"It's so informative for an actor how I feel inside of those clothes, how her nails make me feel… The hair and makeup changes the way you move and how you speak." Oscar nominee Mikey Madison embodied Ani so much that 'Anora' director Sean Baker knew she was the perfect co-creator for the role. From many hours of training on the pole that left her with painful bruises to getting her hair permanently straightened and adding hair tinsels by the strand, Mikey really put her heart, body and soul into 'Anora.' Get the details on the process of how Mikey brought the character together through her eye-opening experience.
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00:00I had straightened my hair and then once moisture hit my hair it just went like
00:04Sean was like oh no what's happening to your hair I was like I'm Jewish like I don't know
00:10what do you mean I'm Mikey Madison and this is the close-up
00:23Sean Baker wrote the character for me I had about a year to really think about this character
00:29put together Pinterest mood boards which is something I love to do and just kind of
00:35brainstorm ideas for how she would look how she would dress what her hair and makeup might look
00:40like I think the dance training took five or six months I am not a dancer not even a little bit
00:48it was definitely the most physical training I've ever done but all of that training gave me a
00:54dancer's body I think it really helped me be more in tune with my sexuality as well I think one of
01:02the things I realized was how effortless these women move and they walk on stage and there's
01:10an easy quality and like an easy sexuality that kind of just comes out there's so much effort
01:16involved in dancing like that it's so physically strenuous but I also wanted it to look completely
01:22effortless and I knew I was like oh I have to be upside down even if it's for a little bit but I
01:27have really bad vertigo the first couple times I did it I had to like lay on the ground for like 45
01:32minutes after because I was like I can't if I stand up I'm gonna like smash into a wall and so
01:37that was the most difficult part was just getting over the nausea of it I went to strip club I got
01:43dances I observed to kind of understand the etiquette of the club and what that's like
01:50there are lots of like funny little anecdotes or things that I would hear women say or I'm like oh
01:55that's so interesting I'm gonna keep that in my back pocket and maybe pull it out one time I was
02:00talking to this woman and she said something so funny like I asked her how she was and she was
02:05like I don't know I'm just trying to decide if this is a dumb bitch day or a smart bitch day
02:11and I was like oh my god that's so Annie
02:20filming in New York where there was going to be lots of rain and a little bit of snow we were
02:26like how are we going to keep my hair straight because that's how Sean wanted it we had done
02:31a screen test in Los Angeles and it was raining and I had straightened my hair and then once
02:36moisture hit my hair it just went like got really curly frizzy and Sean was like oh no what's
02:42happening to your hair I was like I'm Jewish like I don't know what do you mean and so I got my hair
02:50chemically straightened it was a like a Brazilian blowout type solution it's pretty gnarly it's okay
02:57anything for the character our amazing hairstylist suggested putting hair tinsel in the hair which
03:03was such an amazing detail because I have all this dark black hair but when it moves it kind
03:11of catches the light and reflects light in an interesting way it kind of gives some dimension to
03:17my hair which was essentially all one link also just tells you a lot about who this character
03:21is that she spends so much time tying in all of these individual pieces of hair tinsel because
03:28it would take like three hours to put all of that in it was very time consuming but I think that
03:32it was such a great cherry on top to the character's look that it was worth it
03:41the makeup was a simple liner and then kind of like a 90s lip that I would over line a little
03:49bit a little glitter on the eye like a sheer glitter but overall we wanted to keep the skin
03:54like quite clean and natural and we wanted it to look like she did her makeup herself we used
04:01fenty beauties I think it's a highlighter it's very sparkly and kind of has a like a reflective
04:08quality to it and so instead of using it as a highlighter we just like washed it over my eyes
04:13and it would catch the light in a nice way I actually loved it so much I bought it for myself
04:17this is her new year's look we decided to add some bigger little sparkles I think they're tiny
04:26little stars just on the top of my cheeks sort of going up next to my eye the stars are
04:32individually placed dab on eyelash glue and then with the makeup artist finger she would just dip
04:37it into the sparkles and then place them and adjust them a little bit I think also for this
04:42particular scene the lines are becoming a little bit blurred between customer and then him being
04:49someone who she might actually really be interested in I don't think she would ever wear sparkles like
04:53that to the club because they could get on a customer a client and then they would go home
04:59and have glitter on them and so she's just doing it to I don't know decorate herself a little bit
05:04more for for Yvonne so this scene was just kind of a one-take scene we shot for a little bit
05:19it's her just kind of mentally preparing herself I mean obviously there's all this intense
05:26shit that has happened to her so I think she's looking into the mirror and she's kind of
