Mikey Madison on playing Ani in ‘Anora’ and destigmatizing sex work

On By Littum

Before director Sean Baker created the role that would transform her into “a completely different artist,” Mikaela “Mikey” Madison had never tried to twerk. She was embarrassed at the thought of even trying. “I thought, ‘Nothing’s going to move!'” she recalls amid the din of a hotel bar at the Toronto International Film Festival. But the self-described “very shy, very awkward, not confident” teenage daughter of Los Angeles psychologists had grown into an actress Baker knew could provide Anoras titular character the self-possession she needed.

After seeing Madison in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and the 2022s Scream, The Florida Project director Baker reached out to her with an offer: He had written a film specifically with her in mind. Should she accept, she would play Anora, aka Ani – a dancer who meets Ivan, the super-rich son of a Russian oligarch, during an average night at the Manhattan gentleman’s club where she works. When Ivan hatches a plan to marry Ani to secure American citizenship, she is swept into a rags-to-riches romantic fantasy that soon turns dark.

Mike Madison

MICAIAH CARTER

Coat, Loewe. Boots, Giuseppe Zanotti.

Madison immediately fell in love with the character. Ani needed to be “different from me in every way,” she says. Yes, she had to twerk. But more than that: To be as comfortable in her body and voice as Ani would be in hers, Madison underwent intensive training, including pole dancing, learning to give a lap dance and mastering a Russian accent and a Brooklyn dialect. To better understand Ani’s world, Madison read memoirs written by sex workers, watched documentaries and YouTube videos, talked to consultants and visited strip clubs herself. The result was a powerful transformation; When she sees Madison as Ani, it looks like she’s been dancing her whole life.

Now Madison is undergoing another metamorphosis, this one more personal than physical: She’s being noticed. “It felt a bit surreal,” she admits. After Anora won the coveted Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival – Madison’s first ever at any film festival – she has been touted as a potential Oscar nominee. In almost a decade since she began starring as one of Pamela Adlon’s daughters in the FX series Better ThingsMadison has fallen “in love with characters and struggles to get in the door and not make that happen,” she says. With the spotlight on Anora“some of these doors are opening again.”

mikey madison as ani in anora

Neon

Mikey Madison as Ani in Anora.

Not one for social media or celebrity, she’s trying to bring the new swarm of attention to a cause: destigmatizing sex work. Before AnoraMadison’s knowledge of that world was “minimal”; today she counts a number of sex workers as friends. “Everything has changed,” she says. “I have a completely different perspective on it. In a club, women are almost in a position of power, but outside of it, people look at them in such a different way.” Ani is “a sex worker, but that’s just her job,” she continues. “She is a person and I hope she is regarded as such.”

About the challenge of portraying a character so different from herself

I found myself spending a lot of energy every day to be where Ani was, where she was always ready to fight. She is very quick, verbally and physically. I don’t feel I’m like that in any way. I wanted her to be very guarded on the outside, but completely torn up and emotional and ragged on the inside. I needed to be in both places and for you to see in her eyes that she’s not just this tough girl. I wanted you to see all the layers of who she is, and so for me it was important to get to those places. But also exhausting.

About filming sex and lap dance scenes

I felt so good. I was really in tune with the headspace Ani was in. Also, I wasn’t the only one naked or dancing. I looked left and right and there were other girls giving lap dances and then Mark Eydelshteyn (Ivan) was also naked for every sex scene. Nudity is part of Anora’s job, so she has to be very strong in it, and comfortable.

About what she wishes she knew before she started acting

All. No one in my family was in the business. I just tried to throw myself into it with absolutely no knowledge of how anything works, and magically – or with hard work – I’ve gotten to certain places, but it’s been so hard. It was an important lesson to learn, but I wish I trusted my instincts as an actor more earlier. I definitely think there were times when I felt suffocated or overwhelmed by other people’s perspectives, but now I know that my opinion and my voice are really important.

Mike Madison

MICAIAH CARTER

Tops, pants, Dior.

About her weirdest “only in Hollywood” story

I remember the first night moving into my new place. I live in a canyon on a hill and I walked out my door and someone’s gold sports car was rolling backwards down the street with no one in it, very slowly. Hollywood can be a bit of a bubble, so you’re bound to meet some characters.

About why she started acting

I just had a longing for a different kind of connection that I didn’t feel, that I didn’t get—something I was searching for inside myself, manifested in wanting to be an actor. I can’t pinpoint a specific moment when I thought, “I want to be an actor, and this is it.” Something pulled me towards it. In my teenage years I was very awkward and uncomfortable with myself. I was looking for something that was a little emotional and I think I found it.

Whether the state of women in Hollywood has changed

There is of course a lot of room for improvement. Just being asked this question means something is not quite right. I wish more men in power were outspoken about women’s issues in Hollywood. I remember during #MeToo when it blew up, I thought, “Where are all the men who were around during this time? Why isn’t anyone saying anything? They must have known what was going on.” Obviously women look out for each other, but shouldn’t men look out for women too? I want that to change because the kind of world we live in, men are in a position of power – actors, producers, directors. They should be uplifting women. I think it should be a man’s role.

Mike Madison

MICAIAH CARTER

Bodysuit, skirt, The Row.

About the challenge of mastering Anora’s dance

Dancers – it’s one of the hardest jobs, I think, because it’s not only physically demanding, but emotionally demanding as well. I trained a lot and did intensive pole training, even just for the 20 second scene of me on the pole. I wanted Ani to look like an experienced dancer, so when you see that scene, you know a lot about her: how long she’s been working at a club, how long she’s been dancing. And dancing is different in different clubs. The clubs in Los Angeles are different from those in New York, and a gentleman’s club – more of a lap dance club – is different from a strip club. It’s really nuanced and I wanted it to be very specific.

What she hopes to do next

I want to feel the way I felt making Sean’s film on all my next projects. I have lots of dreams that I still want to fulfill and I would love to make movies that I feel very passionate about until I’m 90 years old. I’m in no rush to find the next thing. I wait for something I fall in love with to come to me or for me to find.

Lead image: Bodysuit, skirt, The Row. Mules, Schiaparelli.

Hair by Kim Kimble at Only Agency; makeup by Samuel Paul for Armani Beauty; manicure by Jolene Brodeur at Wall Group; produced by Petty Cash production.

A version of this story appears in the December 2024/January 2025 issue of ELLE.

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Main photo by Lauren Puckett-Pope

Lauren Puckett-Pope is a staff culture writer at ELLE, where she primarily covers film, television and books. She was previously associate editor at ELLE.