‘Anora’s Mikey Madison On Learning Russian And Portraying Sex Work Respectfully: “That Was The Ultimate Goal”

deadline.com:

At the heart of Sean Baker’s film Anora is Mikey Madison. Having seen her work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream, Baker cast her as Ani, a young woman working as a dancer in a New York strip joint and living in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood.

When Ani impulsively marries a rich but immature client (Mark Eydelshteyn), his oligarch father and mother descend from Russia in a bid to annul the union.

For Madison, preparation and authenticity were key, so she set about not only learning Russian and dance, but cultivating a deep understanding of the world of sex workers. DEADLINE: I read a piece written by a sex worker saying your character in Anora is the most respectful and real representation they’ve seen. MIKEY MADISON: That was the ultimate goal, I think, for me, and why I wanted to do so much research and dive into this and how important it was for this character, so that’s so wonderful.

I read Andrea [Werhun]’s memoir. It’s called Modern Whore. It’s amazing. She’s a beautiful writer, and she talks about her life as a sex worker, as an escort and a dancer in her early twenties.