NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Sean Baker鈥檚 interest in the lives of sex workers began with his 2012 drama 鈥淪tarlet.鈥� For that film, set around the adult film world of San Fernando Valley, Baker spent time listening to the stories of sex workers. Some co-starred in the movie. Many became friends.
鈥淚 remember being on set and Radium Cheung, my DP, was like, 鈥橳here鈥檚 a whole other movie. And there鈥檚 a whole other movie,鈥欌�� Baker recalls. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥楾here鈥檚 a million stories to be told in this world.鈥欌��
Since then, Baker has traversed a wide swath of America in films set everywhere from West Hollywood donut shops to industrial rural Texas. But he has kept the lives of sex workers in focus. The iPhone-shot 鈥淭angerine鈥� (2015) is about a pair of Los Angeles trans sex workers out to avenge a cheating boyfriend. In 鈥淭he Florida Project鈥� (2017), a single mother turns to sex work to support herself and her daughter in an Orlando motel. 鈥淩ed Rocket鈥� (2021) comically captures a washed-up porn star.
When his latest film 鈥淎nora,鈥� starring Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d鈥橭r at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Baker dedicated the award to 鈥渁ll sex workers, past, present and future.鈥�
It was a crowning moment for the 53-year-old who has long considered the French festival the pinnacle.
鈥淚t was the dream. You鈥檙e sort of in an existential crisis after that. I鈥檓 still figuring it out, quite honestly,鈥� Baker said in a recent interview. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about opening doors. It鈥檚 certainly not about trying to get into the studio. To tell you the truth, it does the exact opposite. It says: OK, good. Now we can continue to do this.鈥�
Baker, a resolutely independent filmmaker, is less comfortable at center stage than he is behind the camera. His movies, likewise, relish the communities of seldom-chronicled American subcultures. Samantha Quan, a producer of 鈥淎nora鈥� and Baker鈥檚 wife, says he has always been interested in 鈥減eople and situations that are always there but people choose not to see them.鈥�
But 鈥淎nora,鈥� one of the year鈥檚 most acclaimed movies, has brought Baker perilously close to the mainstream. 鈥淎nora鈥� is widely considered a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards, alongside other categories including best actress for its lauded young star.
Baker has arrived at this moment despite charting what, nowadays, is an unconventional path for a filmmaker. He has no interest in television or franchise movies, remaining devoted to the big screen. He makes scrappy indie movies built from real-life experience and research that balance both screwball comedy and social realism. 鈥淎nora鈥� is the unusual film to draw comparisons to both British social realists like Mike Leigh, a favorite of Baker鈥檚, and masters of farce like Ernst Lubitsch.
In a Hollywood that churns out big-budget fantasies, Baker has ascended by crafting what you might call anti-fairy tales. His movies suggest there鈥檚 something bankrupt in what and who we collectively value. In 鈥淎nora,鈥� Madison鈥檚 Ani isn鈥檛 the only one selling herself. The Russian oligarch鈥檚 henchmen are doing a job they鈥檇 rather not. The transactional nature of everything is both absurd and tragic.
It鈥檚 a sentiment Baker has come by through experience as well as research.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to say in any way that I ever faced the hardships of an undocumented immigrant or a marginalized sex worker,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut being an independent filmmaker for 30 years, there was a hustle. Up until fairly recently, I was struggling to pay rent.鈥�
Baker grew up in New Jersey outside New York City. He attended film school at NYU. When he began, he envisioned himself making 鈥淒ie Hard.鈥� But as his exposure to arthouse and international film expanded, so did his interests as a filmmaker. Still, his Richard Linklater-influenced first feature, 2000鈥檚 鈥淔our Letter Words,鈥� drew heavily from his suburban upbringing.
But in the four years between that film and his next, he 鈥渇inally鈥� had some life experience, he says. Baker became less interested in himself than in other parts of the world. He also developed a debilitating drug addiction that took years to shake. While living above a Chinese restaurant, Baker would talk to the delivery people, many of them undocumented immigrants, in the stairwell. Those conversations led to 鈥淭ake Out,鈥� co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou.
鈥淭hat really gave me a chance to restart myself because I was down and out,鈥� Baker says. 鈥淚 lost all my friends. I lost everything. I had no more contacts. Everybody who I went to school with had been in Hollywood working. Todd Phillips, I went to school with. He was already making his first film, and I was getting off of heroin.鈥�
With 鈥淭ake Out,鈥� Baker hit on an approach that he鈥檚 carried through to 鈥淎nora.鈥� He leaned into immersive research, after which he built screenplays that served as a blueprint for improvisation-heavy films, eclectically populated by professional and non-professional actors. In 鈥淎nora,鈥� he cast Madison (as well as Yura Borisov and Mark Eydelshteyn) before writing the script. He and Quan also lived briefly in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach to soak up the setting.
鈥淓ven though my films are taking place pretty much now, they鈥檙e contemporary stories, I want it to feel like it鈥檚 shot in 1974,鈥� Baker says.
As much as Baker might connect his films to a 鈥�70s sensibility, he鈥檚 largely focused on where movies might go from here 鈥� and how he might nudge its direction a little bit. The attention for 鈥淎nora鈥� Baker hopes will carry independent, arthouse cinema into a wider arena, and, maybe, convince Hollywood that smaller, less expensive movies can punch well above their weight.
That 鈥淎nora鈥� and Brady Corbet鈥檚 鈥淭he Brutalist鈥� 鈥� a 3 1/2-hour epic shot in VistaVision and made for less than $10 million 鈥� seem to be in the awards mix, Baker says, is telling of a shift.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be a signal to the industry,鈥� Baker says. 鈥淩ight now, it鈥檚 panic in LA. I鈥檓 like: We don鈥檛 have to make films for that much.鈥�
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
