'Who Does That? It's Madness!': The Funny Story of How Mikey Madison Learned Russian for 'Anora'

Mikey Madison, the American actress known for her roles in Quentin Tarantino’s films and the series Better Things, recently shared with journalists how she had to learn Russian for her new role in Sean Baker’s dramedy Anora.

The story of a dancer from a Russian community in Brooklyn required the actress to undergo a full linguistic transformation, and Mikey managed to pull it off, although she was overwhelmed at first.

I walked out of my first two-hour Russian lesson and thought, 'Yeah, I’m not going to be able to do this. I can’t learn a new language for a movie. Who does that? It’s madness!' But I’m a stubborn person. I still can’t believe I actually managed to do it in the end, Madison said.

Her preparation began with the Duolingo app, where she practiced phrases and basic grammar daily. However, it wasn’t enough. A month before filming started, Mikey moved to Brighton Beach to immerse herself in an environment where Russian was spoken everywhere. This neighborhood became her linguistic workshop — she listened, observed, and tried to grasp the nuances of the accent.

Even with the support of the community and self-study tools, Madison had to take lessons with a professional linguist. She spent hours practicing dialogues to sound as natural as possible. The actress admits that this experience was one of the most challenging but incredibly inspiring phases of her career.

How It All Began

Sean Baker, the director, first noticed Madison in a minor role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where her character, incidentally, was set on fire by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. That appearance left such an impression that Baker immediately decided Mikey had to star in his new project.

The script for Anora was written specifically for Madison. When it finally landed in her hands, the actress was thrilled.