By james art Warning: This article contains spoilers for Anora.
before Anoradirector Sean Baker usually employs a minimal amount of professional actors in his films. c The Florida Project (2017), for example, he cast William Dafoe alongside newcomers like the young Brooklyn Prince. c Red rocket (2021), he surrounded Simon Rex with first-time actors, many of whom Baker invited to audition after meeting them on the street near filming locations.
But Mikey Madison is far from the only experienced actor in the Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and is now shaping up to be an eventual Best Picture contender at the Oscars. Part of the reason for the different casting is that the COVID-19 safety protocols that were put in place during the production of Red rocket (making it difficult to transport large inventory across state lines) are no longer so restrictive. But the casting choices are also a product of the story, which Anora tells the story of a prostitute from Brooklyn who falls into a stormy love affair with the son of a Russian oligarch.
“This is my first film where almost all of the lead and supporting actors are experienced, trained actors,” Baker says. Entertainment Weekly. “There was budget and time, which are always the most important factors. Also, a significant percentage of our dialogue is in Russian and Armenian, and I don’t know those languages. So that was another reason why I really had to have experienced actors on board.
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Baker continues, “In the past, when I’ve worked with upstarts that I grab off the street, it’s been an amazing experience, but it wasn’t going to work for this film. This movie, as you can probably tell, was tightly scripted from start to finish.”
But even within this tight script, these seasoned actors could make suggestions that impressed Baker. For example, Yura Borisov (who plays Igor, one of the Russian henchmen hired by the oligarch to fix this marital situation) came up with an idea during the film’s epic fight scene that the director loved.
“All great actors will bring something to the table that you never expected,” says Baker. “When Yura screams in her face ‘Stop screaming!’, he understood my sensibilities enough when he told me that. He said, “I just want to scream to the point of going to the next level, and I scream louder than she screams.” I’m like, “You’re so right. It would really help at this point and take him to a very unexpected place. These wonderful actors would bring these things to the table, present them to me, and then we could figure out how to use them.
Baker wasn’t the only one impressed by Borisov. As the film continues and Annie’s relationship with Vanya (Mark Eidelstein) begins to deteriorate, she ends up forming an unexpected bond with Igor. The chemistry between the characters develops in parallel with the working relationships between the actors.
“Yura is an amazing, really serious, professionally trained actor in the Russian Stanislavsky school,” says Madison. “Working with him was really different, he’s so soulful and sensitive. He constantly surprised me with the way he approached his character, which in turn made me feel differently about him, like Annie feels differently about Igor.”
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By the end of Anorait almost seems like the main character might actually have found an opportunity for true love with Igor, who seems to genuinely care for her more than Vanya. But there is also a lot of bitterness and disappointment, and the latter emotions are complex and ambiguous. That’s another benefit of working with seasoned actors like Borisov, who previously won acclaim for his performance in 2021. Department No. 6.
“It was so great to have Mikey, Mark and Yura really get into the development of their characters and understand why things happen,” says Baker. “We’re dealing with some complicated relationships, especially at the end with Annie’s gravitation towards Igor. These things were discussed a lot, like what was going on in Annie’s head in that final scene? It was great to have actors who were so engaged because they wanted us to talk about it.”
Anora it’s in theaters now.