This is what Mikey Madison admires most about her 'Anora' character

At the red-carpet premiere of Neon's newest release Anora, we caught up with lead star Mikey Madison and writr-director Sean Baker to chat about bringing one of the season's buzziest films to life. The project is set in New York’s Brighton Beach and follows a young Russian American exotic dancer as she fights for love and survival.

When asked by Out what parts of the titular badass character she might take with her into real life, Mikey Madison smiled saying, "I think she has an incredible fighting spirit. She’s willing to fight for what she believes in tooth and nail, and I really admire that quality about her. I would say I am quite a passive person at times. I avoid conflict like the plague, so I could take a page out of her book and stand up for myself a little bit more."

Director Sean Baker also gave us insight into why New York, specifically Brighton Beach, was the only setting for Anora to take place in. "Oh, well, it could only take place here. There is a very rich culture of Russian Americans that live in the Brighton Beach, Coney Island area. And because this film takes place in that world, in that community, it had to take place here," he explained.

Baker continued, expanding more about the rich background of the film, saying, "I also really wanted to shoot these locations. They're very cinematic. Coney Island is almost stuck in time in a good way. You have this beautiful amusement park that has these rides that are cyclones over a hundred years old, and it's so photogenic, so cinematic, and I was hoping to capture it in many ways, like a postcard image. And then of course, there's just, New York is a melting pot… It's a very energetic, exciting place to shoot."

With Anora, Baker and Madison bring a unique slice of New York’s melting pot to the big screen, with complicated characters and incredible visuals.

Anora is now playing in theaters.