LIKE A NATURAL WOMAN

Shy in person, the actor thrives playing hot-tempered women.

- RACHEL BRODSKY

Mikey Madison has come bearing snacks. The Anora star and I are scheduled to meet in Woodbridge Park — a blip of a green space in Studio City, California, with picturesque benches, a sprawling playground, and plenty of trees. Toddlers wobble about the play area with their moms (or nannies). Exactly on time, Madison, 25, strides across the grass holding two blankets and a stuffed bag of Trader Joe’s goodies. By her side is a tiny, golden-brown Chihuahua named Jam, with bright-green eyes.

“I saw that you like trying interesting snacks,” she says. It would seem I’ve been Googled. We unpack strawberry-lemonade-flavored creme sandwich cookies, maple-syrup kettle corn, sea-life-themed gummies, pickle-flavored potato chips, sour jelly beans, dark-chocolate sunflower-seed butter cups, and flavored seltzer to wash it all down. As Madison digs in, Jam gnaws on a beef stick.

For anyone who’s seen Anora, in which Madison plays the titular pole-dancing, Russian-thug-biting, f-bomb-dropping Brooklyn escort, this idyllic scene might seem a bit jarring. The latest from writer-director Sean Baker, whose stories tend to follow people living on the margins of society (see also 2015’s Tangerine, 2017’s The Florida Project, and 2021’s Red Rocket), the film is by turns anxiety inducing, startlingly funny, and poignant. Prior to its October release, it generated a tidal wave of praise on the festival circuit — including winning Cannes’ highest prize, the Palme d’Or. And while Baker often hires non-actors for his films, Madison is no amateur. She’s just so convincing as this tough-but-sweet Russian American sex worker, she seems like the real deal.

“When they meet me, a lot of people have asked, ‘Oh, so are you gonna be a professional actor now?’” Madison tells me. “I think they thought that I