Anora star Mikey Madison honoured the sex work community in her Oscars acceptance speech as she collected the leading actress gong during Sunday’s ceremony.
The 25-year-old from Los Angeles beat competition from stars including Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo and The Substance actress Demi Moore, who was the favourite to win at this year’s awards.
Anora, which follows a young sex worker who falls in a love with the son of a Russian oligarch, picked up five gongs in total.
Accepting her acting award, Madison said: “This is very surreal. Forgive me, I’m nervous, I’m gonna read off of a paper, but thank you so much to the Academy.
“I grew up in Los Angeles, but Hollywood always felt so far away from me, so to be here standing in this room today is really incredible.”
She then thanked her “incredible family, my mum and my dad and my sister and my little brother, and my twin brother … thank you for being my best friend, not that you have a choice.”
She also thanked Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach “for lending us your beautiful backdrop and incredible community”.
“I also want to again recognise and honour the sex worker community,” she said.
“I will continue to support and be an ally, all of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community, has been one of the highlights of this entire incredible experience.
“I also just want to recognise the thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful, breathtaking work of my fellow nominees.
“I’m honoured to be recognised alongside all of you, this is a dream come true. I’m probably gonna wake up tomorrow. Thank you so much, Sean (Baker) I adore you. This is all because of you. Thank you.”
The film debuted to critical acclaim at Cannes last year and won the Palme d’Or.
During the 97th Academy Awards, director Sean Baker became the first person to win four Oscars for a single film at one ceremony.
Previously Walt Disney won the same amount in one night but for different films.
While Madison might not be as well known as some of her peers, the film star has been in the industry for more than a decade.
She was born Mikaela Madison Rosberg in Los Angeles, one of five children of psychologist parents.
Her mother signed her up for an acting class in her mid-teens after Madison had trained in competitive horse riding, which she found lonely compared with the collaborative nature of acting.
She has appeared in films including 2019’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and she played Amber Freeman in 2022 horror Scream.
She also played Max in TV comedy drama Better Things and Judith Weinstein in thriller Lady In The Lake, featuring Natalie Portman.
In February, she won the leading actress Bafta for Anora which saw her learn Russian to play the exotic dancer.
“She needed to speak Russian in a very specific way,” she told Pamela Anderson on Variety’s Actors On Actors series, adding: “Her Russian is very much at the level of maybe an elementary schooler.”
