Anora

How Sex Workers Helped Shape Cannes’ Big Winner

Next on Stage: Anora

When Gary Marshall released Pretty Woman, audiences fell for Julia Roberts’ “hooker with a heart of gold.” Vivian Ward was a free spirit, but also a blameless (and drug-free!) victim of circumstance and a refreshingly uncultured delight for Richard Gere’s bland executive. Her story was charming, convenient, and uncomplicated; a fairytale unsullied by the other clients or a reluctance to leave her world behind.

While there’s no shortage of sex workers in modern media, few filmmakers — whether for lack of interest, apathy, or oversight — have made a real effort to “get it right.” Sean Baker, a vocal supporter of the full decriminalization of sex work, is a rare exception. “I became friends with [sex workers] and realized there were a million stories from that world,” he said in a press conference for his new film.

Anora is the latest in a series of Baker films about sex workers, following Red Rocket, Tangerine, and The Florida Project. Anora is the story of Ani (Mikey Madison), a New York exotic dancer and part-time escort, and Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), the charismatic son of a Russian oligarch. It’s a film that lures audiences in with the all-consuming limerence of young love, only to blindside viewers with its emotional conclusion. In the final flight of its puer aeternus, Anora captures the crushing blow of true heartbreak, the inescapable reality of stigma and class struggle, and the hopelessness of one’s fall back to earth.  

The sex workers depicted in Baker’s films frequently challenge the one-dimensional tropes commonly seen on screen, portraying sex workers as human instead of sterile avatars of vice or virtue. In making Anora, Baker, alongside his wife, producer Samantha Quan, committed to a collaborative effort with members of the sex work community, consulting and casting sex workers in a process Quan described as crucial to the film’s evolution.

Los Angeles, CA

Lindsey Normington worked her first club shift nearly eight years ago as a college student in Grand Rapids, MI. Normington had long dreamt of moving to Los Angeles to become an actress. It was a dream that felt nearly impossible until a conversation with a friend revealed their shared ambitions.

“It became a conversation of, ‘How will we support ourselves?’” says Normington. “[We] floated the idea that we could be strippers. At first it was kind of like a joke — and then it wasn’t.”

Normington worked at a local strip club as she finished her degree, saving up tips and payouts for a move to California. She continued dancing after moving, this time at North Hollywood’s “Star Garden” — a club that brought her and her fellow dancers into the spotlight as they walked the picket lines of the stripper strike.

After a hard-fought battle with club management, the Star Garden dancers won their unionization effort, making Star Garden the nation’s second-ever union strip club. Normington now performs and co-produces The Stripper Co-Op — a dancer-owned pop-up that produces events Normington describes as “mutual aid,” in which dancers pool their tips and donate a portion of their nightly earnings to charity.

In Anora, Normington plays Diamond, a chaotic New York dancer who doesn’t shy away from conflict with the protagonist, Ani. The character shares little of Normington’s desire for stripper unity. “I’ve known girls who’ve been like family to me, [but] you get a group of highly opinionated, highly talented, beautiful, amazing women in a room, and people don’t always like each other,” says Normington. “Strippers don’t have to be nice or likable […] to show [our] humanity. They don’t have to be sweethearts, and that’s something that I like about Sean’s work”.

New York, NY

Sophia Carnabuci, an experienced exotic dancer and aspiring screenwriter, was originally asked to consult for the film before joining the film’s cast as “Jenny.” It’s a role Quan urged her to audition for despite a lack of previous acting experience. For Baker, casting performers with limited on-camera experience isn’t much of a departure — it’s a frequent signature of his work.

Carnabuci credits her performance to Baker’s directing talent and inspiration drawn from co-workers — among them, fellow dancer Luna Sophia Miranda, with whom Carnabuci shares a home club. On nights Miranda’s not at the club, she produces independent films and sex-worker led events, like burlesque cabarets.

