It may seem like Hollywood is obsessed with sex, but that’s because on the rare occasion that you see it depicted on screen, it explodes in the zeitgeist.
Compared with violence, though, sex is nearly nonexistent in American cinematic storytelling. That’s something filmmaker Sean Baker hopes to change.
“I am blown away by the fact that, not just in the U.S., but the world seems to be so open to violence in entertainment, in media,” says Baker.
“Growing up, I remember, just a little violence would get you an X rating. You had to make cuts to get an R rating. Now, you have Marvel films with extremely graphic violence, tearing people’s guts out, heads exploding, and stuff like that. You never saw that in the ‘80s or ‘90s. You could only show glimpses of violence. Now it’s full-blown violence and we don’t want to see sex. There’s something obviously wrong there, right? I mean, obviously,” he continues.
Throughout his career, Baker has made films about sides of American life not usually seen in movies.
His movies “Starlet,” “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket” feature sex workers from different walks of life. The projects have a few stars, but they mostly feature real people cast based on their interesting personalities and backgrounds.
Baker’s new movie “Anora” is the first to feature all-professional actors, and it was filmed on location in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island and Brighton Beach.
Anora, who goes by Ani in the movie, is played by actress Mikey Madison (“Scream,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood”), a young Uzbek-American stripper from Brighton Beach.
Ani understands conversational Russian, so her boss at the club connects her with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. They kindle a romance that leads to their elopement — and keeps Ivan from being deported back to Russia. But this Brooklyn Cinderella’s fairytale is threatened when Ivan’s parents arrive to force an annulment.
Brooklyn Magazine spoke with director Sean Baker, actors Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, and Yura Borisov about bringing “Anora” to life in Brooklyn.
The interview was lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
“Anora” isn’t your first movie about sex workers. What keeps you inspired to continue telling their stories?
Sean Baker: Starting with my research on “Starlet” back in 2011, the world just opened up to me. I started meeting sex workers, not just in that adult film world, but all over, and it’s changed a lot over the last 12 years. My network has just opened up. I realized there were a million stories to be told in that world because everybody’s an individual and everybody has a different story to be told. And so yes, they’re semi-based on real people, inspired by stories we may have heard, heavily fictionalized, and with a lot of liberties taken. If you’re a writer/director and you want to tell real-life stories, you got to get out there, you got to embed yourself.
What did you think about Emma Stone winning Best Actress at the Oscars for playing a sex worker in “Poor Things”?
Baker: I love the film and she’s so great. I think I saw it after making “Anora.” I’m a big fan of Yorgos Lanthimos and I think it’s cool that the industry is open to that. A sex worker is usually a character that perhaps the industry might not be so quick to embrace, but it’s wonderful to see things changing that way.
There have been different articles about how little sex is depicted on screen and that younger audiences don’t want to see it in movies. I’m curious, Mikey, do you notice that among your friends?
Mikey Madison: I think we all want to see sex [Laughs.] I think that my friends all have very similar tastes in films, but I don’t feel that way. I’m like… more the merrier! I want to see it.
Baker: I do feel there’s a new wave of movies involving sex. Look at the film you mentioned, ”Poor Things,” and there’s “MaxXxine.” It seems like we’re bringing sex back into films in a proper way. We went through a period in which we had to look at who was telling these films, the gaze behind the films, being aware of the male gaze, and being aware of non-male gaze. We’re in a place now where we’re approaching sexuality, hopefully, in a more responsible and aware way, and it’s going to be interesting to see the way it plays out.
“Anora” brought Mark to New York City for the first time. How did the city look and feel?
Mark Eydelshteyn: So, New York is… magic. I didn’t see the Manhattan right away. When I came to America, immediately we went to Brighton Beach because we lived there during the shoot. That’s where our set and Ivan’s mansion were based. On our first day of shooting, we went to Manhattan, and at that moment, Mikey said “Now you will see Manhattan for the first time and I think it can be good for you and good for Ivan to hear this track in this moment.” And it was [Mark sings] “Super rich kids with nothing but fake friends…” For the rest of my life, Manhattan will sound like “Super Rich Kids” by Frank Ocean. We were on the Manhattan Bridge and Mikey and I shared earpods, and I felt like Manhattan was something from my childhood, something from cartoons or maybe a blockbuster with this track, with this sound.
