Anora's Mikey Madison & Director Sean Baker Break Down a Scene

I don't wanna actually touch it.

I feel inappropriate,

you can do it. It's okay, we can do it.

[Sean] Yeah, yep, there we go.

[Sean and Mikey laughing]

And then like the alcohol comes down.

[Sean] Yeah, yeah, you pour the alcohol up here,

it comes down right into- Yeah.

Mikey's mouth.

[Sean and Mikey laughing]

Okay.

Hello, I'm Sean Baker, writer and director of Anora.

And I'm Mikey Madison, and I play Ani.

And this is Notes on a Scene.

No fucking way. Yes fucking way.

I fucking- Girl!

[Sean] So we're watching the New Year's Eve party scene.

[Ani] Insane inside,

there's an elevator. Oh my God.

This is actually the first scene that I shot with Luna,

but we already had created a friendship before then-

Mm. So we were able

to improvise.

Never seen anything like it- Are my tits off?

No, you're tits look amazing,

they're like- Okay.

Perfect, wait, are my tits off?

No.

We shot this in the winter,

so these two were scantily clad and freezing.

Absolutely freezing

shooting this moment- Yes, but coats don't

go with the outfits, so. No, no, no, no.

Now that we're inside here,

the audience is seeing the mansion through Luna's eyes.

Mm. At this moment.

This was a real home, a real mansion-

Mhm. In Mill Basin.

I wanted the biggest, most luxurious mansion in the area,

and so I did a little bit of Google Earth searching,

and I found it, and I sent it

to my incredible location manager, Ross Brodar.

The family that was living there was so wonderful

to allow us to shoot this film there,

we spent approximately three weeks at the mansion.

But I really like this closeup of Luna

because she's taking it all in,

and it's quite a spectacle.

And it's nice to see Ani's excitement as well-

Mm. Because you can kind of

see that intrigue and excitement building.

Yeah. And she gets

to show her best friend. Exactly.

Bro. Bro.

With movies, sometimes you don't have any music playing

and the actors have to scream as if there is music.

But, we wanted this to seem like a real party,

so we had a DJ blasting music,

we had approximately 50 extras that were crowding

in front of the camera- Yeah.

To make it look even bigger.

Hey, what's up?

Hi.

[Sean] Here we're presenting Mark

in a Great Gatsby sort of way.

Oh, Lulu, this is Ivan.

[Sean] Playing it very big, in a great way.

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

And every time Mark was bringing

the same amount of energy- Mm.

If not even more. Yep.

He really had to be, I don't know,

like the Energizer bunny- Yeah.

In these scenes, and sort of like he was the one

that was guiding everyone's sort of frenetic energy-

Yeah, he is the center of the party.

Yeah. He is the Great Gatsby.

I am so excited that you are here,

and let's go drink, yeah.

[Sean] So we're about to go over to the ice sculpture.

Wanna get some drinks? Hell yeah.

[Sean] Yep, right here,

there you go. Yes.

[Mikey laughing]

I'm not gonna do it, I don't wanna actually touch it,

I feel inappropriate,

you can do it. It's okay,

we can do it. Yeah, yep, there we go.

[Mikey and Sean laughing]

And then, like, the alcohol comes out.

[Sean] Yeah, yeah, you pour the alcohol here,

it comes down right into- Yeah.

Mikey's mouth.

[Sean and Mikey laughing]

Okay.

Are you ready?

And Ani.

Now, our wonderful production designer, Stephen Phelps,

showed me this and was like, Would this be appropriate

at Ivan's party?

And I was like, Hell yeah.

Yo, the escort- Yeah, now we're introducing

some of Ivan's friends,

played by these three wonderful actors,

Vlad, Anton, and Maria.

It's sort of setting up the relationship,

it's also showing, I think the first instance

of sort of a perhaps disrespect towards a sex worker

that you'll see a lot of coming up later in the film.

But just the fact that they're laughing about it

and laughing about the situation,

I just wanted to drop that little seed in there

early on in the film.

Up until now, she's not being paid to be there.

Mm. So I think already the lines

are being blurred a little bit-

Yeah. Between, you know, client,

and also potential boyfriend.

Yeah.

And they're also kind of the same age,

like Ani and Lulu are walking into a party

with people who are the same age-

They're 20- As them, yeah-

Yeah, 20 year olds. In their 20s,

and so I think it feels different-

Mm. Than the previous clients

that she had- Yeah, she isn't there

just for business, there's a little more,

there's an intrigue.

You can see it- Yep.

In your eyes, actually- Oh, yeah, yeah.

Looking at Ivan, and you can see there's a little more.

[Sean laughing]

Well, Ivan is very charming to her-

Yep, yep. As well, and so,

I think it disarms her in a different way.

Yeah.

