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Actress Mikey Madison has solidified herself as one of the most exciting young talents in Hollywood as the 25-year-old is currently the betting favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Actress next March. Madison plays the titular lead role in The Florida Project director Sean Baker’s latest film Anora.
In Anora, Mikey Madison plays a Las Vegas prostitute that get swept up into a whirlwind romance with the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch.
Given the nature of the role, Anora features quite a lot of nude and/or sex scenes, and Madison recently revealed that she and co-star Mark Eydelshteyn bucked the recent trend of having an intimacy coordinator on set with them.
“For our film, it was a choice that I made; the filmmakers offered me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator. Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, and I decided it would be best to just keep it small,” Madison explained to Pamela Anderson during an episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors series.
“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,” she added.
She continued, “I did quite a bit of pole training. I did this stripper boot camp where I was taught how to give lap dances, how to twerk. And I would know everything about her — what cigarettes she smokes, what her school life was like.”
Mikey Madison reveals why she decided not to have an intimacy coordinator while shooting #Anora. #ActorsOnActors https://t.co/0VAXCVmN3R pic.twitter.com/Bi3Z9JQq12
— Variety (@Variety) December 17, 2024
Despite the fact that Madison is a full grown adult capable of making decisions about her body, career, and life, her revelation still managed to have certain movie fans clutching their pearls on social media.
“Intimacy coordinators should be non-negotiable on set. this is like firing your HR department cause you think they’d kill your vibe,” one viral response said.
“Implying she didn’t need an ID/C bc she plays a sex worker and was ready to immerse herself in that is exactly why ID/C should be a union contract requirement,” said another.
Luckily, not all film fans have lost their minds as there we also plenty of people coming to Madison’s defense.
why are people getting mad FOR her😭😭 she said it was a very positive experience, how is there discourse? like it’s already solved. she’s safe. unharmed. no one was hurt and it affects no one else. she’s also only talking about her own self, not speaking for anyone else https://t.co/r4xzJzKCXR
— jimmy (@jimmysoldout) December 17, 2024
In addition to Mikey Madison, Anora also stars Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov. The film, which is now available to rent or purchase on digital, was written and directed by Sean Baker and is expected to be a major contender at next year’s Academy Award.
Prior to Anora, Madison was known for her roles in films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream, and the AppleTV+ series Lady in the Lake.