Mikey Madison’s Pole-Dancing Skills for 'Anora' Took Months to Perfect

Anora actress Mikey Madison opened up about the challenge she faced when learning how to pole-dance for the movie.

Even though she trained extensively for a 20-second clip, she described it as one of the most important things she’s ever done. The preparation for the brief scene took Mikey months! While she may have overdone the training a bit, the result was worth it!

In Anora, Mikey plays Ani, a young Uzbek-American exotic dancer from Brooklyn, who enters a whirlwind romance with Vanya, the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. The movie also stars Vache Tovmasyan, and Karren Karagulian.

The movie won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first American film to do so since The Tree of Life in 2011. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from both critics and the general public, with some calling it the best film of 2024!

Mikey first tried acting in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2016 that she began to make a name for herself, thanks to the TV series Better Things, where she played Max Fox, a depressed teenager. Landing the role of Susan Atkins in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood propelled her to new heights, and this year, she took Cannes by storm with Anora. Let’s see how far Mikey will go!