00:00I had straightened my hair and then once moisture hit my hair it just went like
00:04Sean was like oh no what's happening to your hair I was like I'm Jewish like I don't know
00:10what do you mean I'm Mikey Madison and this is the close-up
00:23Sean Baker wrote the character for me I had about a year to really think about this character
00:29put together Pinterest mood boards which is something I love to do and just kind of
00:35brainstorm ideas for how she would look how she would dress what her hair and makeup might look
00:40like I think the dance training took five or six months I am not a dancer not even a little bit
00:48it was definitely the most physical training I've ever done but all of that training gave me a
00:54dancer's body I think it really helped me be more in tune with my sexuality as well I think one of
01:02the things I realized was how effortless these women move and they walk on stage and there's
01:10an easy quality and like an easy sexuality that kind of just comes out there's so much effort
01:16involved in dancing like that it's so physically strenuous but I also wanted it to look completely
01:22effortless and I knew I was like oh I have to be upside down even if it's for a little bit but I
01:27have really bad vertigo the first couple times I did it I had to like lay on the ground for like 45
01:32minutes after because I was like I can't if I stand up I'm gonna like smash into a wall and so
01:37that was the most difficult part was just getting over the nausea of it I went to strip club I got
01:43dances I observed to kind of understand the etiquette of the club and what that's like
01:50there are lots of like funny little anecdotes or things that I would hear women say or I'm like oh
01:55that's so interesting I'm gonna keep that in my back pocket and maybe pull it out one time I was
02:00talking to this woman and she said something so funny like I asked her how she was and she was
02:05like I don't know I'm just trying to decide if this is a dumb bitch day or a smart bitch day
02:11and I was like oh my god that's so Annie
02:20filming in New York where there was going to be lots of rain and a little bit of snow we were
02:26like how are we going to keep my hair straight because that's how Sean wanted it we had done
02:31a screen test in Los Angeles and it was raining and I had straightened my hair and then once
02:36moisture hit my hair it just went like got really curly frizzy and Sean was like oh no what's
02:42happening to your hair I was like I'm Jewish like I don't know what do you mean and so I got my hair
02:50chemically straightened it was a like a Brazilian blowout type solution it's pretty gnarly it's okay
02:57anything for the character our amazing hairstylist suggested putting hair tinsel in the hair which
03:03was such an amazing detail because I have all this dark black hair but when it moves it kind
03:11of catches the light and reflects light in an interesting way it kind of gives some dimension to
03:17my hair which was essentially all one link also just tells you a lot about who this character
03:21is that she spends so much time tying in all of these individual pieces of hair tinsel because
03:28it would take like three hours to put all of that in it was very time consuming but I think that
03:32it was such a great cherry on top to the character's look that it was worth it
03:41the makeup was a simple liner and then kind of like a 90s lip that I would over line a little
03:49bit a little glitter on the eye like a sheer glitter but overall we wanted to keep the skin
03:54like quite clean and natural and we wanted it to look like she did her makeup herself we used
04:01fenty beauties I think it's a highlighter it's very sparkly and kind of has a like a reflective
04:08quality to it and so instead of using it as a highlighter we just like washed it over my eyes
04:13and it would catch the light in a nice way I actually loved it so much I bought it for myself
04:17this is her new year's look we decided to add some bigger little sparkles I think they're tiny
04:26little stars just on the top of my cheeks sort of going up next to my eye the stars are
04:32individually placed dab on eyelash glue and then with the makeup artist finger she would just dip
04:37it into the sparkles and then place them and adjust them a little bit I think also for this
04:42particular scene the lines are becoming a little bit blurred between customer and then him being
04:49someone who she might actually really be interested in I don't think she would ever wear sparkles like
04:53that to the club because they could get on a customer a client and then they would go home
04:59and have glitter on them and so she's just doing it to I don't know decorate herself a little bit
05:04more for for Yvonne so this scene was just kind of a one-take scene we shot for a little bit
05:19it's her just kind of mentally preparing herself I mean obviously there's all this intense
05:26shit that has happened to her so I think she's looking into the mirror and she's kind of
05:30gathering up that warrior energy that she has and so I kind of like ripped my eyelashes off
05:38and then she's completely barefaced but still has a little bit of smudge underneath because
05:43she doesn't have time to get bioderma and like wipe everything else off she's just gonna
05:48do what she can because now it's time to fight for her marriage she's not thinking about
