Let’s be real—the buzz around Sean Baker’s Anora has been pretty intense since it took home the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It’s one of those movies people can't stop talking about, partly because it's a wild, chaotic ride through Brighton Beach and partly because of the "raunchy" reputation it picked up on the festival circuit. If you’re asking is Mikey Madison nude in Anora, the short answer is yes, quite a bit. But it’s probably not in the way you’re expecting if you’re used to standard Hollywood "love scenes."
Mikey Madison plays Ani, a young Uzbek-American strip club dancer who gets swept up in a whirlwind (and very impulsive) marriage to the son of a Russian oligarch. Because of her character's job and the frantic, drug-fueled romance that follows, nudity is essentially baked into the fabric of the first act. Honestly, it’s less about being "sexy" and more about the transactional, messy reality of her life.
What the Camera Actually Sees
If you're watching Anora, you should know that the first forty minutes or so are the most explicit. Since Ani is a dancer, you see her in various stages of undress during club sequences and private lap dance sessions. We're talking frequent breast and buttock nudity. When she meets Vanya (played by Mark Eydelshteyn), the film doesn't shy away from their physical relationship. There are several simulated sex scenes that show Madison and Eydelshteyn in various positions.
Interestingly, while the film is "explicit," it’s often described as clinical or even humorous. Sean Baker, the director, actually calls these "sex shots" rather than sex scenes. They’re brief, often lasting only a few seconds, meant to show the passing of time or the repetitive nature of their "honeymoon" phase. One thing to note is that while there is a lot of female nudity, there is also brief male frontal nudity. It’s a very exposed movie for both leads.
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The "Costume" of Nudity
Mikey Madison has actually spoken a lot about this in interviews, and her perspective is kinda fascinating. She told Interview Magazine that she viewed the nudity as a "costume." To her, Ani is a woman who uses her body as a tool for work. When she’s at the club or with Vanya, she’s "on."
"I never felt naked, per se, while I was playing Ani, except for maybe the last scene, but I was fully clothed," Madison told Sean Baker during a MovieMaker interview.
It’s a bit of a paradox, right? She’s physically exposed for most of the movie, but she feels most vulnerable in the final scene where she’s wearing a coat and sitting in a car. That tells you a lot about the character's headspace. She’s comfortable being nude because, for Ani, that's just business. It's when the "performer" mask slips that things get real for her.
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The Intimacy Coordinator Debate
Here’s where things get a little controversial. In late 2024 and early 2025, a clip of Mikey Madison talking to Pamela Anderson went viral and sparked a massive debate online. Madison revealed that she and her co-star Mark Eydelshteyn chose not to use an intimacy coordinator on set.
Instead, they worked directly with Sean Baker and his wife/producing partner, Samantha Quan. They blocked out the scenes themselves to keep the set "small" and "streamlined." While Madison insisted it was a positive and comfortable experience for her, it definitely ruffled some feathers in the industry. Some critics argued that even if the actors are comfortable, having a professional coordinator should be mandatory for safety and "best practice" reasons in a modern production.
Why the Nudity Matters to the Story
It isn't just there for shock value. The nudity in the first half of the film is meant to contrast sharply with the second half. Once the Russian "fixers" show up to annul the marriage, the movie shifts into a high-stakes screwball comedy-thriller. The nudity almost completely disappears once the chaos starts.
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The point is to show the "fairytale" (which is mostly physical and shallow) crashing into the cold, hard reality of Ani’s situation. By the time you get to the end of the 139-minute runtime, the physical exposure of the beginning feels like a lifetime ago.
Final Verdict on Content
If you're planning on watching Anora, just be prepared for a movie that is very "R-rated" in the traditional sense. It’s got:
- Frequent nudity: Mainly breast and buttock nudity during club and sex scenes.
- Simulated sex: Multiple scenes, though many are edited to be fast and frantic.
- Language and Drugs: It is very heavy on the "F-bombs" and features quite a bit of cocaine and ketamine use during the party sequences.
Basically, it's a raw, unfiltered look at a specific world. Mikey Madison’s performance is being hailed as a career-best, and while she is "nude in Anora," the focus of the critical praise is her incredible range—going from a tough-as-nails "scrapper" to a woman facing a devastating reality check.
If you’re interested in the filmmaking side, you might want to look into how they shot this on 35mm film. The grain and the colors of the New York winter give the whole thing a gritty, authentic feel that you just don't get with digital. It makes the "exposed" moments feel more like a documentary and less like a polished Hollywood production.
Next Steps:
If you want to see the performance for yourself, Anora is currently available on most major VOD platforms like Apple TV and Amazon. If you're a fan of Sean Baker's other work like The Florida Project or Tangerine, you'll definitely see the stylistic DNA here, just with a much bigger scope and a lot more "chaos energy."