Miranda met Baker and Quan on the floor of the club, “I approached them to try and sell them drinks and dances, and they told me they were filmmakers. They told me what films they’d made, and I was like, ‘What are the chances of that happening in a strip club?’”

Miranda, a film buff, was already well acquainted with the pair’s work. When Baker and Quan asked if Miranda would be interested in talking more about a new project they were producing, Miranda was elated.

“I mean, we get all the nuances … It’s important to depict [sex workers] that are three-dimensional. It’s really important, that if you’re hiring consultants or casting actors, that you also cast sex workers. […] A lot of us don’t have those opportunities. Sex work is something we’re doing for money — and sometimes survival, but it’s also a way to, you know, be a star in a world where you are not a star.”

Miranda learned she’d been cast as “Lulu” on her birthday. Filming took place at the Rosewood Theater, a Manhattan gentlemen’s club. The club remained open during the film’s scheduled shoot, a schedule that required early call times for the film’s cast — an even greater challenge for dancers accustomed to late shifts.

“It was pretty wild for us. I usually get home from work at like, four in the morning, but I was waking up at four in the morning for set!” says Carnabuci.

Carnabuci describes using downtime between takes to get to know her fellow dancers, while Miranda frequently brought her Polaroid camera to set. The cast shared stories about their work, about their clubs, and about their lives outside the club.

“It was lovely, just kind of getting to know each other. Now we have even more people outside of our immediate ‘club sphere’ to rely on and fall back on” says Carnabuci. “You know, to see what’s happening in Manhattan, see what’s happening in Brooklyn.”

Anora Takes Cannes

Miranda, Carnabuci, and Normington reunited in France this May for the film’s Cannes Film Festival premiere. “It was the first time — the only time I’d seen the film, and my face was on this big, enormous screen and I’m sitting with all these strangers,” says Miranda, recalling her anxiety during the film’s Cannes screening.

The audience awarded Anora a 7.5 minute standing ovation. The movie went on to claim 2024’s Palme d’Or — the famed film festival’s top prize — despite competition from legendary directors David Cronenburg and Francis Ford Coppola.

Accepting the award from famed filmmaker George Lucas, Baker dedicated the award to sex workers “of the past, present, and future,” and expressed a wish that films like Anora might help end stigma against sex work and make the world a safer place for sex workers.

Following the Cannes win, Anora faced its final challenge and most discerning audience: sex workers. In an industry-only screening, LA sex workers saw the film ahead of civilian audiences. It went well: the film’s reception was captured in a now-viral moment when the audience erupted into an applause of clacking platform heels.

I had a chance to attend a sold-out screening of Anora in Chicago with two members of SWOP Chicago’s steering committee. Though the aisles of the Music Box Theater proved too narrow for stilettoed applause, on the mainstage of our hearts, our heels clacked with a thunder loud enough to turn every head in the room. 

As the film heads to theaters nationwide, Miranda shares hopes that Anora will inspire more sex workers to engage with storytelling. It’s an effort she hopes to encourage through the sex worker-led film festival she’s producing in 2025.

“I’ve [had] so many people reach out, sex workers who have films, or even folks that haven’t made a film before, but really want to — and I’m like, do it! I’m not a gatekeeper, everyone’s invited to the party.”

“I think sex workers are more than capable of telling our own stories,” says Carnabuci. “I think society as a whole is really ready to hear this.”

The Movie opens in select theaters October 18th, 2024. You can visit with Sophia, Lindsey, and Director Sean most any time, what with them being on Instagram and all. Technically, you can learn more about Anora on Instagram too, actually. Anora star Miranda has even made her own film which you can watch for free, y’know just to get a sense of her character depth. Bottom line, as it were, we suggest you take advantage of all of these opportunities, including seeing the movie in an actual theater (which still beats home streaming by a mile, even if you have a big ol’ tv). You see, Renee liked it a lot, and Renee happens to be very smart. So we listen to her.