This Sunday at the 97th Academy Award Ceremony, the nation saw twenty-five-year-old Mikey Madison take to the stage to accept her award for Best Actress after her titular role in Anora. With less than ten film acting credits to her name, it begs the question of “Who is Mikey Madison?” and “How did she come to be standing on the Oscars stage?”
Madison, unlike many young actors, does not come from a family belonging to the industry. In fact, both of her parents are psychologists, and in her own words she “grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away”. She speaks frequently in interviews about her love for horse-riding growing up, and after becoming homeschooled and getting more involved with acting, she found the choice between the two one of the most difficult of her youth.
She started her acting career in a series of short films, and only started professionally acting in 2013. Her first feature film released in 2017, entitled Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey, catapulted her into the Hollywood scene. Before she reached the age of 18 she started to become known by the public, primarily for her role as Mad Fox in the FX comedy-drama show Better Things, which is where her range in acting was really discovered, as she was able to play the role of the rebellious and impulsive teenager, which defies her previous roles as a softer character.
2019 saw Madison’s real rise to fame after having a minor role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which went on to be nominated for a grand total of ten Academy Awards at the proceeding ceremony. This role also managed to score her the part as the killer in the latest installment of the Scream franchise, starring alongside Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.
One of the keen film-goers who set out to see the latest slasher film on opening weekend was director Sean Baker, who, after asking Madison to meet for coffee, offered her the role in his upcoming film Anora. The film depicted Madison as a young sex worker who impulsively marries a Russian oligarch, and this character stunned the public and critics alike as Madison managed to take her light and bubbly persona to fit Anora’s more sharp and fierce personality. The film scored a total of six Oscar nominations, and took home five of them, including the award for Best Picture alongside Madison’s award for Best Actress.
In her acceptance speech, Madison dedicated the award to sex workers, saying that “The women that I have had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this entire incredible experience”. She now joins the reputable list of actors to win an Academy Award before the age of thirty.
Madison’s win is a step in the right direction for the Academy. It is faces like Mikey Madison; that will honour the women she stands alongside, and the women she represents; that hold the future of film, and both her and Anora’s major wins on Sunday show a positive outlook for the Oscars ceremony, and a bright future for Mikey Madison.
Illustration by Anna O’Gara @ansoctopus