Congratulations on the film and the big Beyond Fest premiere last night. Did you get your Beyond Fest director’s trading card?
I did, I did! Yeah, glad they used a 10-year-old photo. I look better. [laughs]
So, this is a frequently hilarious movie. It’s so fun and so funny at times, and your ensemble of actors keep things at such a high farcical pitch. Did you get any rehearsal time with any of them? And with regards to the fight/struggle scene that’s in the middle of the film, how did that come about? Was it created more on the fly, or was it really prepared and rehearsed?
We had more time to rehearse on this film than I’ve had with any of my previous films, and I really started to appreciate it early on in the process. So we kept it going and we made sure — there were many reasons [to keep rehearsing]. There had to be a flow to every scene, so we had to make sure we nailed it before starting to roll the camera because we’re shooting film. So, the rehearsals were very important and also just very informative. I was working with my entire main cast, and most of my supporting cast, were seasoned trained professionals, which is very kind of different from my previous films where I like to mix it up.
In this case, everybody came from years of experience, and so they were really wonderful at giving me alternative takes, something different with every take. I was just amassing gold every day from these amazing actors. So to answer your question, yes, a lot of rehearsal, which also allowed us to do little rewrites on set and massage areas to make them work better.
And then also, yeah, the set pieces that required stunts or action, they were calculated. They were very choreographed for many reasons. For example, the home invasion scene, I needed it to take place in real time. So I had to be covered so that there won’t be any continuity errors. And then on top of that, there was stunt work and it could be dangerous, especially when my lead actors Mikey and Yura [Borisov] say,
Director Sean Baker Explains How Anora Is Linked To A Lesbian Vampire Film [Exclusive Interview]