[Tom speaking in foreign language]

Amazing cinematographer, Drew Daniels,

is right there in the middle of them,

dancing along with them,

holding a 35 millimeter camera on his shoulder, bouncing.

It was fun, it was really fun.

[party goers cheering]

Yeah, yeah!

[Sean and Mikey laughing]

Oh, and here's the moment

where we subtly introduce Ivan's Armenian babysitters.

[Mikey] Oh no. [Sean laughing]

Karren Karagulian, who plays Toros in the film,

we go way back, he's been in every one of my films.

It was actually Karren and I who wanted to make a film

about the Russian American community in Brighton Beach,

this spark of this entire project.

So, I always knew that he would be part of this,

he brought a lot to it, he knows this community very well.

His beautiful wife, Lana, is Russian

and actually plays his wife in the church scene.

Mhm.

In the baptism scene.

Vache Tovmasyan is probably Armenia's biggest comedian.

He's an incredible performer, so funny.

He came in a little late to this,

meaning into the casting process,

and I'm so, so happy we found him.

Playing sort of the hired hands of the family,

there to just, you know, to see that everything

is under control on this night.

And we didn't wanna in any way draw a lot

of attention to them because, well,

they're part of the twist that comes later on in the film.

Yeah. So this was just

a subtle reminder that it's not just Ivan here,

he's being babysat.

And it's also great to see them so casual,

like he's just on his phone texting,

so clearly- Yes.

Ivan has parties like these all the time-

Yes. And this is nothing

different to them. Exactly.

And the first moment that we see Toros,

he's reprimanding- Right.

He's scolding one of the kids,

'cause he's always looking down at younger generations.

Get down, this is not jungle gym.

And you know, these guys may come across

as intimidating at first,

but we always wanted to break those stereotypes.

So we always wanted to humanize and show that everybody

is just dealing with their own problems,

everybody is human.

Vache might come across as a scary bear at first,

but we know he's just truly a teddy bear, ultimately.

Yeah, and at this point, I don't think Ani even clocks

either of them. No.

Or just sees them as one of the, I don't know,

20 hired help that- Yes.

The family has, none of this is registering to her.

No. These two men.

And hopefully it's not even registering

that much to the audience-

I don't think so. I wanted to be very subtle,

yeah.

17, 16.

This is one of my favorite shots in the entire film,

because just watch Mikey.

[Sean laughing]

Her performance is so beautiful here, it's so subtle.

She's obviously very intrigued by Ivan,

so much so that when he enters the scene,

she loses her place counting down, and it's really cute.

[Sean laughing]

It's really cute the way that she looks over

to her friend, Lulu, for a second, and then back,

and then regains her composure.

Six, five, four.

[Sean] We did our countdown, what, how many times?

Like 10 times? Yeah, probably.

Yeah.

[everybody cheering]

Okay, so this shot that you paused on,

this is very important.

He's drinking water on New Year's Eve,

and he can't toast because of it.

Well, why?

Well, maybe perhaps Garnick is,

at the current moment, sober.

Later on, he gets kicked in the face by Mikey,

and given drugs, and then drinks,

and so unfortunately he obviously relapses.

It's a very subtle thing there,

but, you know, all of my actors brought so much

into developing their characters.

Vache and I spoke about the fact that this whole incident,

this whole 48 hour period, probably causes this character

to unfortunately fall off the wagon.

[everyone cheering]

Ani, Ani, Ani, let go, let go, let go, let go.

Come here.

Fireworks upstairs!

This was just one night- Yeah.

I mean, this is an independent film.

[Sean laughing]

Not much money and time.

So, this is an extremely efficient night,

thanks to my wonderful producers and wonderful crew,

who just worked so fast.

All these different setups,

we had to shoot all of this within probably, what,

a 10 hour period of time,

at the most. Yeah.

[fireworks whooshing] [crowd laughing]

[party goer laughing]

[Speaker] Bitch, I can-

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

I don't know how much the audience is picking that up,

but you know, obviously he's looking out

that Toros and Garnick don't see what he's doing here.

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

But your looks, great.

Kind of like pulls up- Yes.

Adjust the top of Ani's dress.

Yeah. Which is

an interesting moment.

Obviously he's comfortable enough

to touch her like that- Yeah, he's taking liberties,

yeah.

He's taking liberties, but he's also covering her

a little bit- Mm.

Which I think is something interesting.

[Sean] Yeah, yeah.

You were right.

Ah? You were right.

This is banging.

Ah, yeah? Yeah.

Having fun?

Yes, are you?

There's a nice balance there.

Yeah. You're riding that line

between, like, this is just a casual, social-

Mhm. Interaction,

and a little bit of business going on in there.

Yeah, but you can also kind of see in her eyes

how drawn in she is- Yes.

By Ivan, curious, and I think also there's

that sort of twinkle of something else happening.

Yeah, yeah, you do exactly that.

