Sean Baker’s Anora features several intimate scenes from its star Mikey Madison, and in a recent interview, she opened up on why she chose not to have an intimacy coordinator on hand for them.
Madison recently took part in one of Variety’s Actors on Actors videos with Pamela Anderson and opened up about the film. While scenes involving nudity or simulated sex often have intimacy coordinators on set to ensure scenes are filmed safely, Madison said she and co-star Mark Eydelshteyn chose not to have one.
“For our film, it was a choice that I made; the filmmakers offered me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator,” said Madison. “Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, and I decided it would be best to just keep it small. My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity. I was ready for it. As an actress, I approached it as a job.”
Why did Mikey Madison not have an intimacy coordinator?
Madison went on to explain the nudity found in the movie and likened her decision of no intimacy coordinators to that of how Anora uses her own sexuality as a job.
“It requires a lot of her body and her skin. I think that — I’ve said it before — but I think she wears her nudity more like a costume in a way,” said Madison. “She presents herself in this sort of hypersexualized way because it’s how she makes a living, and it’s just what she has to do. And so I think I also, as an actress, I approached it in a way of like, it being a job. So I was very comfortable.”
Reactions to Madion’s comments have been mixed, with conversation swirling online about the ethics of having an intimacy coordinator on set.
Throughout the ongoing award season, Anora has garnered several nominations across voting bodies, including four at the Gotham Awards, six from the Film Independent Spirit Awards, seven from Critics Choice Awards, and five Golden Globe nominations including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.
Anora was written and directed by Sean Baker (The Florida Project). The film also stars Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan. It is executive produced by Ken Meyer, Clay Pecorin, Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, and Milan Popelka, with Baker, Alex Coco, and Samantha Quan producing.
“Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch,” reads the official synopsis for the film. “Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.”
