Sean Baker has invited viewers to go and see the Palme d'Or winning film Anora on the big screen at the BFI London Film Festival on Friday.
The director spoke alongside his star Mikey Madison just before the film's UK premiere at London's Royal Festival Hall, where Baker said people need to understand that “adult films” can be made “without superheroes and explosions”.
The pair spoke briefly with festival director Kristy Matheson about how they came to work together and why Coney Island was ripe ground for Baker's twisted Cinderella story.
Neon's fifth consecutive Cannes winning film is a comedy-drama starring Madison (Cry, Once upon a time in Hollywood) as the main character, a prostitute from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who gets mixed up with the son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eidelstein.
Anora it was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and was then screened in Telluride, Toronto and San Sebastián.
Following a screening of the film Thursday at London's Ham Yard Hotel, Baker and Madison shared how the sex scenes were filmed. When asked if the crew used intimacy coordinators, Baker said, “No, we didn't. I think it's very important for an actor to have this option. And of course we offered both Mikey and Mark [Eidelstein]…that option. But I've also directed sexual themes throughout my career, so I've felt very comfortable doing that and also as a producer of my own film, the number one priority is the safety and comfort of my actors.
“So when we started shooting, I think we were so comfortable that the whole thing was approached in such an incredibly clinical way,” he added. “There was no improvisation. We like to call them sex shots, not sex scenes, because they're blocked, calculated.”
Madison added: “We talked a lot about each scene, what it would be like. And Sean, his wife and producing partner Sammy [Samantha Quan] it would even block how it would be [on screen].”
They spoke with the film's producers, including Baker's wife, Samantha Quan The Hollywood journalist in late September to discuss how the film got sex work right.
Anora will be released on October 18th by Neon in the US and November 1st in the UK