The Men of Anora on a Bond Forged in Russia and Solidified in America

“Do you know Sean Baker?”

While filming Aleksandr Andryushchenko’s sci-fi-adventure Guest from the Future in 2022, actor Yura Borisov asked this question of his co-star Mark Eydelshteyn. “No, I don’t know Sean Baker,” he replied.

Borisov then explained to Eydelshteyn that Baker, the award-winning auteur behind The Florida Project and Tangerine, is “one of the most incredible independent directors in America. And he’s looking for some crazy teenager for his new film.” Over a recent Zoom interview alongside Borisov, Eydelshteyn bounces in his seat remembering his disbelief at the suggestion that this teen might be him. “I thought, ‘It’s impossible. I'm not crazy.’” Still, the 22-year-old graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School, with a budding career in Russian film and television, took the advice of Borisov, 31, a colleague and friend he sees like a big brother. And he sent his introductory video to Baker before submitting an audition tape.

That new film was Baker’s New York-set Anora, a riotous and deeply humanistic screwball comedy with a gut-punch of an ending that has been beguiling audiences across film festivals ever since its Palme d’Or-winning debut at Cannes in May. Opening in theaters this week from NEON, it follows the magnetic Mikey Madison’s eponymous sex worker as she meets and marries the bratty Russian heir to an oligarch, Eydelshteyn’s Ivan. Baker’s big-hearted Cinderella-tale-gone-wrong traces Anora’s journey as a group of thugs hired by Ivan’s family attempts to annul the marriage. The most prominent of the goons-for-hire—the reserved and soulful Igor, whose hidden depths are gradually revealed—is played by Borisov. While Baker’s tale undoubtedly belongs to Anora, it’s enriched and intensified by the complex supporting parts that the duo plays, as the story reaches its aching conclusion.

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The memorable audition tape that got Eydelshteyn the part

“I had read the script three times,” Eydelshteyn remembers of his first encounter with Anora. “It was difficult to understand it at first because it was a director’s script, with director’s notes.” But in the end, he loved it, grasping Ivan wholly as a rich, directionless kid living in constant party mode without a purpose, acting up to break free from a strict family. “It is the story of a kid who is broken because of power. He's trying to laugh. He's trying to find his place in this world. And with Anora, he approaches it, but it's impossible to be the kid forever. So it's a story of growing up.”

But despite understanding the essence of Ivan, he kept delaying submitting his audition. “When you like something, you are thinking, ‘If it’s not good, it'll be my fault. I will lose this opportunity, I will lose everything.’” He finally took the plunge in time for the deadline, asking a friend to film him. And he added a little something to make it memorable. “I have no rich clothes—no Balenciaga or Gucci. So I was nude,” Eydelshteyn remembers with a smile, recounting his decision to perform a scene in the script that takes place after Ivan has sex with Anora. “I thought, ‘I might be immediately canceled from this story, from American industry. Why should Sean have to see my ass on the first self-tape?’” But then he shrugged his doubts off. “I went, ‘The script is crazy. Ivan is crazy. I know it's risky, but it's interesting and it'll be a funny story.’ So I did it.”

From one Cannes winner to the next

Borisov had already been cast in Anora when he alerted Eydelshteyn to the upcoming project. In fact, his part was practically created for him. Borisov had recognition in Russia and international film circuits as a distinguished actor, with notable roles in films like Crystal Swan (2018) and The Bull (2019). And Baker had previously seen him in Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6, which premiered at Cannes in 2021 and won the Grand Prix, the festival’s second most prestigious prize. Upon reading the script, Borisov understood how his acclaimed turn in that movie, as another character with a different side concealed beneath a daunting first impression, helped him land the part.

“These characters are [close to] each other and Sean [might have] suggested this role because of it. So I wanted to give him that energy,” Borisov says. Still, he acknowledges the characters’ profound differences. “In Compartment Number 6, my character is in his own place. It’s his country, his rules. In Anora, he's foreign. It’s absolutely not his place. And it’s empty around him. He doesn't have friends or things,” he reflects. “When you are in different country for a longer period of time, you start understanding that you don't have roots there. And you feel this crazy loneliness that Igor feels. Anora is lonely too. And their souls need each other.”

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America, for the first time

That sense of isolation away from one’s own turf deeply resonated with the two actors. Neither of them had been to the States prior to filming Anora, and sharing an apartment together in New York helped with their transition immensely. “It was much easier to be in America together for our first time ever,” Borisov says. “Mark and I talked about everything: about the script, America, philosophy, our lives, our characters... It was amazing.” While Eydelshteyn was no stranger to film sets prior—among other projects, he starred in Julia Trofimova’s Berlinale-premiering Strada Sasha in 2022, as well as the popular Russian TV show The Monastery—he can’t imagine surviving the anxiety of a foreign set without Borisov. “It was a new space for me. New country, new culture, new way of working. Living together with Yura was a big psychological [aid]. We really supported each other. Only because of Yura, I'm a part of this amazing story.”