Coming from Russia, what was it like filming in the Russian community at Brighton Beach?
Eydelshteyn: There are lots of Russian shops and some Jewish corner shops. It’s like a Russian Christopher Nolan parallel universe. I see it, and it’s like something that I know and something that I can feel, but in another universe. Brighton Beach is small, very cute, and very comfortable. In Manhattan, you can feel that you are very small in this big, big city with these skyscrapers and that the sky is very far, but on Brighton Beach, the sky feels a little bit closer. On the beach, it feels like you can touch the sky with the seagulls, and because of it, you can feel a little bit more comfortable and more safe. But I like Manhattan more than Brighton Beach.
Yura Borisov: It’s an interesting neighborhood because some things seem familiar there, but it’s only some visual elements, maybe some restaurant interiors similar to Russia in the early 2000s. People there speak a very interesting language: it’s Russian, but it’s full of American words. American concepts that are easier to say in English. So it is such a mixed language, funny in many ways. There is no sense of being in Russia there. It is in its own way the face of people who came from Russia some time ago, stayed there, and how they have changed while other things have remained exactly the same. It’s really interesting to see.
The author of “Modern Whore: A Memoir” Andrea Werhun is the chief consultant on “Anora.” How did Werhun’s book shape the movie?
Madison: Sean sent me the book and I had been reading a couple of other memoirs, doing as much research as I could do. But when I got that book, I also listened to the audiobook version. I felt that Andrea’s perspective, in her voice, was really interesting for me. Her perspective was the one that I just really connected to. She’s an incredible writer. And the book is incredible as well because it has lots of really beautiful photographs and cartoons and things like that. But I just really connected to her experience. I felt that I could draw a lot from what was in the book to bring to Annie. I also spoke with her and she answered lots of my questions. We talked about the character and I think that it was very valuable for me in creating Ani. They’re also making a version of “Modern Whore” into a film, which I’m really excited to see. I think it’s going to be beautiful.
Baker: I’m the executive producer on it. I’ll do whatever I can to help the film get made, being that Andea has been so helpful and valuable to our project. For me, it’s a memoir that was about a sex worker just before OnlyFans, which was very important for my writing. Ani is a sex worker who meets a client at a club so it has nothing to do with online sex work. I read the book knowing that there would be lots of stories and details that would help.
Would you ever make a story or character about a cisgender male sex worker?
Baker: We’d love to do that. I sort of did with “Red Rocket.” But this would be more like a gigolo. I would love to do that.
I have a friend who used to work for a prominent indie film distributor, and part of their job was adding their movies to Apple. But they wouldn’t let movies with male genitalia onto their platform. This distributor has the rights to a ton of classic gay movies and Apple refuses to let people access it.
Baker: Totally, 100 percent. Apple censored my film “Starlet” because it has graphic sex and shows male genitalia. They’re the only platform that censored it and I have been trying to scrub it from their site. Now that the film is going to be probably re-released in 2025, I made sure that will never happen again. I’d rather lose the revenue than release a censored version into the world.
Will “Anora” be released in Russia?
Baker: Actually, yes, it will be, and I’m very happy about that. I think the film tackles universal themes and it’s not overtly political. It takes place in 2019 before the war, before COVID, and I’ve heard, which I love, that the humor, especially the Russian-speaking dialogue and the Armenian dialogue, really comes across the way I wanted to come across. I relied heavily on my actors for that, I was like, “I wrote these lines in English, this is the sort of delivery I need now. Can you guys deliver that?” And they did. So I think the film can be a crossover and can do things to help bring people together. I really do. I don’t want to be grandstanding and saying that “Anora” is like this important film, but I do feel it’s a piece of entertainment that can bring people together to a certain degree.
“Anora” hits theaters on October 18.
The post Inside the making of ‘Anora,’ a sex worker Cinderella story appeared first on Brooklyn Magazine.
