Mikey Madison, who played a feisty and tenacious sex worker in the movie “Anora,” won the Oscar for best lead actress.
It was Madison’s first Oscar nomination.
The win was something of an upset; Demi Moore, who has seen a career revival for her dynamic performance as an aging fitness star in “The Substance,” was favored to win her first Oscar for the role.
“Anora” — which went on to win the biggest award of the night: best picture — was directed by Sean Baker and revolves around Madison’s character, known as Ani, as she has a whirlwind romance with a Russian oligarch’s son after meeting him at her strip-club gig.
The role required feats of physicality, both in performing the job of a dancer in a strip club and in fighting back when the oligarch sends his henchmen to force the couple to annul their Las Vegas marriage.
“This is a dream come true — I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow,” Madison said in her acceptance speech, in which she thanked Baker, her family and the movie’s movement consultant, Kennady Schneider, among many others.
Madison also underscored the influence that sex workers had on her performance. To study her character, she read memoirs by sex workers, underlining sections of Andrea Werhun’s “Modern Whore.”
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Source: Movies - nytimes.com
