Sean Baker, Mikey Madison & the Cast of 'Anora' Break Down Creating the Seedy, Dangerous World of the Film | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024 - video Dailymotion

Variety

Director Sean Baker, along with cast members Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian & Vache Tovmasyan discuss 'Anora' at the Variety Studio at TIFF.

Transcript

00:00Should I call 9-1-1?

00:10What?

00:17Thank you so much for doing this.

00:19Sean, a lot of the reviews have made the comparison between Enora and Pretty Woman.

00:25And I wonder, was that something that you were kind of conscious of?

00:28Did you lean into that at all, or was it just kind of happenstance?

00:32I think it's happenstance, because actually I didn't really realize it until about halfway through production

00:37when somebody called out that there are similarities.

00:41But hey, it's such an iconic film.

00:46It's nice that we're being in some way compared to it.

00:51When I heard about that comparison, though, I was in production.

00:55And I didn't want it to in any way affect our film in terms of just the way I was making it.

01:01So I haven't revisited it.

01:03I haven't seen it since 1988, actually.

01:09So how did the idea for Enora come to you?

01:12What was the origin of the idea?

01:14Well, Karin Karagulian and I have been making films together forever.

01:18He's been in every one of my films.

01:21Ways back, over 15 years ago, we were talking about making a film

01:25that focused on the Russian-American community in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

01:31We didn't know what the plot would be, but we knew we wanted to explore that.

01:36And then I started making films about sex workers,

01:39and that sort of worked hand-in-hand,

01:42because I was interested in exploring the theme of the power dynamics

01:48within the sex work world.

01:52And we thought, oh, perhaps a young sex worker marrying the son of a billionaire

01:59would put us in that situation.

02:02And so that's really how it came about, quite honestly.

02:06When I started fleshing it out, knowing that Karin was going to be in it,

02:11then I came up with this eager character.

02:14I saw Yura in a film called Compartment No. 6,

02:17which is an incredible film, Lithuania.

02:21So I had those two in mind, and we were in development, early in development.

02:27I hadn't written the script yet.

02:29I had seen Mikey in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,

02:33and had my eyes on her.

02:38But it was the day that we went to see Scream.

02:41And I was in the theater next to my wife and producer, Samantha,

02:45and I turned to her and I said,

02:47we're calling Mikey's reps the minute we leave the theater.

02:51Because I just saw in those two roles that she could give me everything I needed for Annie.

02:57We met, I pitched her the idea, and I said, are you interested?

03:01She showed enthusiasm and said, yeah, I'm down for it.

03:05And I said, okay, now I'm going to write the script.

03:07And so I took about a year to write the screenplay.

03:10But it was really wonderful to have these three guys, three guys.

03:14Sorry about that.

03:16I can be one of the guys.

03:18Yeah, he is one of the guys.

03:20To have these three actors in mind, their faces, while I was writing these characters.

03:25It was really special.

03:27So when you are writing the script, Karin and Mikey,

03:29are you giving Sean ideas at all, or are you having conversations,

03:33or is it just kind of come out to you fully formed?

03:37There were conversations, of course, yeah.

03:39Especially about the Russian community, about locations, about things.

03:44Definitely.

03:45I mean, we have conversations regarding we're working on a film or not,

03:48always, because we were friends for a very long time.

03:50But since this project came in, of course, there were a lot of conversations.

03:54And Mikey, what about in developing the character?

03:57Was that a very collaborative process?

03:59How did that work?

04:00Very, yeah, very collaborative.

04:01I would say the most collaborative experience I've ever had working on a character in a film.

04:07While he was writing, we kept in contact and talked a lot.

04:11And then, obviously, sort of gave me permission to have lots of freedom with building the character.

04:17And I think we were both in a very similar mindset

04:20and had similar ideals for how we wanted the character to be.

04:25So Jura and Vasi, was there an audition that you had,

04:30or was it more of just kind of an informal conversation?

04:33How did that work for both of you?

04:36I don't know.

04:37We just spent all our time together.

04:40And during our free days, we did something together,

04:46going to somewhere near New York or spent some time together everywhere.

04:55And it's like we were like one body.

05:04Like I feel.

05:05That's why I don't know where to start and where to finish all these ideas.

05:11And Sean wrote the film, wrote the role for him,

05:15had him in mind from his film Compartment No. 6.

05:18And then you introduced him.

05:21Yeah, there was a kind of audition for me.

05:23I was lucky this man was following me on social media.

05:28And then he recommended me to Sean.

05:31And when Sean called me, I was very surprised,

05:33like how you've seen my comedy or something.

