‘Anora’ Stars Mark Eydelshteyn and Yura Borisov on Their Wild Post-Cannes Ride and Being Branded Russia’s Answers to Timothée Chalamet and Jeremy Allen White
“Unexpected, very loud, a little bit scary… but good!” is how “Anora” star Mark Eydelshteyn rather delightfully describes the last few months since Sean Baker’s wildly entertaining strip-club rom-com won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Thankfully for the 22-year-old Russian — playing Ivan, a loveably hyperactive goofball and filthy-rich oligarch’s son who marries Mikey Madison’s Brighton Beach sex worker — he’s been “going through this journey” alongside his co-star, friend and fellow countryman Yura Borisov.
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The two have been serving as each other’s personal “Inception”-style “spinning tops,” he says in his accented and slightly broken English, to “understand that it’s actually happening and not just a dream.” “We’re in America, right?” says Borisov, 31, with a smile as the two speak to Variety on a cloudy L.A. morning.
With Neon now widening “Anora’s” release across the U.S. as it rides a wave of goodwill that many expect could carry over into a fruitful awards campaign, the duo’s double act is only getting stronger. “Doing all this together has been so much better than alone,” Borisov says.
With his youthful looks, skinny build and untamed mop of hair, “Russian Timothée Chalamet” is a label Eydelshteyn had been hearing following his breakout performance in 2022 coming-of-age drama “The Land of Sasha,” before Baker handed him his first English-language role. “It’s almost a joke that has gone out of control,” he says.
But now it’s Borisov’s turn. As Igor, a reluctant henchman with a big heart (not to mention tragically soulful eyes) who works for a group of largely incompetent tough guys employed by Ivan’s billionaire father, he gives the otherwise mayhem-soaked “Anora” a rare dose of quiet intensity. Several have suggested that Borisov is the “Russian Jeremy Allen White.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard of it!” he says when Variety raises the comparison, searching for White on his phone (it would seem “The Bear” has passed him by). “He’s a very good actor,” Eydelshteyn enthusiastically exclaims. “But that’s cool!” adds Borisov. “I’m going to check him out.”
Not that the actor needs any Hollywood boost — or has had the time to enjoy the dramas of Chicago’s Italian beef sandwich world. Already a fast-rising and in-demand leading man at home (he won best actor at the Golden Eagle Awards, the country’s equivalent to the Oscars, in 2021), Borisov’s star has been ascending for several years. His next role sees him playing one of the most famous Russians of all time, literary icon Alexander Pushkin, in biopic “The Poet.” (He shows Variety a hilarious promotional video of him as Pushkin in full period frills and wig going to see “Anora” in a Russian cinema).
Borisov was also the first actor Baker reached out to, before the “Anora” script was ready and Madison was involved, having seen his turn as a boorish, drunk Russian miner on a train in Cannes 2021 competition entry “Compartment No. 6″ (a Finnish road movie likened to a very un-American “Before Sunrise”). Baker had been in the south of France that year with his previous feature “Red Rocket,” but was already thinking of future projects and collaborators. “He saw the film in Cannes and about a year later called me up and said we should do his next movie together,” he explains.
It was also Borisov who put forward Eydelshteyn for the crucial role of Ivan.
While the young star may not have the character’s access to unfathomable wealth, private jets or Las Vegas penthouse suites, he does have the same infectious childlike energy, seemingly unable to sit still for longer than a few seconds as he finds, fiddles with and puffs on his vape (“Is it OK if I smoke?” he politely asks a minute into the chat). “He’s got all the best qualities of Ivan,” says Madison, with whom he enjoys some of “Anora’s” most hilarious scenes.
So when Baker described Ivan to Borisov — who was working with Eydelshteyn on the sci-fi “Guest From the Future” at the time — he said to him “you should try this guy… and then came Mark’s famous audition tape.”
Speaking to Variety immediately after the Cannes premiere in May, Eydelshteyn detailed how he’d recorded his self-tape fully “nude,” jumping around his room and smoking between lines (a clever tactic that gave him time to actually remember them). His apparent reasoning was that he’d originally wanted to mimic Ivan by dressing up in similar style designer clothes, but realized he didn’t own any (and couldn’t afford them anyway). “So I immediately realized I had to be nude,” he said.
Months on, Eydelshteyn has now told his audition story so many times that he says “it’s become like telling a fairy tale.” But crucially, he’s tweaked it, perhaps having not appreciated back then how much the naked element might travel (in fairness, “Anora” hadn’t yet won the Palme). “The thing with Mark is that he just never thinks about what might happen in the future,” Borisov says with a smile, shaking his head.
“So now, in the latest version, I wasn’t nude — I was topless!” Eydelshteyn proudly exclaims, saying that this is the new edit he’s now telling inquisitive reporters. “But I’ve also added new details, about how it was stressful and I messed up the schedule and it was scary because I had to do it on the very last day, and also how it difficult it was for to learn all these lines in English, so I jumped from English to Russian. But I was topless, not nude!”
Naked tape or not, Eydelshteyn’s efforts to “cage Ivan’s vibe” were an immediate hit with Baker. He had his man, and more than a year on, the actor and his co-star and friend are now enjoying this special pinch-me moment and whatever comes from it (both have been using the opportunity to take meetings in the U.S. to potentially line up more English-language projects).
“The most incredible feeling about the campaign is that, in our first interview, it was like, ‘Argh, first emotion!” Eydelshteyn says. “But now it feels like a celebration of cinema — it’s all been very kind, people have been smiling and laughing and there’s been such a warm feeling. And it’s all because of this movie and the magic of Sean Baker.”
As for the duo’s Hollywood lookalikes, Borisov says: “We have to meet each other… with Jeremy and Timothée.”
Chances are that encounter will likely happen sooner rather than later.
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