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Mikey Madison has become a global phenomenon due to her Oscar-winning performance in Sean Baker's Anora, which is widely regarded as one of the best movies of 2024. The acclaimed actress has not had a very long career (given she is only 25) but has stuck to a certain kind of role that all seems to follow a pattern.
Madison often takes up roles that are quite opposite to how she is in real life, as she revealed in a 2024 interview with Esquire. She claimed to be a good girl but was often seen in antagonistic roles—from Manson's fanatic follower to the Ghostface killer in Scream.
Addressing this, Mikey Madison said:
"I don't know how I got into a pocket of playing antagonistic characters, but I did. It’s fun,...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."
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In this same interview, Mikey Madison also deciphered how she chose to become an actress over the unconventional path of becoming a horseback rider.
"I just had a pull towards wanting some deeper connection with other people" — Mikey Madison on why she chose acting over horseback riding
Most people who have made it big in cinema, especially actors or creatives, have often had to make some big choices and sacrifices. However, Mikey Madison had to make an unconventional choice between horseback riding and acting, with the former being something that was passed on to her from her family.
Mikey Madison explained how her grandmother and mother were horseback riders and how, in her younger years, she spent more time in the barn than anywhere else. Speaking about this, Madison said:
"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."
But she also craved human attention and connection, something that slowly pushed her towards the path of acting. She elaborated:
"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,...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 percent 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."
Looking back now, most would feel that Mikey Madison made the right choice for herself by picking acting. Her acting has been praised from the very start of her career, and her role in Anora has made a historical impact on cinema.
She has already won the BAFTA and Academy Awards for Best Actress for the movie. She has also become the first actress from Generation Z to win an Oscar. At only 25, Mikey Madison still has a long way to go and many, many projects to complete.
Anora is now available for streaming on Hulu.