05:35And then I did a quick video audition and welcome on board.

05:40And I was blessed to be there.

05:43And Mikey, what kind of research did you do?

05:46What kind of prep work did you do to get ready to play this part?

05:49I did a lot of emotional preparation.

05:52I spoke to consultants, sex workers.

05:56I watched documentaries, read memoirs.

06:00I went to New York early and visited strip clubs, got some lap dances,

06:05just did all of that, all of the research I needed to do.

06:08And then I trained with a dancer for a handful of months

06:12to realistically seem like I was a real dancer

06:17and worked with a Russian coach, Albert, who helped me,

06:23and a dialect coach as well.

06:25I did a little bit of everything, or a lot of everything.

06:30Sean, were there influences, the tone of this film,

06:33it feels very comedic, but it feels like a throwback to a screwball comedy.

06:38Was that something that you were thinking of at all?

06:41There are lots of different genres that I was trying to tackle with this one

06:46because I wanted to take the audience on a rollercoaster ride.

06:50So it was okay that I was having tonal shifts,

06:54bringing them from, say, a Robert Altman-type ensemble piece,

07:02sort of observational comedy, to a madcap comedy,

07:06to a thriller, to a Russian art house film,

07:10all over the place.

07:12And that was a little bit scary for me as a director,

07:17trying to balance all of this

07:19and trying to allow these genres to flow.

07:24But yes.

07:29As actors, when you're doing some sequences,

07:32like the one at the mansion where you're on the phone

07:36and everything's going, it's so chaotic,

07:39what was it like, the energy on the set that day,

07:41and how did you maintain that intensity between sequences and setups?

07:49Can I start?

07:51Just because I am so impressed that my actors were able

07:57to keep the consistency in the energy and the drama

08:03over the course of seven to eight days.

08:05That's how long it took to shoot this sequence.

08:08It's a 28-minute real-time home invasion.

08:11And I never wanted to be jumping in time.

08:14I wanted the audience to live in that moment with Annie,

08:18in that very terrible, scary predicament that she's in.

08:22And everyone here just delivered every single day,

08:27giving me gold, keeping that tension up.

08:31It was really an incredible thing to watch as a director.

08:34So, yeah.

08:37And they did their own stunts.

08:39They did their own stunts.

08:42Yeah, well, my character is someone who I think is always

08:46constantly ready to jump into a fight or jump into an argument.

08:50So I was always, for every single scene,

08:53not just any of the fighting scenes,

08:55exerting a lot of energy to just be in that place,

08:58sort of like scrappy energy.

09:01And so I think I was just already in that mindset of knowing

09:05exactly who my character is so I can just jump into it.

09:08But, yeah, I think we all went home pretty tired

09:11during those fighting scenes. I did.

09:16I got a lot of help from Samantha.

09:19Sammy, our producer, Sean's wife.

09:21Sometimes I would forget that I have to be angry,

09:24and she would go,

09:26and I would go,

09:28right before the action.

09:31But it was amazing. It was so much fun.

09:34Yeah.

09:36And you said you did your own stunts.

09:38What was that process like to you?

09:41I had a great stunt coordinator who was,

09:45we would kind of just walk through what the stunts would be like

09:49and do it in half speed,

09:51and then just kind of throw ourselves into it and try it.

09:55I mean, we always felt safe, and it was great.

09:58But it was also very free to kind of just,

10:01I mean, I was fighting as hard as I possibly could,

10:04and he was very strong, so he was holding me back.

10:08But at times it felt like it was a real fight.

10:11So, yeah, it was very physically difficult,

10:15but as an actor it was almost easy

10:17because we weren't having to fake anything, you know?

10:22You know when you love the process,

10:26you can feel only love.

10:29Yeah.

10:31Yeah, and it was incredible to,

10:33as the director being behind the monitor watching this go down,

10:37I wanted long one-takes,

10:39and so it wasn't just a punch and then cut.

10:43They had to wrestle throughout this entire room

10:46with the lamps falling and vases flying and stuff like that.

10:49So we, of course, as Mikey said,

10:52we went through at a quarter speed,

10:54but to see it in motion during that first take

10:57was, I think, just as shocking as it is in the final film.

11:03Yeah.

11:05How about the locations that you shoot in, too?

11:07I mean, these feel like locations that have never been on film.

11:11New York is always photographed, and this feels very fresh.

11:14What was the process like to kind of figure out where you wanted to shoot?

11:17Well, thank you.

11:19Our amazing... Sorry, excuse me.

11:21Our amazing location manager, Ross Broder,

11:24found me exactly what I wanted,

11:27and we wanted to shoot...

