Mikey Madison doesn’t seem like she would be the bad guy. Within the first 30 seconds of our Zoom call, she’s picking up her laptop and carrying it across the room, angling her screen downward to show off her new puppy dozing on the floor of his playpen.
“Can you see him? His name is Jam, because I have a cat named Biscuit.”
Like I said—not very villainous. Madison, off camera, is the type to set up pee pads for her puppy and schedule his training classes. The 25-year-old bakes banana muffins and is forever updating a running Google Doc of actors and directors she hopes to work with one day. Her warm personality and wide smile could make her a Disney Channel darling. But that’s not her speed.
Instead, time and time again, Madison takes on roles as a maniac, a psychopath, a murderer. Most recently she played a luckless stripper from New York who becomes entangled with the son of a Russian oligarch in the subversive not-quite-rom-com Anora, which was a sensation at Cannes last year. That followed roles as a fanatical Manson-cult follower in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and as the Ghostface killer in Scream.
“I don't know how I got into a pocket of playing antagonistic characters, but I did. It’s fun,” Madison says. “I’m a good girl, really, and I’ve always been a good girl. I’ve never broken the rules or done bad things, and it’s so interesting to play characters who have, because I feel like I’ve been able to experience it with this safety net underneath me.”
Madison insists that she’s “risk averse,” and I’m sure that’s true when it comes to things like going bungee jumping or driving over the speed limit. But when it comes to her career, she’s been fearless about making bold choices from the start.
The first big decision was to pick acting over horses. “My grandmother was a horseback rider, and my mom was a horseback rider, and so, naturally, I was riding horses before I could walk—or at least sitting on a horse,” she says. As a teen, she was homeschooled so she could spend more time with the horses. The barn was a second home. She could have literally ridden off into the sunset that way. But there was a tickle in her subconscious—a “yearning” for human connection pushing her to try something different.
“I just had a pull towards wanting some deeper connection with other people or wanting to experience something more emotional than what I was doing,” she says. “To me, that decision was simultaneously easy but also painful. I felt that if I started acting, then I’d have to commit myself 100 per cent to it, and I couldn’t do that if I was still committed to horseback riding, which is very time-consuming. And so I let that part of my life go for the time being.”
Both of Madison’s parents are psychologists; she had no connections in the film industry, no friends who had gone into acting. All she had was a gut feeling and a love of classics that she’d inherited from her dad—like Bond films, Marilyn Monroe’s filmography, and, of course, a healthy portion of Quentin Tarantino. Her leap of faith paid off spectacularly. At just 19, Madison was cast in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
“When I finally gave myself permission to fail or to embarrass myself or to not be perfect is when things started happening for me,” she says. Only after she allowed herself to “make a fool” of herself in auditions did the roles she truly wanted start coming in.
Director Sean Baker saw her in Scream on its opening weekend in 2022, and a few days later he called Madison to meet for coffee. He had a proposition: If she agreed to star in Anora, he would start writing the script for her then and there.
It was the first time she hadn’t had to audition and only the second time she’d accepted a part without laying eyes on the script. But there was that gut feeling again. It was a risk, but it barely seemed like one to Madison. Her collaboration with Baker felt “written in the stars.” She worked with Baker to mould the character, did her own stunts on set, took pole-dancing classes and Russian lessons, and visited strip clubs.
All that work paid off in a big way when Anora won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May. She and Baker were rewarded for the heart, the soul, and the energy that went into making the film. But there was something else that the experience gave Madison. It was the metamorphosis of the actress herself.
“Right before I went into shooting Anora, I grew confidence—not as an actor but as a person,” she says. She’s always been an introvert. As a kid she sometimes felt so shy she had trouble looking people in the eye. Even her family was surprised that she would want to shift into such a public-facing industry, one where, even when you’re loud and brash and confident, it isn’t easy to be heard—much less when you’re a woman, much less when you’re young.
“I think that the kind of actor I am now, because of the experiences I’ve had, I’m confident in my voice and that what I have to say is important,” she says. “Even if someone doesn’t want to listen, I’m still going to share it and tell them. Because as an actor, I’m not a puppet. It’s really important that my voice is heard, because it’s a collaboration, you know?”
Collaboration. It’s the perfect word for her work with Baker. “It’s not a relationship I’ve ever had before,” she says of working with the director. “I think we were just really in tune with each other in terms of the comedy and where the character was going.… I think it changed the relationship, going into the film where we were willing to just try things and take risks.”
It’s something that every adrenaline junkie knows and many of the greatest actors have learned: Once you start taking those risks, it’s pretty damn hard to stop, to go back to a place where things feel easy and familiar. The goal now is different from when Madison started: “I constantly want to be in a place where I never get comfortable. I always want to be pushing myself to learn and become a better actor every day. I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable enough to be like, Oh, I’ve made it.”
At home with Jam and Biscuit, Madison may still be risk averse. But in her work, she knows that risks aren’t just part of the process—they’re the whole point.
