“Anora” could be the film of the year. Sean Baker hopes this will change some things

NEW YORK (AP) – Sean Baker's Interest in the lives of sex workers began with his 2012 drama “Starlet.” For this film, which revolves around the adult film world in the San Fernando Valley, Baker spent time listening to the stories of sex workers. Some starred in the film. Many became friends.

“I remember being on set and Radium Cheung, my cinematographer, said, 'There's a completely different movie.' And there’s a completely different movie,” Baker recalls. “I thought, 'There are a million stories to tell in this world.'”

Since then, Baker has traveled across much of America, in films set everywhere from donut shops in West Hollywood to industrial rural Texas. But he kept the lives of sex workers in focus. The iPhone recording “Tangerine” (2015) is about a pair of transgender sex workers from Los Angeles looking for revenge for a cheating boyfriend. In “The Florida Project” (2017), A single mother turns to sex work to support herself and her daughter in an Orlando motel. “Red Rocket” (2021) comically captures a seedy porn star.

When his latest film “Anora”, with Mikey Madison as an exotic dancer from Brooklyn who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival Earlier this year, Baker took the opportunity to talk about eliminating the stigma surrounding sex work. He dedicated the award to “all sex workers past, present and future.”

It was a crowning moment for the 53-year-old, who has long viewed the French festival as a highlight.

“It was the dream. After that, you're basically in an existential crisis. I’m still figuring it out, honestly,” Baker said in a recent interview. “It's not about opening doors. It's certainly not about coming to the studio. To be honest, it does exactly the opposite. It says: OK, good. Now we can get on with it.”

Baker, a fiercely independent filmmaker, is less comfortable at center stage than behind the camera. His films also delight in the communities of rarely documented American subcultures. Samantha Quan, producer of “Anora” and Baker's wife, says he has always been interested in “people and situations that are always there, but people choose not to see them.”

But “Anora,” one of the most acclaimed films of the year, brought Baker dangerously close to the mainstream. “Anora” is widely considered a contender for best picture the Oscars, among other categories including best actress for its acclaimed young star.

Baker has arrived at this point despite taking an unconventional path for a filmmaker today. He still has no interest in television or franchise films dedicated to the big screen. He makes gritty indie films based on real experiences and research, balancing both screwball comedy and social realism. Anora is the unusual film that draws comparisons to both British social realists Mike Leigha favorite of Baker and master of farce Ernst Lubitsch.

In a Hollywood that churns out big-budget fantasies, Baker has risen by creating what you might call Anti-fairy tale. His films suggest that there is something bankrupt about what and who we collectively value. The poverty of “The Florida Project” took place in the shadow of Disney World. In “Anora,” Madison’s Ani isn’t the only one selling herself. The Russian oligarch's henchmen are doing a job they would rather not do. The transactional nature of it all is both absurd and tragic.

“If I'm too calculated, like, 'This is my big statement about late capitalism,' I'll get a little contrived, I'll get a little preachy,” Baker says, smiling. “But it’s hard to ignore in a country that is becoming more divided every day.”

Baker arrived at this feeling through both experience and research.

“I certainly don’t want to say that I’ve ever faced the hardships of an undocumented immigrant or a marginalized sex worker,” he says. “But having been an independent filmmaker for 30 years, it was hectic. Until recently I had difficulty paying the rent.”

Baker, the son of a patent attorney, grew up in New Jersey, outside New York City. He attended NYU film school. When he first started, he envisioned himself making “Die Hard.” But as he became increasingly involved in art house and international films, his interests as a filmmaker also grew. Still, his Influenced by Richard Linklater The first feature film, 2000's Four Letter Words, drew heavily on his suburban upbringing.

But in the four years between this film and his next, he says, he “finally” gained some life experience. Baker was less interested in himself than in other parts of the world. He also developed a debilitating drug addiction that took years to kick.

When Baker lived above a Chinese restaurant, he chatted in the stairwell with delivery people, many of whom were undocumented immigrants. These conversations led to “Take Out,” co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou.

