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Neon’s Anora, which since winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May has become one of the most praised and nominated movies of the year including six Oscar nominations, joined Deadline for its annual Contenders Film: The Nominees virtual showcase.
The panel for the pic — up for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor and Film Editing at the Oscars — featured Sean Baker (the most nominated individual at the Oscars this year as producer, director, screenwriter and editor), Lead Actress nominee Mikey Madison, and producers Samantha Quan and Alex Coco.
A wild comedy and sharp character study, Anora is the story of a young sex worker who is caught up in a whirlwind relationship and quickie marriage to an out-of-control young son of Russian oligarchs. So much of it hinges on its star, and her casting, as Baker says, is right out of the book of legendary star-is born tales.
“Well, her performance [as one of the girls involved in the Manson murders] in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood really caught my attention,” he said. “Then a few years later when we were moving forward with Anora, we knew we had to start looking for our Ani. Samantha and I went out to see Scream opening weekend — it was really a combination of those two performances.
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“There’s a lot of her performance in Scream actually. It has a lot of humor in it and showed the attitude that I needed. We made the decision right there and then in the theater. And when we left the theater, we called her agent, set up a meeting, had a great meeting, realized that Mikey was very different from those two characters she played, which also gave me a lot of confidence because she definitely wasn’t typecast and I knew they were performances. And so we offered her the role right there and then. It’s the best thing ever.”
Quan talked about the challenges of casting all the other actors, many Russian, that the script required; they are all nominated together for Outstanding Cast at the SAG Awards. “It’s absolutely incredible. We’re so happy for all of the nominations,” she said. “The cast, honestly, are a bunch of the most talented comedians, high-drama actors. They’re just amazing. They could do anything in terms of, you could ask them to do improv and they could do it with aplomb. And I think that everyone would agree, we just feel so fortunate to have one of the best casts ever. They came from all around the world, just super kind people, super generous with cast and crew. And yeah, honestly, it’s like, it feels like a Cinderella story.”
Check back Monday to watch the panel video.
