If “Anora” is a far -fetched contemporary reconfiguration of Cinderella's history, then the actor Yura Borisov is his blue prince. It is not that you knew it because of the way it appears for the first time on the screen, silent and vigilant.
In the film, Borisov plays Igor, a contracted muscle to help soften a difficult situation when Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the reckless playboy son of a Russian oligarrico, marries impulsively with a new york stripper called Anora (Mikey Madison ). It is Igor who starts to truly see Anora, noticing that his hard exterior hides something tender inside. The same goes for igor.
“For me, he is human,” said Borisov, 32, in a zoom call on Thursday from his home in Moscow. “And I want to believe that every human being could be so. I want to make characters that are better than me. I want to make characters who can contribute something to humanity, give hope to people. And therefore, of course, I love Igor. It's like a lighthouse for me. ”
On Thursday, “Anora” received six Oscar nominations, including direction, original script and edition (all for Sean Baker), main actress by Madison, distribution actor by Borisov and best film. His nomination converts Borisov into the first Russian actor nominated for an academy prize in a category of interpretation from Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1978 for “Turning Point”.
“Anora” won the Golden Palm when he premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival. It was at the Festival years before, in 2021, when Baker saw Borisov for the first time in another project. Baker was there with his own “Red Rocket”, but when he saw the drama “Compartment No. 6” by director Juho Kuosmane, he was captivated with Borisov's performance.
Vache Tovmasyan, left, and Borisov in the movie “Anora”.
(Neon)
In an interview on Thursday morning, Baker remembered having contacted Kuosmane to ask him about working with the actor. “He said what I say now when people ask me: it's the best,” Baker said. “Not only is it an incredible interpreter, but it is also incredibly reflective and really spent a lot of time and raised what I had on the page with many new ideas.
“And then, of course, his incredible and very consistent subtlety throughout the film,” Baker added, “in which he does not have much dialogue but has to maintain something in gestation for the public. Something that will make the public still waiting and, hopefully, wondering about this character. And that is what I think Yura does: he is able to give a lot when he is given very little. ”
Borisov had not seen anything about Baker's work when the filmmaker approached him for the first time. After watching some of Baker's films, the actor agreed to participate in the next Baker project, although there was still no script.
There was something in the energy of those films that attracted Borisov, although he could not define it.
“I am not a critic for understanding how to explain it,” Borisov said. “I could feel it. Maybe that's why I am an actor. I felt something interesting in these films and I can say that it is important for me. ”
Borisov is already well known in Russia, since he won a Golden Eagle award for the movie “AK-47” of 2020, in which he played Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the well-known assault rifle. (Baker has called Borisov the “Ryan Gosling de Russia”). However, the enthusiasm around “Anora” is something new and largely unexpected.
“I was ready to go to Cannes with this movie because they were there before, I was there before,” Borisov said. “But it was crazy that we won the golden palm. And every later step was more and more crazy. It is as if he were sitting in the car and looking around while I go to 200 miles per hour. It moves very fast and I am still inside the car. ”
From left to right, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov and Sean Baker, photographed at the Toronto International Film Festival 2024.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Ingor emerges as a character throughout the film, moving from a still and quiet presence to a more active one, expressing himself largely through looks and body language instead of words. A specific type of interpreter was needed to bring all that to light.
“I didn't want to show my hand too soon,” Baker said. “And the best thing is that Yura is wonderful over low heat. A minor actor would be showing where we are going all the time. But he doesn't. It simply gives you very subtle clues at all times, and it really is with their expression and where their eyes are directed.
“As an editor, I could see even more because I could see all the shots and the way he gave me slight variations in each shot,” Baker added. “He knows what he is doing. See an actor who is very aware of where the camera's location is, where is the lighting, and who is open to the camera to transmit that emotion in a nonverbal way, that requires a trained professional. ”
Borisov and Madison met on the set and immediately began to forge a sensation of chemistry between them.
“I remember that he entered the mansion fresh from the plane and was looking at my tinsel and was very sweet and curious,” Madison said Thursday. “I loved him from the beginning.”
“We spend all the time together during this shooting,” Borisov said. “And that is why this relationship between Mikey and I transformed our characters. Mikey lives in Los Angeles and was in another city for filming. And the same thing happens to me: we are out of our homes. So this relationship is real. ”
A scene in which Igor and Ani are alone in Ivan's house at night acquires a coquetry load, since both begin to recognize that there is more in the other than they had initially noticed.
“Let them simply give us freedom to make an absolutely different scene when trying to fill this space together, this air that surrounds us,” Borisov recalled. “And that's why it was like a small laboratory to try to find the right direction of energy.”
Rolling in the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach, Borisov was occasionally recognized by fans. And although it made him feel uncomfortable to be distracted from his work at that time, according to Madison, production could get a couple of locations after people realized who they were.
Although “Anora” is sometimes full of effervescent and crazy energy, it reaches its emotional peak in a simple and silently vulnerable scene that finds Igor and Anora alone in a car. It could be the end of their relationship or a new beginning, and the public has responded to the scene with an avalanche of answers about the motivations of the characters and what could happen next.
“It was definitely designed to be, first, left to interpretation and, secondly, to cause division,” Baker said. “I am very happy to see that we really have the effect we expected.”
The scene required numerous shots to get it well, while the actors found the way to the essential emotions of the moment.
“Mikey and I at some point did not understand what they were from us: what were we doing?” Borísov said. “We were doing it again and again. It was the only scene that we liked that. And they were trying to find the right energy for this moment. What do you feel? It is because he got it. He found it. ”
“I think we were all looking for a specific feeling,” Madison added. “We were all sitting in the same car living that moment together, the three. And then I think it was simply to look for a moment and then, when we finally had it, try to recognize whether it was correct. ”
As for what could happen with Ani and Igor after that scene, Borisov said: “I can't answer, because for me it was part of the life of these characters from Igor and Anora. All I can say is that Igor was there, not me. ”