“It really gave me a chance to restart because I was exhausted,” Baker says. “I lost all my friends. I've lost everything. I had no more contacts. Everyone I went to school with had worked in Hollywood. Todd Phillips, who I went to school with. He was already making his first film and I got off heroin.”

With “Take Out,” Baker took an approach that he continued with “Anora.” He dedicated himself to immersive research and then created scripts that served as a blueprint for improvisation-heavy films in which professional and non-professional actors pulsated in the middle of life. His next film, “Prince of Broadway,” was about a Ghanaian immigrant who sold counterfeit designer products in Manhattan.

Baker thought for years about a film set in Brighton Beach. He and actress Karren Karagulian, a regular character in Baker's films, had spoken of “a bro movie with Russian gangsters.”

“I’m glad that didn’t happen,” Baker says with a laugh. It went on ice. But after hearing a story about a young woman abandoned by her partner and then held as security, Baker began thinking about a Brighton Beach film about a sex worker. To think about it, Baker and Quan moved to Brooklyn for a few months.

“We really hole up in these places,” Quan says. “We don't like to go into a place and say we just want to get an overview of the surface. We really anchor ourselves in this place. We talk to people. We get to know everyone. The research is us being there and taking things in.”

Before Baker has a script, he usually casts his lead roles. For “Anora” that meant signing Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn and Madison. After seeing Madison in 2022's “Scream,” Baker was convinced she was perfect — even if his approach took some convincing with financiers.

“I remember when I introduced it, they said, 'Mikey Madison and who else?'” Baker says. “I say, ‘No, no. She's the star.'”

When Baker met with Madison, they only spoke vaguely about the project.

“He gave me a very loose idea of ​​what the story and the character could be,” says Madison. “I basically just agreed to work with him.”

While writing the script, the two stayed in regular contact, talking to each other and gradually shaping the main character with the help of consultant Andrea Werhun, author of the memoir Modern Whore. Baker, whose work apartment has a kitchen with Blu-ray cabinets, also gifted Madison a handful of films, including Federico Fellini's “Nights of Cabiria.”

Meanwhile, Baker was looking at things like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three to shoot New York at night. He later filmed on the same stretch of Brooklyn street under the elevated subway that was immortalized by the car chase in The French Connection. He and his production designer Stephen Phelps decided to add a touch of red to every shot, a nod to films like Jean-Luc Godard's “Contempt.” In the credits, Baker thanks director Jesús Franco for the red scarf and colors of “Vampyros Lesbos.”

“Although my films are set practically now, they are contemporary stories. I want them to feel like they were made in 1974,” Baker says.

During production, Baker sometimes resorted to guerrilla filming techniques, sending Madison to a pool hall or restaurant to interact with those in attendance. (“The scene could go in any direction because it's not really a scene,” says Madison.) For the sex scenes, Baker and Quan themselves would model the movements for Madison and Eydelshteyn.

“He was really committed to creating a safe space where we could shoot these scenes and feel comfortable,” Madison says. “He wanted us to see what the positions would be like so they would show us – obviously fully clothed and everything.” It was funny and broke the tension a little. Sean is a unique director.”

As much as Baker might connect his films to '70s sensibilities, he's mostly focused on where the films might go from here — and how he might change their direction a bit. He is proud that “Anora” is in the Oscar conversation, but above all he is cheering on his fellow contestants. “Because I’ve already won my thing,” he says with a laugh. But Baker hopes the attention could help propel independent arthouse cinema into a larger arena, re-engage audiences with the moviegoing experience and perhaps convince Hollywood that smaller, cheaper films can punch well above their weight.

The “Anora” and Brady Corbet's “The Brutalist” — a three-and-a-half-hour epic film shot in VistaVision that cost less than $10 million — appears to be in the awards mix, Baker says, shows a shift.

“This will be a signal to the industry. There's panic in LA right now. I think: We don't have to make so many films. They don’t have to cost as much,” says Baker, who is pushing for a change in guild rules for lower-budget indie films. “The rules have to change. And attitudes toward watching movies have changed because of streaming and because of COVID. We need to remind audiences that some films are made for the big screen.”