Mikey Madison interview on Anora at London Film Festival 2024: Comedy, romance & drama blend

It's such a pleasure to have you here. Congratulations. What a performance. You're actually absolutely naughty out of the park. Sean Baker, there's no one else doing it out there like he does. What was so exciting about jumping on board with this project with him? He's an amazing singular director. I think he has such a specific, incredible, unique vision, and I love the universes and stories that he dives into. So it was a no-brainer that I wanted to work with him. He's incredible. He's a real actor's director and it's just so easy to collaborate with. And I feel like, you know, other films that maybe focus on sex work, you know, they can maybe be a bit depressing or, you know, the tone of this is consistently hilarious, but also tender and also romantic. Was that something that was really key to your performance and the tone of the film? Yeah, well, I think that there's so many different genres that Sean and I play with. Like, sometimes I felt like we were making a comedy. Sometimes I felt like we were making a romantic film, sometimes a drama, sometimes like a slapstick action movie. But I think throughout that I was very clear in the emotional place that my character was at each point. So for me, I think the comedy came after that. And the amazing preparation you did that he was saying, what was that like preparing for this role? And then, excuse me. It was a lot of work. It was a big undertaking to take on this character, but one that I was very excited about exploring. You know, I had to do a lot of physical preparation, like full training. You know, I learned Russian. I had to learn a new dialect, among lots of other things. It's ultimately a love story, right? I think it could be interpreted that way, maybe. Yeah. Women go by a different name or nickname or something shorter, just for safety reasons. And I think that, you know, Annie grew up in America, and I think that Nora is a little bit more of a Russian name. And I think that Annie is more of like who she wants to be, and Nora, I think, is really who she is. And so it's symbolic of some ways as well.