05:30gathering up that warrior energy that she has and so I kind of like ripped my eyelashes off
05:38and then she's completely barefaced but still has a little bit of smudge underneath because
05:43she doesn't have time to get bioderma and like wipe everything else off she's just gonna
05:48do what she can because now it's time to fight for her marriage she's not thinking about
05:54how she looks she doesn't care the makeup was essentially nothing I think we would maybe brush
05:59the eyebrows up a little bit there was nothing to hide behind they're able to see all of that which
06:04I really wanted you to see because it's this different side of her it's quite vulnerable
06:09and I think you also see a more youthful version of her too you really see how young she is
06:16which I think is I don't know a little unnerving for an audience
06:23I do lots of fighting every scene where I have bare legs there was like maybe 30 minutes 40
06:29minutes before hair and makeup of covering the bruises with I think it was like a tattoo covering
06:35kit because my legs were literally black and blue and I do bruise easily but it was pretty
06:40brutal looking the long acrylic nails were very very important because in strip club culture
06:53all of these women have decorated their hands in like a really glamorous way with these very
06:59specific long nails I knew I wanted them to be squared off I wanted there to be some kind of
07:06like bling or sparkle on them and I wanted them to be long and so on my Pinterest board I had lots
07:12of photos of nails I showed a photo to Sean I was gonna go get my nails done like a couple days
07:18before we start and I was like hey I kind of like this I really want to do a butterfly what do you
07:24think and he was like oh that's so perfect because I actually just added a line in the film where
07:30Yvonne's father calls her a knight butterfly which is another term for a sex worker and I
07:38was like wow that's so that's so kismet and so the woman who was doing my nails brought out these
07:44butterfly decals and they were huge and I was like these are the only ones that we have I guess we'll
07:51just do it and see how it looks and I sent a photo to Sean he was like um okay they're a little bigger
07:58than I thought I don't know about it and I was like no I think that this is perfect for the
08:02character because all of a sudden you're talking and you have all this attitude and the tips of
08:08your fingernails and you start moving your hands in a different way and like pointing in a different
08:13way and it was so informative to her physicality what is that is that a butterfly yeah you're so
08:19classy I know I got dollar signs like a real hoe the first set I got were acrylics because
08:26I didn't I was gonna do lots of fighting and I didn't want them to snap off like maybe a gel x
08:31might and then as we continued filming I had to continue getting that set of nails done and the
08:38acrylic was just so hard on my nails we switched to gel x um but I kept coming in like every two
08:44weeks to get them done and they're like are you sure you want the same thing it was like yeah
08:49please just keep doing the same I shot a scene where Annie is fighting her sort of nemesis in
08:57the film Diamond and I tripped I like twisted my ankle and my whole pinky nail like cracked in half
09:05like the the gel with the nail underneath it cracked and so that was obviously like excruciatingly
09:13painful but we had to keep filming and so Yura Borisov my co-star would carry a little bottle of
09:19medical skin glue in his pocket every day and like glue my nail on before in the morning and
09:27at night and so he was like my my doctor on set no my nails fine I have some personal tattoos which
09:39you see a little bit in the film but the ones on the back of the legs I noticed that a lot of
09:44dancers had tattoos on their legs because when you twerk it kind of shows like the skin moving
09:52and it was just like a really cute detail that a lot of women had and so Sean presented this idea
09:59for them to be little bows and I immediately loved the idea so we would apply them every single
10:04morning they were kind of annoying but you know worth it they're just a classic stick-on tattoo
10:11every way that she presents herself it is feminine but there's also kind of a I think a
10:16little bit of like a tongue and cheek thing as well like there's an edge to everything and the
10:22tattoos are so feminine because they're a bow but they're in black and white yeah you want to go to
10:27VIP maybe yeah excellent you're walking around all night talking to people super close all the
10:34time and so you want to present yourself as the best version of you and so she has gum in her
10:40mouth just to keep things fresh all the time but then I think it also has a little bit of attitude
10:45to it and I was like oh I really want to blow a big blue bubble and so there was like this mad race
10:53around town to find blue like hubba bubba or whatever so I could blow that blue bubble and
11:00we got it and you can't really tell that it's blue but it's still good anyways hair and makeup
11:06and costume is so informative for an actor how I feel inside of those clothes and how her nails
11:15make me feel the hair and makeup it changes the way you move and how you speak and so it's all
11:22such an important part of bringing a character together I've never had this experience before
11:26where I've been able to have such a say in how she's presented costume wise hair and makeup
11:34everything and it's really changed the way how I'd like to work in the future
11:39but it's it's really because of Sean he just he listened