I Just Thought I’d Made a Crazy-Ass Movie

Sean Baker is fastidious about research, plunging himself into the milieu of whatever he happens to be making a movie about. “People online are like, ‘Oh, Sean is such a horndog! That’s the only reason he makes those films,'” he says, giving one of his joyful, crinkle-faced grins, his eyes vanishing into creases, his entire face seeming to smile. At 53, he looks as if he fell in the fountain of youth. His boyish ebullience and tousled hair lend him a Richie Cunningham wholesomeness that contrasts amusingly with the subjects of his films, if not with their bubbly, irrepressible tone.

His charming fourth feature, Starlet, was a buddy movie about a young female porn actor and a cranky elderly widow. His fifth – the riotous breakthrough hit Tangerine, shot with three iPhones on a $100,000 budget – was set among transgender sex workers on LA’s Santa Monica Boulevard. Red Rocket concerned another porn star, older and disreputable this time, who tries to coax his teenage girlfriend into the same career.

“I would love to work with Jennifer Lawrence or Leonardo DiCaprio some time,” he says, “I hear they’re great!”

His latest film, Anora, is a glorious, high-energy tragi-comedy about a Russian-American lapdancer, played by the Oscar-tipped Mikey Madison, who comes to regret her impetuous marriage to the giggly 21-year-old son of a Russian oligarch. The director still looks stunned that Anora scooped the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival this year. “I just thought I’d made a crazy-ass exploitation movie,” he says, his face crinkling again.

If the impression he gives is of a U-rated boy in an X-rated world, that fits with his childhood memories of accompanying his father, who worked as a lawyer in Manhattan, on trips into the city from their home in New Jersey. “It was a ‘Welcome to the jungle’ moment every time,” he gasps. “We’d drive out of the Lincoln Tunnel and that would bring you right down 42nd Street. This was the heyday, when it was full of grindhouses and porn theatres. It would be ‘Marilyn Chambers XXX’ everywhere.” He mimics his younger self, eyes on stalks as he gazes from the passenger window: “Whoa! What’s going on?” That stuff really stayed with me.

Maybe the people crying “horndog” have a point. “There was a certain amount of hands-on research for Anora,” says Baker, aware that this is not merely a figure of speech. In preparation for writing the film, he frequented the clubs where Ani (or Anora, as she prefers to be called) might work. This was no solo mission: he was accompanied by Madison, whom he had cast before even writing the script, having seen her playing one of the Manson family in the gory climax of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Also in attendance at the clubs were Samantha Quan, Baker’s wife and producer, and one or two other crew members. But still.

“We participated in lapdances,” he says sheepishly. “We had to. It was the most embarrassing thing, real Curb Your Enthusiasm stuff. I’m trying to do an interview while also having a lapdance, which is so ridiculous. Halfway through the dance, I would be like, ‘OK, so what does a guy normally do at this moment?’ I’d totally kill the vibe. The dancers were cracking up.”

Some of them had had experiences that were not so different from what they envisioned Ani going through in the film. “There was a sad, sobering moment where one woman said, ‘This happened to me.’ I don’t know if it was an oligarch, but she married into a rich family and they rejected her. She got teary-eyed about it.”

How can a woman like Ani find fulfillment? “Getting the respect she deserves from somebody who actually sees and hears her would be a step,” Baker reflects. “Part of the reason I made the film is because I realised our Cinderella stories have changed in the last 10 years. It’s about wealth and fame now. When I was growing up, the American dream was a house in the suburbs and, hopefully, you’d make enough for your kids to go to college. That was pretty much it. That’s changed, and this is maybe what the film is commenting on.”

It is easy to imagine a nastier version of the movie, in which Ani’s Russians in-laws don’t bother trying to get the marriage annulled, but instead kill her and dump the body in the Hudson. But what’s striking about Baker’s films is that – despite his characters’ poverty, criminality, desperation, and drug use – they are largely devoid of menace. Anora may owe much to Jonathan Demme’s 1986 screwball thriller Something Wild, but it has no equivalent to the terrifying sociopath played by Ray Liotta in that movie. Perhaps there is an inherent sweetness in Baker’s outlook that precludes him from engaging with that species of threat? “It’s funny because I watch very extreme films and I’m friends with people like Gaspar Noé,” he says, namechecking the director of the gruelling Irreversible. “But you’re right. I’ve never gone there. I don’t know why.”