05:54how she looks she doesn't care the makeup was essentially nothing I think we would maybe brush
05:59the eyebrows up a little bit there was nothing to hide behind they're able to see all of that which
06:04I really wanted you to see because it's this different side of her it's quite vulnerable
06:09and I think you also see a more youthful version of her too you really see how young she is
06:16which I think is I don't know a little unnerving for an audience
06:23I do lots of fighting every scene where I have bare legs there was like maybe 30 minutes 40
06:29minutes before hair and makeup of covering the bruises with I think it was like a tattoo covering
06:35kit because my legs were literally black and blue and I do bruise easily but it was pretty
06:40brutal looking the long acrylic nails were very very important because in strip club culture
06:53all of these women have decorated their hands in like a really glamorous way with these very
06:59specific long nails I knew I wanted them to be squared off I wanted there to be some kind of
07:06like bling or sparkle on them and I wanted them to be long and so on my Pinterest board I had lots
07:12of photos of nails I showed a photo to Sean I was gonna go get my nails done like a couple days
07:18before we start and I was like hey I kind of like this I really want to do a butterfly what do you
07:24think and he was like oh that's so perfect because I actually just added a line in the film where
07:30Yvonne's father calls her a knight butterfly which is another term for a sex worker and I
07:38was like wow that's so that's so kismet and so the woman who was doing my nails brought out these
07:44butterfly decals and they were huge and I was like these are the only ones that we have I guess we'll
07:51just do it and see how it looks and I sent a photo to Sean he was like um okay they're a little bigger
07:58than I thought I don't know about it and I was like no I think that this is perfect for the
08:02character because all of a sudden you're talking and you have all this attitude and the tips of
08:08your fingernails and you start moving your hands in a different way and like pointing in a different
08:13way and it was so informative to her physicality what is that is that a butterfly yeah you're so
08:19classy I know I got dollar signs like a real hoe the first set I got were acrylics because
08:26I didn't I was gonna do lots of fighting and I didn't want them to snap off like maybe a gel x
08:31might and then as we continued filming I had to continue getting that set of nails done and the
08:38acrylic was just so hard on my nails we switched to gel x um but I kept coming in like every two
08:44weeks to get them done and they're like are you sure you want the same thing it was like yeah
08:49please just keep doing the same I shot a scene where Annie is fighting her sort of nemesis in
08:57the film Diamond and I tripped I like twisted my ankle and my whole pinky nail like cracked in half
09:05like the the gel with the nail underneath it cracked and so that was obviously like excruciatingly
09:13painful but we had to keep filming and so Yura Borisov my co-star would carry a little bottle of
09:19medical skin glue in his pocket every day and like glue my nail on before in the morning and
09:27at night and so he was like my my doctor on set no my nails fine I have some personal tattoos which
09:39you see a little bit in the film but the ones on the back of the legs I noticed that a lot of
09:44dancers had tattoos on their legs because when you twerk it kind of shows like the skin moving
09:52and it was just like a really cute detail that a lot of women had and so Sean presented this idea
09:59for them to be little bows and I immediately loved the idea so we would apply them every single
10:04morning they were kind of annoying but you know worth it they're just a classic stick-on tattoo
10:11every way that she presents herself it is feminine but there's also kind of a I think a
10:16little bit of like a tongue and cheek thing as well like there's an edge to everything and the
10:22tattoos are so feminine because they're a bow but they're in black and white yeah you want to go to
10:27VIP maybe yeah excellent you're walking around all night talking to people super close all the
10:34time and so you want to present yourself as the best version of you and so she has gum in her
10:40mouth just to keep things fresh all the time but then I think it also has a little bit of attitude
10:45to it and I was like oh I really want to blow a big blue bubble and so there was like this mad race
10:53around town to find blue like hubba bubba or whatever so I could blow that blue bubble and
11:00we got it and you can't really tell that it's blue but it's still good anyways hair and makeup
11:06and costume is so informative for an actor how I feel inside of those clothes and how her nails
11:15make me feel the hair and makeup it changes the way you move and how you speak and so it's all
11:22such an important part of bringing a character together I've never had this experience before
11:26where I've been able to have such a say in how she's presented costume wise hair and makeup
11:34everything and it's really changed the way how I'd like to work in the future
11:39but it's it's really because of Sean he just he listened
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