Sean Baker’s “Anora” continues to take the 2024 film circuit by storm, most recently celebrating at the Gotham Awards with nominations for Best Feature, Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance, and Outstanding Supporting Performance. Ahead of the award ceremony in New York City on Monday, December 2, we caught up with lead Mikey Madison.
At the end of the film, Madison’s character Ani sheds a single tear in a moment that takes her character’s arc from peak to total devastation. “Well, it wasn’t planned,” she told IndieWire. “We had done multiple takes and Sean really wanted to see tears come out of my left eye. We wanted a single tear to come out of this [left] eye, but they were only coming out of this [right] eye and this [right] eye was laying on Yura’s chest. We just kept filming it until some of them were coming out of my left eye. I don’t know how to make tears come out on cue [from each eye], maybe some people can do that [laughs].”
Baker previously told IndieWire that the inspiration for the ending came from “Anora’s” key influence, Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria,” where prostitute Cabiria (Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s own wife) sheds a mascara-stained tear at the film‘s end after yet again being exploited by a would-be lover.
“For me, the endings have to have an emotional gut punch. My favorite films have endings that are the most memorable part of those movies… after this long journey, we had to deliver on that end,” Baker said.
Madison had a viral moment last month when she met Luca Guadagnino at a Deadline Contenders event in Los Angeles. “I think he’s seen ‘Anora.’ Yeah, he’s one of my favorite directors of all time. I think he’s a total visionary, so I was very excited to meet him. I think he’s incredible.”
Additionally, Baker broke some news to IndieWire last night when he shared that several of his earlier films are getting Criterion Collection releases — and that he hopes to get his next film off the ground “ASAP.”