Even firearms are conspicuous by their absence: Baker’s 2004 film Take Out, about a Chinese immigrant working as a delivery driver, is the only one of his films to feature a gun. It was 15 years ago that Baker and actor Karren Karagulian, who has starred in all his movies, started discussing what would eventually become Anora. From the start, they set themselves the challenge of making a gangster story, set in the Russian-American community of Brighton Beach (also known as Little Odessa), without ever showing a gun. “We wondered, ‘Is it even possible?'” Anora proves it is.

Guns and menace aren’t the only elements missing from Baker’s movies. Aside from Willem Dafoe, who was Oscar-nominated for playing a sweet-natured motel manager in 2017’s The Florida Project, Baker has steered clear of stars, perhaps fearing that they could wreck the loosey-goosey methods that are vital to his work: the extensive improvisations, the last-minute rewrites, the scenes where actors mingle with unsuspecting members of the public.

“I have a lot of friends in the industry who have had nightmare experiences working with big Hollywood actors,” he says. “I don’t know how they get through the day. I would throw in the towel. I would love to work with Jennifer Lawrence or Leonardo DiCaprio some time. I hear they’re great! But you never know. It could really derail a movie.”

His immersive process, and its tendency to smudge the line between life and work, is similarly out-of-step with the A-list. But does it take a personal toll on him? “Well, yes,” he says, smile fading for the first time. “There’s a responsibility that one can take on when using real people who are perhaps struggling. I have sometimes adopted a sort of guardian position with my actors. I couldn’t do it any other way. Also, I am drawn to… The word isn’t ‘dark.’ But let’s say ‘alternative’ lifestyles. I find myself getting in a little too deep on a personal level. I’ve had addiction problems throughout my life.”

Baker is open about having been hooked on heroin in his 20s. “I will never go back to opiates because that would be suicide,” he says. “But I have found myself in places that I didn’t think I would be, in my 40s and 50s. Sometimes I’ll think, ‘Why am I partying like this?’ It’ll be because I’ve gone into a world that I probably wouldn’t be in were I not interested in covering it in a movie. Or I’m finding it romantic for whatever reason.”

Can he maintain a distance in those moments? “There is distance, yes, because I’m there on more of an observational level. But I am participating,” he says, having a rethink. “So, I guess there’s not that much distance. That can be scary, and I have to watch myself.”

Although the film industry is a notoriously dangerous place for anyone with those appetites, Baker claims not to have experienced that side of Hollywood. “It seems to be extremely clean these days,” he says. “But I’m so indie, I’m outside all that. A lot of my peers – and I’m not slamming them here – are pretty straight-edge. There are a lot of comic-book nerds making movies!”

FAQs:

* How did Sean Baker begin his filmmaking career?
Sean Baker’s filmmaking career began with his first feature film, “Tangerine” (2009).
* What is the genre of Sean Baker’s films?
Sean Baker’s films are often classified as indie dramas or experimental films, and often blend elements of drama, comedy, and exploitation genres.
* How does Sean Baker approach his characters?
Sean Baker is known for his immersive approach to his characters, often spending time with the actors and incorporating real-life experiences into his films.
* What are Sean Baker’s views on addiction?
Sean Baker has been open about his struggles with addiction, and has spoken about how it has affected his life and work.
* What is the impact of Sean Baker’s lifestyle on his personal life?
Sean Baker’s lifestyle can be intense and overwhelming, and has sometimes taken a toll on his personal life, including his relationships and overall well-being.

Conclusion:
Sean Baker’s films are a testament to his unique approach to storytelling, his commitment to immersing himself in the world of his characters, and his willingness to take risks. While some may view his unconventional methods as reckless or irresponsible, his dedication to his craft and his passion for the subject matter is evident in every frame of his films. With a new film on the horizon, fans of Baker’s work will be eagerly awaiting his next project, and the world will be watching with interest as he continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in filmmaking.