It’s the most chaotic sequence in “Anora.” It’s also the turning point of the movie.
Brooklyn escort Ani (Mikey Madison) basks in the glow of newlywed bliss after impulsively marrying Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of Russian oligarchs, at a hole-in-the-wall Vegas chapel. The ink has barely dried on the marriage certificate before the fantasy of her fairytale romance is shattered. Two hired henchmen, Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), barrel through the doors of the glass-enclosed mansion Ani and Ivan have burrowed themselves in. Word has gotten to Ivan’s powerful parents about their marriage — ill-advised and a sham, they argue — and a speedy annulment is the only solution.
What transpires is a frenetic 30-minute scene that plays out in real time. It reaches a crescendo once Toros (Karren Karagulian), a paid fixer on Ivan’s parents’ payroll, arrives at the mansion to bully Ani into kowtowing to their demands. Amid the madness, Ivan escapes. But Ani doesn’t give up: fighting, kicking and screaming her way into submission.
“It’s very representative of the film itself because [the scene] transforms,” cinematographer Drew Daniels said. “It echoes the emotion of what’s happening and the feeling of what’s happening. There are big swings being taken, but overall, it’s just right and it’s never that showy.”
Considering how complex the scene is — it was initially planned for six filming days but ended up taking eight — the overall blueprint stayed surprisingly intact, save for “adjustments and massages” to enhance the action.
“I knew I had to get us to a [certain] place,” said writer-director Sean Baker, who also edited the film. “My main two characters in that scene, Ani and Toros, both had goals. Hers was to defend herself and figure out, ‘What am I going to do?’ And his was trying to convince her that she had to work with them in order to find Ivan. It was about getting them to that place where she was willing to go out with them to look for Ivan, whether or not they were on the same page — and obviously they weren’t.”
As the scene came to life, it became apparent that Baker needed to rework the dialogue, changing the order of certain lines and clarifying others. Because the sequence [and most of the movie] was filmed chronologically, it allowed him to course-correct while “watching the scene build.”
“There were minor hiccups I wanted to smooth out and make sure the dialogue was flowing in the most natural way — how people would respond to one another, how they would react to an insult,” Baker said. “There’s a lot of back and forth, especially between Mikey and Karren. It was about wanting that to feel real — all that processing that’s going on in her head and in his head.”
He recalled walking onto set with his MacBook Pro and spending 20 minutes tweaking the dialogue right before cameras rolled. “I remember looking at Karren and Drew’s faces, and they were both like, ‘Really? Are we doing this right now?’” Baker said. “Especially Karren because he had pages and pages of dialogue to memorize. Suddenly telling him the morning of that I was changing the order, that has to be incredibly scary for an actor. [But] there was something special about having him search for the new order while trying to act because it added to (the scene). It looks like he is processing and trying to figure out this moment.”
The scene was physically demanding on the actors (Madison did most of her own stunts) and much of the film’s prep was geared toward the fight. Early drafts of the script showed Ani being gagged with a red scarf (the final version cuts to a close-up after a screaming match between Ani and Igor, a suggestion by Borisov).
“Her kicking Garnick in the nose and him flying back through the coffee table was done with one take, when Mikey screamed, ‘Fuck your boss!’” Baker said. And there was screaming — lots of it on Madison’s part. “We knew screaming was going to be a big part of this scene, but that’s something you don’t rehearse because you don’t want your actors to be losing their voice,” he said. “We didn’t hear her true scream until that first take and it was bloodcurdling.”
Making it appear as if everything takes place in a half hour presented its own challenges. Because of the mansion’s floor-to-ceiling glass walls, mirrors and reflective surfaces, Daniels — who worked with Baker on the 2021 film “Red Rocket“— took into account things like how bright the sky was or if there was any sunlight coming in.
Troubleshooting how to make it all work on camera, since no direct sunlight was [supposed] to hit the actors or the background, was an ongoing process. “It looks very unlit,” Daniels said, “but in reality we’re doing a lot of work to create the illusion that it all takes place in 30 minutes of real time.
“We would show up in the morning and we wouldn’t be able to shoot because it was dark,” he said. Conversely, there were instances where Daniels called for last setup because daylight was running out, sometimes lighting night shots for day or pivoting to other scenes to fill out their 12-hour schedules. “There were some days where Mikey had to do a crazy scene and then go take a shower, come down and eat Chinese takeout or [do] a random sex scene,” Daniels said.
It was equally important to differentiate the home invasion from other parts of the movie. “It’s an entire stylistic change,” Daniels said. “We went from that feeling of exaltation, joy and happiness for [Ani] to: It’s a cold day, something is wrong and everything’s going to come to a halt. The camera language is very formal, very considered, and then it shifts into a frenetic handheld once Toros shows up and sees the house smashed up… We do some extreme things, and I was really happy [Sean] was willing to go there.”
This story first appeared in the Below-the-Line issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the Below-the-Line issue here.
