New York Film Festival: Mikey Madison (‘Anora’) on the physical and psychological challenges of sex work

“I sent videos of myself twerking to my director, and my mom videotaped it,” remembered actress Mikey Madison during a discussion of her film “Anora” with writer-director Sean Baker at the New York Film Festival. She plays the title character, an exotic dancer who begins a whirlwind love affair with the son of a Russian oligarch, and portraying sex work on film required her to face some of her fears. Watch their complete discussion above.

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“I am not a dancer,” Madison admitted. “I would even avoid dancing at parties because I just didn’t feel in my body that that was something natural to me.” But when it comes to dancing in a club, “you have to be really in tune with your body and feel very sensual, and then also make it look really easy.” While it’s clear that such dancing is “very physical,” it’s also “a psychological job.” She explains, “You’re having to connect with someone while you’re giving a dance, or portray some kind of feeling while you’re dancing on a pole, so I dedicated months to learning how to realistically dance because it was really important to me that she seem like a very well seasoned dancer, like she’s been dancing for at least a couple of years. I wanted it to be very effortless as well, so that was one of the things that scared me a little bit but I was determined to master.”

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Before coming to NYFF as a main slate selection, “Anora” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the grand prize, the Palme d’Or. It’s the first American film since “The Tree of Life” (2011) to receive that coveted honor. Since then the film has embarked on the fall festival circuit and generated Oscar buzz. Based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users as of this writing, it’s the front-runner for Best Picture, Best Director (Baker), Best Actress (Madison), and Best Original Screenplay. Neon will release the film in theaters on October 18.

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