Anora is not trying to be Pretty Woman, though Sean Baker is flattered by the comparisons. The writer-director didn’t think about how his film might be considered a grittier take on the romantic comedy until someone pointed it out to him in the first week of production.
“To me, that feels like we just need more representations of sex work,” he told Yahoo Entertainment.
Baker said the film, which is now in theaters after winning the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, is also an upbeat tale about a sex worker falling for a wealthy man — but only at first. Much of Anora’s runtime is spent trying to figure out whether the hasty marriage between the title character and the son of a Russian billionaire is meant to last.
“I’m essentially giving the audience a classic romantic comedy about sex work for [roughly] an hour of the film, then letting the audience sit in the sobering reality of it for the next 90 minutes,” he said.
Sex work has been a part of five of Baker’s eight films. During his research process, he met sex workers who became his consultants as well as his friends. They aren’t nearly as “one-dimensional” as pop culture portrays them.
“I realized there are a million stories to be told in that world … and I never wanted just one of my films to represent all of sex work,” Baker said. “I certainly don’t want it to be seen as a schtick of mine either, but I feel like these stories are important [because] the stigma that’s applied to sex work is still out there.”
“I think there’s something really special there too, in seeing sex workers being eager to share the space,” Olstead said. “And I think that’s kind of the hallmark of mutual aid … when people have an opportunity or have resources, sharing that with others and kind of lifting the community up.”
She explained that the entertainment industry often struggles to find “the balance between intrigue and stigma,” but centering on real sex workers is a great way to give the wider population a better understanding of what they do.
“Sometimes we’re just the metaphor for exploitation,” Olstead said. “But I think that being seen as human and recognized for our strengths as a community … will further push sex workers to the front when it comes to having conversations about themselves.”
