‘Anora’ breakout Mark Eydelshteyn on finding his chemistry with Mikey Madison
Mark Eydelshteyn didn’t have an alternative audition tape for “Anora.” When the young Russian actor put himself on video for director Sean Baker to play Ivan in the explosive comedy, he did so in the nude. There were no second takes.
“The final version was the first version,” Eydelshteyn tells Gold Derby. “It was very risky and very scary, I was very nervous when I did it. But I just prayed to God that Sean would like it.”
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Written, directed, and edited by Baker, “Anora” is one of the year’s true sensations – thanks in no small part to the contributions of Eydelshteyn. In his English-language debut, he plays the impetuous son of a Russian oligarch who sweeps a sex worker named Anora (Mikey Madison) off her feet as part of a whirlwind romance and then casts her aside when his family finds out. “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, making Baker the first U.S. filmmaker to earn that honor since Terrence Malick. In September, “Anora” played to packed houses at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival, among other places, and even finished third in the TIFF audience award voting. Neon released the comedy in theaters in October, and “Anora” has earned more than $20 million worldwide, the most ever for a Baker film. It’s widely expected to receive several Oscar nominations next year, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Madison.
SEEMikey Madison (‘Anora’) would become 9th youngest Best Actress Oscar winner ever
Eydelshteyn says he and Baker put a lot of thought into Ivan’s motivations – particularly because he’s a character who could be considered the villain of the story if not for the deeper layer of understanding with which the 22-year-old actor imbued his performance.
“At the beginning of the movie, we think that Ivan will be Prince Charming, but he’s later revealed to be the antagonist,” he says. “So it was a big challenge for me to play that shade of Ivan because this is the first time where I played that kind of person. It was difficult because you had to build a connection with the audience.”
But Eydelshteyn says it was Ivan’s pain and loneliness that allowed him some grace in the early stages of the film. “In the first act, when he’s full of fun and celebrating life, it’s only because he’s compensating for his real feelings,” he says.
The whirlwind romance between Ivan and Anora culminates with a hasty marriage proposal and wedding in Las Vegas. Eydelshteyn says the challenge of the scene was playing it in the present tense to make sure the emotions felt authentic. “I already know what will happen at the end of the film and how their relationship will go, but Ivan has no idea,” Eydelshteyn says. “We played it with an open heart. He’s not a bad guy. It’s just a very complicated world. But in that moment, he really thinks they’ll be together forever.”
Eydelshteyn says his chemistry with Madison – a performer best known for her standout performances in Best Picture nominee “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and the blockbuster horror sequel “Scream” (2022), as well as the television series “Better Things” – developed relatively organically and mirrored how Ivan and Anora become close.
“Anora likes to spend time with Ivan and Ivan had to find this key to Anora’s heart. And me, as a new person in Mikey’s life from another culture with another background and maybe another sense of humor, I had to find this key to her as a partner,” he says of their bond. “I understand that it’s really a vibe. I had to make Mikey laugh, and Ivan had to make Anora love him.”
That laughter is key to the whole piece. One of the strengths of “Anora” is that it’s incredibly funny – the second act in particular leans into screwball antics. That extends to Eydelshteyn’s performance, which includes many physical comedy beats and a general embrace of immaturity. The actor says he and Baker grabbed onto the idea of Ivan as a grown-up child, with all the awkwardness that comes with being a youngster just growing into their body. The character also spends a lot of his free time playing video games. On that front, Eydelshteyn says he paid tribute of sorts to his younger brother.
“I sometimes receive messages from audiences for ‘Anora’ that are like, ‘Hi, no Mark, why are you playing video games like this? It’s a shooter, why are you pushing all the buttons all the time? It’s a fake. You’re not playing really.’ And it’s partly true. Because I’m not a video game person, really. I’m not into video games,” Eydelshteyn says of his unorthodox style, where he mashes the buttons as quickly and carelessly as possible. “But my young brother, his name is Matvey, he is really into this. And when I asked him to play, I started to push all the buttons. And Matvey, every time, would say, ‘No, Mark, you don’t have to do this. You have to attentively push the right buttons. It’s very important. It’s a science. It’s not a game. You have to be serious in this.’ So in the movie, I thought it would be funny if pushed all the buttons, and my brother would laugh. It was for that.”
“It works in the character,” he adds of the unorthodox gameplay. “Because it’s one of the things that’s a feature of Ivan. He’s not like [meticulous]. ‘Now I will make a strategy of how to play this game.’ No, he’s without a strategy. It’s just right now and everything at once.”
“Anora” is out in theaters now.
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