🎧 'Anora' Auteur Sean Baker Unpacks His 'Twist' on the Romcom
I talk to the writer-director about his Hollywood influences, from George Lucas to 'Coming to America.' Plus: Analyzing the implosion of 'Emilia Pérez'

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As a film student at NYU in the ’90s, Sean Baker had dreams of making Hollywood movies like the ones he grew up watching from the likes of George Lucas and John Landis. It was during film school that he discovered other influences and built a career centered on more gritty, realistic projects like Tangerine and The Florida Project. But the Hollywood Force, if you will, is still with him.
“Those influences came out almost subconsciously,” he tells me on this week’s episode of the Prestige Junkie podcast. “I look at Anora and I say, there’s a lot of Coming to America in this film, isn’t there?”
The Hollywood classic that Baker’s seventh feature, Anora, is most often compared to is Pretty Woman, another story of a sex worker who takes up with a very wealthy dream man. Anora’s version of the story is a lot more complicated — the fairytale romance ends abruptly with a kidnapping attempt, an all-night search through the streets of Brooklyn and an endless string of curse words from Mikey Madison’s title character. But the rom-com DNA is in there too, particularly during the dizzying sequence where Anora and her new husband Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) celebrate their Las Vegas wedding to the tune of Take That’s “Greatest Day.”

“It’s a little more tongue in cheek,” Baker tells me of the song choice — and the film’s general approach to cinematic romance. While the audience might be as swept up as Anora is, they’re most likely aware that her quickie marriage to a Russian billionaire’s kid is probably not going to end with happily ever after. “That whole first hour of the film, before our twist, is essentially a condensed Hollywood romcom,” he says. “I don’t want to say parody, but it’s a take on your classic romcom.”
Baker, 53, edits his films in addition to writing and directing — he’s Oscar-nominated for all three roles, in addition to sharing Anora’s best picture nomination with his co-producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan, who’s also Baker’s wife. (Speaking of best picture, this episode also includes my back-and-forth with Sam Adams about the spectacular implosion of Emilia Pérez’s campaign.)
In my conversation with Baker, he reveals how he tackles the editing process, taking a long break to clear his head before sitting down in the edit room. “I know this sounds crazy, but there is a rehab time,” Baker says, describing the post-production period, when he and Quan make an effort to be with their dogs, go on hikes, and even see a few movies. “Any film shoot seriously beats you up.”