Actress Faces Backlash For Not Using Intimacy Coordinators For Stripper Movie ‘Anora’

Actress Mikey Madison is an up-and-coming star who is receiving Oscar buzz for her role as a stripper/sex worker in the movie Anora. She’s also facing some backlash for not using an intimacy coordinator during the filming of the many sex scenes in the movie.

The movie is centered around a young sex worker, played by the 25-year-old, who meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. From there, all sorts of fun and sex are had.

NEW YORK – Mikey Madison attends the 2024 Gotham Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on December 2, 2024. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage)

Madison revealed the “no-no,” according to some, during an interview for Variety’s Actors on Actors with Pamela Anderson. She was asked by Anderson if she had an intimacy coordinator on the set or if she dared to go without one.

She took a second before responding, “For our film we didn’t. It was a choice that I made; that the filmmakers offered to me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator or not. And at the time, Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, we decided it would be best to just keep it small with us…”

Madison described the sex scenes as being “a very positive experience” for her. She knew that her character in the movie was a sex worker and was prepared for having to show skin. She was very “comfortable” with the role.

Now that likely sounds like a reasonable answer to most, but there were those on social media that didn’t believe that Madison should have been the one making such a decision.

The use of an intimacy coordinator to tell two adults where the line is while filming a sex scene should be a decision left up to others according to these joys to be around.

Mikey Madison passed on intimacy coordinators but went to stripper boot camp

One argued, “Intimacy coordinators should be non-negotiable on set. this is like firing your HR department cause you think they’d kill your vibe.”

And another of the outraged wrote, “Implying she didn’t need an ID/C bc she plays a sex worker and was ready to immerse herself in that is exactly why ID/C should be a union contract requirement.”

If only an intimacy coordinator had been there to make the “very positive experience” even more positive. I guess we’ll never know.

Making decisions about intimacy coordinators and being prepared for all the sex scenes wasn’t all that went into her prep work for the movie.

Madison revealed she also had to learn the intricacies of being a stripper. She did that with good old-fashioned pole training at a stripper boot camp.

“I did quite a bit of pole training. I did this stripper boot camp where I was taught how to give lap dances, how to twerk,” she revealed during the interview. “And I would know everything about her — what cigarettes she smokes, what her school life was like.”

That doesn’t sound like someone who would pass up on intimacy coordinators if she needed them. Mikey Madison didn’t feel she needed them, so she chose not to use them. Believe it or not, you can successfully shoot sex scenes without them.