Sean Baker Takes Us Behind the Scenes of Awards Frontrunner, ‘Anora’
In the past two decades of his filmmaking career, Sean Baker has consistently gravitated towards telling the stories of underdogs and marginalized characters. His body of work reflects a deep fascination with exploring subjects and perspectives that are often overlooked or stigmatized by mainstream Hollywood. From his breakout films Tangerine and The Florida Project, to his latest project Anora, he has demonstrated a remarkable ability to bring empathy, nuance, and humanity to these characters.
At the heart of Baker’s approach is a commitment to portraying his subjects realistically and honestly. In an interview, he explains that he is drawn to topics like sex work, which have traditionally been depicted in reductive or sensationalized ways. His goal is to challenge these stereotypes and “help humanize” his characters, allowing the audience to connect with them on a deeper level.
“Audiences always root for the underdog, number one, but number two, I think these are subject matters, or subject matter that I haven’t seen tackled by Hollywood in the way that I’d like to see it tackled,” he said. “Usually subjects like sex work that have a stigma applied to them, and the way it’s been portrayed, hasn’t helped remove that stigma. So I’m looking to make films that help humanize, help bring empathy towards characters that normally don’t have them.”
Written and directed by Baker, Anora follows the titular character, who goes by Ani (Mikey Madison), a sex worker from Brooklyn who gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. They soon get married, but once the news reaches Russia, his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
“I think that humour is a part of life. It’s such a big part of life. It’s the most important part of life because we all use it to cope.”
Sean Baker
The film is edgy, fierce and compelling — an emotional rollercoaster filled with twists and turns, shifting from comedy and romance to rage and tragedy in a single entry. Baker has always had an eye for talent and fills his cast with actors who seamlessly carry the film through. It’s his trust and confidence in his actors that allows them to breathe life in the scenes.
Baker revealed that he prefers to shoot long takes as much as possible so that his actors “can really be in the moment. But it [the scenes] are also quite choreographed and very calculated,” he said of a stand-out home invasion scene that is certain to live rent-free in the minds of viewers. “I really wanted the audience to be sitting in that scene, almost like being in Ani’s shoes, not knowing what’s going to happen next, having it be very threatening and very scary and my amazing cast and crew helped me pull it off.”
Anora is no doubt a frontrunner this awards season, touted to score Oscar nominations for Baker for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and Madison for Best Actor. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival, where it went on to win the Palme d’Or. It also played at TIFF, winning the People’s Choice runner up award.
“Even if I’m making a drama or a tragic drama, it still has to be keeping the audience laughing throughout — never at the characters, but with the characters or with the situation, or even sometimes, just the behaviour and the interaction. We recognize ourselves in that.”
Sean Baker
It’s easy to see that Baker’s six feature films have a through-line: it’s his equation with comedy, a tool he often uses to explore these marginalized stories. Humour is an integral component of his approach to character and story development. He argues that movies that are “full of pathos” and devoid of humor often feel “unreal” to him, lacking the nuance and authenticity that he tries to achieve in his films.
The filmmaker prefers to weave humour seamlessly into the fabric of his stories, using it as a means of fostering empathy and connection with his characters. He is careful to note that this humour is never “at the expense of the characters,” but rather emerges organically from their behaviours, interactions and the situations in which they find themselves.
“I think that humour is a part of life. It’s such a big part of life. It’s the most important part of life because we all use it to cope. When I see films that are just full of pathos that don’t have any humour, they don’t feel real to me,” he said. “And so, even if I’m making a drama or a tragic drama, it still has to be keeping the audience laughing throughout — never at the characters, but with the characters or with the situation, or even sometimes, just the behaviour and the interaction. We recognize ourselves in that, and therefore it’s funny. It makes us chuckle.”
This delicate balance between drama and comedy is a hallmark of Baker’s style, and it allows him to create a cinematic experience that feels true to life. In fact, his scenes are never fully choreographed as he prefers to have an alchemy of fiction and real life. “It’s about 90% planned. You have to keep that 10% open for happenstance and happy accidents and just allow the real world to be there, because you want to put your characters into the real world,” he said.
Baker’s film is an endlessly entertaining rollercoaster that also simultaneously challenges societal stigmas and preconceptions. By weaving laughter and levity into his narratives, he not only entertains his audience, but offers a thought-provoking perspective on an otherwise fairytale story often seen on the big screen.
Baker tells me that this directorial experience has changed the way he’ll approach his films. “In many ways, it changed the way that I’m going to be directing in the future because I had such wonderful relationships with the actors, we were able to really break down their characters and discuss motivations and intentions,” he said. “It was just wonderful to have that enthusiasm from them, wanting to explore it more and more. I’ve really never been in a situation like this, so to be able to direct actors with this level of talent and experience, it was like a first time for me, and I loved it.”
Baker consistently crafts cinematic portraits that challenge preconceptions and invite the audience to see the world through new eyes. In doing so, he has established himself as a vital and influential voice in indie cinema.
Anora is now in theatres across Canada.