I think the way that Mark played Ivan

was so earnest and charming.

He's keeping us laughing in between takes as well.

I mean, he's- Mhm.

He's truly the class clown sometimes.

Yeah. And kept us

very entertained.

He's also just such an incredibly sweet, sweet human.

Was always looking out for you,

looking out for his fellow actors.

And with me, he really wanted to understand his character,

the maturity level,

the immaturity level- Mm.

And always brought ideas to the table,

always. Yeah.

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

Um,

maybe.

You know, what's interesting about this moment

is that we've seen her interacting with clients

at the club earlier, that was the whole purpose

of opening the film with just showing the mechanics-

Right. Of the club,

and a night in the life of Ani,

and how she has to interact with clients.

This is a little different. It is a different-

Yeah. Energy here,

she's not hustling right now. Yeah, exactly.

She is more relaxed. Yes,

yeah, yep. Yeah, and I think she was

also hoping that he would say that as well.

Ooh. I think she assumed

that they would spend the night together.

That's interesting, okay.

It's cool to hear that, because I love to hear

your interpretations of it.

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

Well, it's New Years.

The accent, I wanted it to be very, very specific

to Brighton Beach- Mm.

Because there's obviously, as New Yorkers will tell you,

lots of different- Mm.

Variations of a New York accent-

Yeah. And so,

I also wanted her to have a cadence that was similar

to a lot of the girls I met-

Mhm. At the club.

Also, Luna specifically had a voice that I really liked,

and I think that when we were working together,

it was almost like we brought it out of each other

even just a little bit more.

Yeah. Which was cute.

I know some actors have key phrases

that help them get into a certain dialect,

but for me, I think because I had just

like run this accent into the ground-

Mhm.

It was already there.

Like, I knew that accent like the back of my hand,

so that we could be really comfortable with improvisation,

and in any situation.

So there was no specific phrase,

I think it was just kind of,

it was there after a while. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I would go places and try it out at the coffee shop-

Mm, mm. To see if it worked,

but I think- Yeah.

I got the stamp of approval. Yes, yes.

From me, 'cause I'm from Tri-state area.

I can spot a bad New York accent,

and I was so happy that Mikey nailed it.

What's really cool about it also is that you allow it

to come out when you're more vulnerable,

or when you're in, you know,

in more high pressured situations where you're not

thinking about the- Or angry-

Yes, exactly. Or when she's yelling.

Yeah.

So if you see in the beginning of the film,

when she's approaching clients at the club,

it's subtle, it's subdued.

She's intentionally suppressing it.

And she's putting on more of her, you know,

Ani persona at the club- Yep, yep.

She's playing a very specific character

version of her there. Yeah.

And I think that for each person she meets,

there's a slightly different side of her

that we get to see.

Ah.

[Ivan speaking in foreign language]

I have holiday rates.

Ah.

[Ivan and Ani laughing]

[Sean and Mikey laughing]

Cool. Okay, see,

she is at this point hustling him

a little bit- Yeah, yeah.

But it's a gentle hustle-

Yep. I will say.

And she's playing with him as well,

they kind of start to tease each other-

They're playing with each other, yeah.

Which is fun, it's flirtatious

Definitely.

But she knows that she can like, squeeze a little bit

more out of him- Oh yeah.

Because he's clearly very into her,

and she's into him right now. Yeah.

I think that because these characters are similar ages,

that's why it blurs the line. Mhm.

I think it's not often that there's

like a very wealthy young client-

Mm. That exists

in her kind of world, so that's what I've been told.

Yeah, most definitely. It's uncommon.

So I think that in this scene,

there's lots of things that she falls for.

I think it's also like the beginning of a possible fantasy.

She sees his life as like the ultimate dream-

Yeah. And goal of what she wants.

Yeah. And so I think

that all of it is intriguing to her,

this sort of like, you know,

his life is kind of like a fairytale-

Mm. In a lot of ways.

There may be a few red flags in there,

but she doesn't wanna see them,

because, you know, she's also, this is a,

yeah, as you just said, very exciting for her.

I mean, she's hanging out with somebody her own age-

Yeah. He has a lot of money,

he's partying, yeah- Yeah, and he's been

kind to her as well, too- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah. It's a good gig.

[Sean laughing]

Yeah.

I don't think about takeaways,

because every audience member will have their own

interpretation of things, and I've always wanted

to keep things open-ended so that every interpretation

can be unique and different.

It's more about themes that I'm tackling,

and one of the big ones is power dynamics,

and the respect that one gives to somebody

on a different rung on the status ladder.

And this scene kinda shows it.

He's asking, Those Armenians, are they looking for me?

You know, you see sort of the way,

and the scene that immediately follows this,

you see the way he treats, quote unquote, the help.

And so I think that's one of the big takeaways here,

if there is a takeaway.