NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� 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, 鈥楾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 out to avenge a cheating boyfriend. In a single mother turns to sex work to support herself and her daughter in an Orlando motel. (2021) comically captures a washed-up porn star.
When starring as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian oligarch, earlier this year, Baker took the moment to speak about chipping away at the stigma of sex work. He 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's most acclaimed movies, has brought Baker perilously close to the mainstream. 鈥淎nora鈥� is widely considered a contender for best picture at 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 . 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 , a favorite of Baker鈥檚, and masters of farce like
In a Hollywood that churns out big-budget fantasies, Baker has ascended by crafting what you might call His movies suggest there鈥檚 something bankrupt in what and who we collectively value. The poverty of 鈥淭he Florida Project鈥� took place in the shadow of Disney World. In 鈥淎nora,鈥� Madison's 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.
鈥淚f I鈥檓 too calculated, like 鈥楾his is my grand statement on late-stage capitalism,鈥� I鈥檒l get a little contrived, I鈥檒l get a little preachy,鈥� Baker says, smiling. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 hard to ignore it in a country more divided by the day.鈥�
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, the son of a patent attorney, 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 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 pulsating with real life. His next movie, 鈥淧rince of Broadway,鈥� followed a Ghanaian immigrant selling knockoff designer products in Manhattan.
For years, Baker contemplated a movie set in Brighton Beach. He and the actor Karren Karagulian, a regular in Baker鈥檚 movies, had talked about 鈥渁 bro movie with Russian gangsters.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 glad that didn鈥檛 happen,鈥� Baker says, chuckling. It went on the back burner. But after Baker heard a story about a young woman abandoned by her significant other and then held as collateral, he began rethinking a Brighton Beach movie set around a sex worker. To contemplate it, Baker and Quan moved to the Brooklyn neighborhood for a few months.
鈥淲e really hunker down in those places,鈥� says Quan. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 like to go to a place and say we鈥檙e just going to get a surface view. We really embed ourselves in that place. We talk to people. We get to know everyone. The research is us being there and soaking things up.鈥�
Before Baker has a script, he typically casts his lead roles. For 鈥淎nora,鈥� that meant enlisting Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn and Madison. After seeing Madison in 2022鈥檚 鈥淪cream,鈥� Baker was convinced she was perfect 鈥� even if his approach took some convincing of financiers.
鈥淚 remember when I was pitching it, they were like, 鈥楳ikey Madison and who else?鈥欌�� Baker says. 鈥淚鈥檓 like: 鈥楴o, no. She鈥檚 the star.鈥欌��
When Baker met with Madison, they spoke only vaguely about the project.
鈥淗e pitched me a very loose idea for what the story might be, the character,鈥� Madison says. 鈥淚 was essentially just agreeing to working with him.鈥�
While writing the script, the two stayed in regular connection, talking through and gradually forming the central character with the help of consultant Andrea Werhun, author of the memoir 鈥淢odern Whore.鈥� Baker, whose work apartment includes a kitchen stocked with Blu-rays in the cabinets, also gave Madison a handful of movies, including Federico Fellini鈥檚 鈥淣ights of Cabiria.鈥�
Meanwhile, Baker looked at things like 鈥淭he Taking of Pelham One Two Three鈥� for shooting New York at night. Later, he shot on the same stretch of Brooklyn road beneath the elevated subway immortalized by the chase scene in 鈥淭he French Connection.鈥� He and his production designer, Stephen Phelps, decided to put a hint of red in every shot, a nod to films like Jean-Luc Godard鈥檚 鈥淐ontempt.鈥� In the credits, Baker thanks the director Jesu虂s Franco for the red scarf and colors of 鈥淰ampyros Lesbos.鈥�
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.
During production, Baker would sometimes lean into guerrilla filmmaking techniques, sending Madison into a pool hall or restaurant to interact with those inside. (鈥淭he scene could go in any direction because it鈥檚 not really a scene,鈥� says Madison.) For the sex scenes, Baker and Quan would themselves model the movements for Madison and Eydelshteyn.
鈥淗e was really dedicated to creating a safe space for us to be able to do those scenes and feel comfortable,鈥� Madison says. 鈥淗e wanted us to see what the positions would look like, so they would show us 鈥� obviously fully clothed and everything. It was funny and kind of broke the tension a little bit. Sean鈥檚 a one-of-a-kind director.鈥�
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. He鈥檚 proud that 鈥淎nora鈥� is in the Oscar conversation, but is mostly rooting for his collaborators. 鈥淏ecause I already won my thing,鈥� he says, laughing. But Baker hopes the attention might help carry independent, arthouse cinema into a wider arena, reawakening audiences to the big-screen experience and, maybe, convincing Hollywood that smaller, less expensive movies can punch well above their weight.
That 鈥淎nora鈥� and 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. Right now, it鈥檚 panic in LA. I鈥檓 like: We don鈥檛 have to make films for that much. They don鈥檛 have to cost as much,鈥� says Baker, who advocates altering guild rules for lower-budget indie films. 鈥淭he rules are going to have to change. And attitudes toward watching movies changed because of streaming and because of COVID. We have to remind audiences that some films are made for the big screen.鈥�
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
