Oscar talk is ‘overwhelming and amazing’

In many ways Anora feels like a fairy tale. Except that the film’s title character – Ani to her friends – is a stripper and occasional sex worker. And her Prince Charming is the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.

When he spontaneously proposes, and they get married in Las Vegas, it seems all her dreams are coming true. But she quickly finds that a host of people strongly disapprove of the match.

For Mikey Madison though, it is a dream of a part, where she gets to display everything from steely strength to delicate fragility.

“I recognised from the beginning that she’s a very complicated character, very nuanced,” agrees Mikey Madison.

“I always felt that she was someone who was very vulnerable on the inside. But is constantly covering it up with this hardness or an aggression. But I do think that she’s quite soft inside.

“I think that she’s hopeful that this is her happily ever after, and I think that it’s an opportunity and I like that she doesn’t want to let go of them. And so she’s going to fight to the end to try to save it.”

Both the film, and Madison’s performance in particular, have been gaining huge amounts of awards momentum. It started when the movie premiered at Cannes.

“I have been working for almost a decade now, well trying to work. And that was my ultimate dream, to go to Cannes. And we had a film in the main competition, and then we won [the top prize, the Palme D’Or] and that was crazy in itself.”

She calls “everything that has followed” an “absolutely wonderful, pleasant surprise”.

“Especially because I think I went into it feeling really proud of the film, and like we made something special to us. And the fact that the film is also special to other people is wonderful.

“It’s a dream.”

Madison was relatively unknown before Anora. She had had small parts in the fifth instalment of the Scream horror franchise and in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

The writer and director of Anora Sean Baker had seen her on screen before, and wrote the part of Ani especially for her.

“She’s so unique. Not only in her physicality, but there’s something about her aura,” says Baker. “There’s something.. she’s actually quite subdued, even in real life. Her demeanour is, she’s quite reserved.

“But then suddenly she can explode like no other other person I’ve ever seen, no other actor I’ve ever seen.

“And I was always looking forward to those moments shooting the film, knowing that a scene would call for that. You know, to see that you don’t detect anything, and then suddenly just total eruption. It was incredible to watch.”

The contradictions in Ani, and the shifting genres of the movie were elements that Madison says she embraced strongly during the filming.

“As an actor sometimes I felt like I was shooting a very romantic film, and sometimes it was almost like a horror film, or a drama, or a slapstick comedy. To navigate through my character with all of these different genres was fun. It was a challenge, and I liked it!”

The 25-year-old has been nominated as best actress at every major awards ceremony, including the Golden Globes, the Batfas and the Oscars. And she is probably Demi Moore’s main rival for best actress at the Academy Awards.

Speaking before her Oscar nomination, she said it felt astonishing to be part of the awards conversation.

“I know that I’m incredibly overjoyed, honoured, and humbled that our film is being recognised in this way. But I’m just processing it.

“It’s overwhelming and amazing, and all of the things,” she says, giving every appearance of being overcome by the acclaim her performance has been gathering.

Should Mikey Madison finish off a fairy tale few months by winning best actress at next month’s ceremony, she’ll be one of the youngest ever performers to win that academy award, beaten only by a handful of stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Marlee Matlin, and Audrey Hepburn.

Anora is showing in cinemas across the UK