The two fondly gush about Eydelshteyn’s arrival to New York coinciding with his 21st birthday. “We rented a boat,” Borisov chuckles. “We sailed to the Statue of Liberty,” Eydelshteyn continues. The sail was a birthday present from Borisov, as well as Anora stars Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan and script supervisor Albert Rudnitsky. “Mikey was with us too. It was one of my dreams to see it. And we saw it on my birthday. It was crazy.”

Crafting the film’s key slapstick and physical moments with Madison

Equally as invigorating was the process of creating Anora’s significant scenes hand in hand with Madison, whose name makes Eydelshteyn beam. “When somebody says Mikey Madison, I can't stop smiling,” he lights up. “She's one of the most charming, beautiful, nice, professional, and serious scene partners that I ever worked with. To me, acting is a feeling of balance. I don't know how she does it, but Mikey really feels this balance—the balance of fun and drama, [of acting and reality]. She let me really support her. She put on my vibe because Anora was on the vibe of Ivan. While we have a different sense of humor and cultural code, Mikey joined me in my crazy fun. It was a dream.”

“She could turn it on in a second,” Borisov concurs. “I need some preparing. But Mikey is [immediately] on after ‘camera-action!’ How does she do it? I don’t know.” Borisov collaborated with Madison especially closely during the film’s physically demanding centerpiece that plays like a real-time home invasion when Igor and the rest of the clan arrive at Ivan’s family’s Brooklyn mansion to drag her to court for an annulment. In Borisov’s mind, Igor was always trying to help Anora. And so Borisov assumed the same responsibility for Madison on the set. “If my real-life energy wants to help Mikey, that would be the right direction for the energy between Igor and Anora. I just tried to be like a wall for her, to protect her from the waves and the wind.”

During the invasion’s rougher moments—there is the breaking furniture and expensive décor, not to mention the physical restraint of a furious Anora trying to escape the henchmen’s grip—he of course had to make sure that he wasn’t unintentionally hurting Madison, who still retained some bruises from the struggle due to the intensity of the act. “It was a very long scene—it took seven days,” Borisov explains. “We did everything step-by-step, preparing for all the long takes. It was choreographed, but there was improvisation inside the choreography.”

Borisov is too modest to take any credit for the film’s finale, which honors Anora and Igor in a heart-wrenching resolution after we witness Igor silently falling for Anora throughout the film. “We did this scene three or four times, on different days. Sean and Mikey tried to find something. And me? I just tried to help them…”

“…make this film iconic,” Eydelshteyn finishes his sentence for him.

Borisov laughs. “I tried to [communicate] the truth between us through the screen. You know?”

Life after Anora

How did being in a winsome Baker film affect the duo? “For me, the most interesting thing has been [making connections with] directors and producers,” says Borisov. “Festivals, screenings, and interviews are important for developing new projects. But all of those [are most meaningful] towards opening new doors.”

Meanwhile, “Because of Anora, I saw Telluride,” Eydelshteyn shares about the mountain town and festival site where Anora had its North American premiere, entering the Oscar race in earnest. “It’s a place with amazing skies, and lots of stars. I was in the Werner Herzog Theater—we introduced our movie there. Werner is one my most favorite directors ever. Three years ago, it was impossible to think that I could stand on the stage of a theater called Werner Herzog. Someone from the staff presented a t-shirt of the theater to me. It was about dreams coming true. And after Anora, I can feel it.”

Being in Telluride also helped Eydelshteyn attain a deeper perspective on Baker’s cinema, after a special screening of Baker’s 2008 film Prince of Broadway at the festival. “After that movie, I understood that Sean Baker is the American Dostoyevsky. His movies are about real, small people with universal problems. That's unique for America, the country of huge movies, huge stories.” Pointing to his heart, he continues in a near-whisper, “But this is a small and compact story that you feel right here.”

“I’ve seen and love all his films,” Borisov says. “Sean has his language. Each one of his films is unique, but you feel that it's [coming from] one artist, one director.”

After Baker, they both have their own wish list of directors they’d like to work with. “For me, the best director would be Mark Eydelshteyn,” says Borisov playfully. “And I would love to work with Yorgos Lanthimos.”

“If Mikey Madison directs, that would be my dream,” Eydelshteyn remarks. “And Werner Herzog.”