it was.”
Prior to production commencing, Madison spent time going out to strip clubs in her native LA with friends, speaking to the dancers, but also observing them in their element, as an artist would its subject.
“I was like, ‘I need to go to clubs and see how the girls move,’” said Madison. “‘I want to understand how you walk onto a stage, and how you collect money and how you talk to people.’”
As much as Madison appreciated the commitment these women had to their bodies and the work they put in to showing them off, what truly captured her attention was “how emotional a job it is.” It may be fun and games for the big shots throwing bills, but for those picking them up, it’s a lot to handle.
“Obviously you’re doing all this physical work of dancing and giving lap dances and being on your feet all night,” Madison told GQ. “But it’s very emotional. … To exchange those energies all night, or receive very sexual energy at you, or something dark or sad or happy. It’s all of it, all at once. You kind of get to the nitty gritty of someone very quickly.”
In addition to winning the Darryl F. Zanuck Award at the PGA ceremony on Saturday, February 8, “Anora” also earned Sean Baker his first DGA Award. Both are strong prognosticators for Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards and with “Anora” nominated in both categories, it might just be its to lose.
