For a film about sex work to win an Oscar is rare. For it to win the respect of sex workers is even rarer. If Sean Baker's "Anora" triumphs at the Academy Awards next Sunday, as predicted by most pundits, it will have achieved both. He just does," porn actress and director Casey Calvert tells AFP, as she prepares to film an explicit lesbian scene on a set in the San Fernando Valley.
He's also the only one who cares about getting it right," adds adult film veteran Eli Cross, who is the cinematographer for the day. Baker's journey to the Oscars began in this valley next to Los Angeles, infamously and accurately dubbed the capital of the US porn industry.
It was here that he shot "Starlet," a micro-budget film about a young adult actress who forms an unlikely friendship with an elderly widow. Baker's candid portrayal of an industry used to being maligned and sensationalized by Hollywood earned him the friendship of porn workers like Calvert, who later worked as a paid consultant on his film "Red Rocket.
She will be among the many pornographers and sex workers cheering on "Anora" as it competes for best picture, best director, best actress for Mikey Madison, and much more on March 2. Typical of Baker's movies, it is stuffed with details that "civilian" viewers might miss. These range from the pole-dancing bruises on Ani's legs, to the way she licks her fingers before instigating a sex act. It's so in character," explains Calvert.
Most famously, "Pretty Woman" served up a sanitized fairy tale about a prostitute and her wealthy savior. Following the world premiere of "Anora," Baker told AFP he had deliberately avoided the "hooker with a heart of gold" cliches.