Photographed by Mark Seliger
Styled by Chloe Hartstein
Hair by Kevin Ryan using GO247 & UNITE
Grooming by Jessica Ortiz for La Mer
Makeup by Rebecca Restrepo using Lisa Eldridge Beauty
Production by Madi Overstreet and Ruth Levy
Set Design by Michael Sturgeon
Nails by Eri Handa using Dior
Tailoring by Yana Galbshtein
Design Director Rockwell Harwood
Contributing Visual Director James Morris
Executive Producer, Video Dorenna Newton
Executive Director, Entertainment Randi Peck
Originally published on Esquire US
The 2024 edition of the Cannes Film Festival made quite a number of headlines. From complaints of rude, handsy security on the red carpet to the coming together of film greats Martin Scorsese and George Lucas on the same stage, it was quite the two weeks. Perhaps, one that went under the radar was Saint Laurent's multiple appearances at the film festival.
There's no doubt that the red carpet at Cannes is as much of a showstopper as the schedule of films—Saint Laurent is anything but a stranger at the former. But this time, the French fashion house took part in the other half of the festival with its newly formed film production arm Saint Laurent Productions.
Initiated by creative director Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent Productions marks the first full-fledged production of film by a fashion house. For its official debut, Saint Laurent Productions premiered three films at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where Vaccarello is both listed as co-producer as well as costume artistic director.
The trio of long-feature films are Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard (featuring a star-studded cast including Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Edgar Ramirez), David Cronenberg's The Shrouds, and Parthenope directed by Paolo Sorrentino. All three films were in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or. Although none were awarded the honour—it went to Anora by American filmmaker Sean Baker—Emilia Perez took home the Jury Prize while its ensemble female cast was awarded Best Actress. In other words, not too bad for a first-time production house.
It may seem out of left field for Saint Laurent to have a film production arm, but the in reality the House has had a link to the world of cinema back to the very beginnings of its inception. Founder Yves Saint Laurent—apart from contributing to some of fashion's most celebrated silhouettes— designed costumes for a number of films. His most prominent was 1967's Belle de Jour starring Catherine Deneuve, where the entire film wardrobe for the actress was wholly designed by the couturier. Yves' collections were also thought of as cinematic, something that Vaccarello has increasingly channelled in his collections for the House.
There's little doubt that with the successful Cannes debut, Saint Laurent Productions will continue to produce a wide range of films, each with the same depth as Vaccarello's collections. With Jonathan Anderson of Loewe also having had a hand in designing costumes for Challengers, is this a trend that we'll see more of?
Although I do not believe that 2023 will go down as a stellar year for anyone – I asked six friends and they all agreed – there is something I cannot stop thinking about: Cannes 2023. We got The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, May December, How to Have Sex, Perfect Days. There was Killers of the Flower Moon. There was that gay Western with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. And best of all – and yes, I really mean best – we got our first peak at The Idol, The Weeknd’s HBO critical darling (ha, ha) gone too soon. If the Oxford English Dictionary ever need to update their definition of “halcyon” – is that something they do? – they could just use two words: Cannes 2023.
Which leads us to the 2024 festival, its 77th edition, which takes place in a few weeks. This year’s jury is headed up by Greta Gerwig, former indie darling who last year managed to turn a toy franchise into an Oscar-nominated film (though missed actual gold: shame!). It’s probably not going to be quite as starry as last year’s affair – though, as evidenced by my introduction, what chance did it have? – but there are a few promising projects.
You can read the full list of in-competition and out-of-competition films here, but we have picked some highlights.
All eyes are on Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, about an architect who rebuilds New York following a disaster. The film, which Coppola has been working on since the early Eighties, stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emanuel and Aubrey Plaza.
Barry Keoghan dropped out of Gladiator II (led by Esquire cover star Paul Mescal) to star in Bird, directed by Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank) alongside the recent star of gay open relationship drama Passages, Franz Rogowski. And his Saltburn co-star and erstwhile Elvis, Jacob Elordi, will star in Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, which is based on 2021 novel Foregone. It’s about a an American leftie who heads to Canada to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War.
Yorgos Lanthimos, fresh from a victory run with Poor Things, is back with Kinds of Kindness, an anthology film starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, possible tortured poet Joe Alwyn and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it turn from Hunter Schafer. Tortured politician Donald Trump is the subject of The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, which follows the businessman turned politician’s early years. The dubious honour of playing the former president goes to Sebastian Stan and Succession’s Jeremy Strong co-stars.
Sean Baker, the American director behind the heart-stealing The Florida Project, returns with Anora, a New York rom-com about… well, who knows actually? Details are under wrap apart from the cast which includes Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood). Elsewhere Italian director Paolo Sorrentino returns with Parthenope, starring Gary Oldman. We don’t know much about that one either though the film’s title takes its name from a siren in Greek mythology (could be helpful to know for a pub quiz?).
David Cronenberg is premiering The Shrouds, a horror film with Vincent Cassel, Guy Pearce and Diane Kruger. Cassel plays a widower who invents a machine to connect with the dead. If movies have taught us anything, that will surely have zero consequences. Another horror, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, sounds interesting thanks to its cast alone: Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley.
The biggie premiering out of competition is George Miller’s Fury Road prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the lead role while Thor’s younger brother, Liam Hemsworth, joins in on the desert fun. Will Kevin Costner’s western, Horizon: An American Saga, be as fun? Who knows but its cast, which includes Costner, Sienna Miller and Luke Wilson, will surely give it a go.
And what will follow up Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex in the Un Certain Regard category? By title alone, I am excited by On Becoming a Guinea Fowl from Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni. It is a family comedy-drama set in Africa and has already been picked up by A24 for international sales.