11:29You know, lots of films have taken place

11:31in the Brighton Beach, Coney Island area,

11:33and we wanted to shoot it in a way that hasn't been shown before,

11:36hasn't been seen before.

11:38So working with my wonderful cinematographer, Drew Daniels,

11:42we just went for angles that I hadn't seen before,

11:46trying to show the color of the neighborhood,

11:49the vibrancy of it,

11:51and shooting in real locations.

11:53Never a set. Never a set.

11:55We were shooting in a real mansion in Mill Basin,

11:58which is right next door to Brighton Beach,

12:00right there on the boardwalk.

12:02People walk around that area during that whole...

12:04We call it the crawl, as they're looking for Yvonne,

12:07her husband that has abandoned her.

12:10There's just...

12:12We shot over several nights,

12:14just actually going to real establishments

12:16in the Brighton Beach area,

12:18interacting with real people on the street,

12:20trying to incorporate as much real life as possible.

12:26A lot of your work has involved sex workers,

12:29and I wonder, why is that a theme that you sort of have...

12:32What interests you about that community, really,

12:35and why is that something that you continue

12:38to kind of return to in your work?

12:41Yes, it's true.

12:43It's my fifth film about sex work, to a certain degree.

12:49When I was first doing research on that first one,

12:51back in 2011, for a film called Starlet,

12:54I think it really...

12:56I came to realize that there are a million stories

12:59to be told within that world,

13:01and I was fascinated by it.

13:03And I had become friends with many sex workers

13:07and remained close with many of our consultants.

13:12So I heard many stories.

13:14I was like, let me put that on the back burner.

13:18That could be a movie down the line.

13:20And that's really how it's kept going,

13:23but the intention behind it

13:25is to help remove this age-old stigma

13:28that's applied to this livelihood.

13:31You know, it's our oldest profession, supposedly, right?

13:35But this stigma has remained,

13:37the unfortunate negative stigma.

13:40So through making these films

13:42that hopefully tell universal stories

13:45and humanize our lead characters,

13:49who are usually sex workers,

13:51hopefully this in some way can help normalize.

13:54What has been the reaction from people in that community?

13:57Have they seen the film, first of all?

13:59And what's been the response to it?

14:01Well, I'll say that Luna, who plays Lulu in the film,

14:05came up to me after our premiere at Cannes,

14:08literally crying and just telling me

14:10that she was so grateful

14:12about the representation in the film

14:15and that she was so happy

14:17with the way that we were all portrayed.

14:19And so to me, that meant the absolute most

14:23and was like a huge stamp of approval

14:25that we did something right.

14:27Yes, and I've been getting a ton of messages

14:30that are very positive

14:33and happy with our representation.

14:36And our chief consultant,

14:39who lives here in Toronto,

14:41will be seeing the film tonight,

14:43so we're very excited about that.

14:45You said that there are a thousand stories.

14:47Do you feel like this is a community

14:49you're going to keep returning to?

14:51Are there other stories you'd like to tell?

14:53Hopefully.

14:54I don't want to ever feel like it's a shtick of mine,

14:57and I don't want to paint myself in a corner with this.

15:01But at the same time,

15:03there are plenty more stories

15:05that I am excited about covering,

15:07so perhaps I'm really not sure what's next.

15:09If you can cast your minds back to May,

15:12I wonder what it was like to win the Palme.

15:15What went through your mind when your name was called there?

15:18May seems like yesterday,

15:20because I'm still processing all of it.

15:26It wasn't just a dream of mine.

15:29It was the dream.

15:31So it came true.

15:33It's scary, quite honestly,

15:35because it's an existential crisis.

15:37What do I do now?

15:39This was seriously something

15:41that I've been working towards for 30 years,

15:44and for it to happen,

15:46it's an incredible feeling.

15:49I just have to thank Greta

15:52and the wonderful jury at Cannes

15:55for recognizing something in our work.

15:58No less a publication than Variety

16:01has suggested that there's a lot of Oscar buzz around this film,

16:04and I wonder what it's like to hear that kind of thing.

16:09It feels all right.

16:15I don't...

16:17I never...

16:19I don't make these films for those sort of awards,

16:22but hey, if people are talking about it, that's wonderful,

16:25and it's exciting.

16:28All I know is this.

16:30These wonderful people deserve all the recognition,

16:34and I hope that's where it goes.

16:37Thank you all so much. I really appreciate it.

16:40Congratulations on the film.

Sean Baker, Mikey Madison & the Cast of 'Anora' Break Down Creating the Seedy, Dangerous World of the Film | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024

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