Mikey Madison Reacts to Oscar Buzz for ‘Anora’ After Cannes Win (Exclusive)

“Anora” stars Mikey Madison, Mark Eidelstein, Yuriy Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan and Karren Karagulian sat down with “Extra’s” Adam Weissler to talk about the Sean Baker film that won the top prize at Cannes. 

Mikey reacted to all the awards-season buzz, saying she’s just taking things as they come. 

She went on, “I don’t really think about that. I mean, the movie, it already means so much to me and I’m so happy already... Right now, my main focus is just getting people to the theaters to see it.”

Mikey hopes that the movie will “lead some conversation” and that people will have a “strong feeling” about it.

Madison also dished on having to learn Russian and exotic dancing for her role. She said, “I did not speak any Russian at all, and I had to try to learn as much as I could in a short time and understand what I was saying and have it be clear, because it’s a very complicated language. And the dancing was very physically challenging as well. I tried to just throw myself into it as much as I could and dedicate all of my time to researching about my character and studying and physically preparing.”

Mark helped Mikey rehearse her Russian, raving over how good it was! He recalled, “It’s very charming, and I felt in that moment how it’s important for Mikey.”

His final judgment? “[She] nailed it, really. I watched it for the second time yesterday and it’s really good.”

The group also spoke about some physical fight scenes, including one in which Mikey had to kick Vache’s character through a glass table. 

The pressure was on for Mikey and Vache, who only had “one take to get it perfectly right.” She admitted, “I was so nervous about that, and we did it, and it was the most shocking, insane thing that I’ve ever seen in person, to see someone smash through a table like that.”