Yura Borisov doesn’t want to talk about Stanislavski.
Which isn’t to say the Moscow-born actor, who in Anora plays Igor — the heavy hired to keep Mikey Madison’s stripper character in check — is not steeped in the storied acting technique, a precursor to the Method.
“In Russia, nobody speaks about Stanislavski,” the classically trained Borisov explains via Zoom from a hotel room in Abu Dhabi, where he’s filming a Russian sci-fi movie. “Because it’s already in our blood. It’s our groundwork. [Acting is about] building on top of that.”
What Borisov, 31, has built is one of the year’s most quietly compelling screen characters. Playing the stony henchman who very gradually emits flickers of affection for his reluctant mark has brought the actor, already famous in his motherland, international visibility and a place in the awards conversation.
The part of Igor was created specifically for Borisov by Anora writer-director Sean Baker, who first took notice of him at Cannes in 2021. Borisov starred that year in the Grand Prix-winning Compartment No. 6 by Juho Kuosmanen, playing a Russian miner who shares a train compartment with a Finnish student. Baker was there that year with his own Red Rocket, also in competition.
“One year later, he called me and said that he wants to do his next film with me — that he would write a role for me — and is that interesting for me or not,” Borisov recalls. It was.
About six months later, a script arrived — a gritty fairy tale involving sex workers and oligarchs, partly inspired by Baker’s years editing Russian American wedding videos in New York. Borisov had notes — or, more specifically, questions. “It’s not about changing it,” he explains. “It’s just trying to understand the universe of this film because a script is just a map. It’s not a book.”
When filming began in Brooklyn in early 2023, Borisov arrived from Moscow with some apprehension, having never worked on an American production. “I didn’t know Sean as a person. I didn’t know Mikey. I didn’t know what was different about the American process. But I quickly learned that it’s absolutely the same everywhere,” he says.
He was floored by Madison’s instincts and how comfortable they grew on set despite their considerable cultural and language differences. “She is a crazy talented actress and a super cool woman,” he says of his 25-year-old co-star. Borisov grew similarly close to Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays the spoiled yet charming Russian heir who marries Anora on a whim — then vanishes when his parents catch wind of it.
Borisov recommended 22-year-old Eydelshteyn, also a Russia native, to Baker, having been familiar with his work in the Moscow theater scene. “Mark has this very unique energy, and it’s so good for this role because [his character] can feel like a bad guy, but he’s absolutely not a bad guy. It was unique, and only Mark could do it, I felt,” he says.
Despite all the off-camera collegiality, the Anora cast was called on to do some extraordinarily unfriendly things to one another onscreen — particularly in the violent 28-minute home-invasion scene that serves as the film’s chaotic centerpiece.
Vache Tovmasyan (left) and Borisov as henchmen Garnick and Igor.
Courtesy of Neon
Borisov likens the sequence, which took 10 of the film’s 37 shoot days to film, to “a quest — something you wouldn’t want to experience in real life, but in the moment, everyone believes it to be real. You’re really living it in the moment.” (Despite how it appears, no henchmen were harmed.)
After winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year and adulation from critics, Anora is now being experienced by audiences worldwide. Borisov is struck by the varied responses. Back in Russia, some of his countrymen have been “very into it,” while others have simply shrugged their shoulders. (He suggests some of the charm may have gotten lost in translation — like a running joke about him mispronouncing the word “touché.”)
Ultimately, Borisov thinks the film has tapped into universalities about longing and connection.
“We are just a network of souls,” he says. “And I hope that anyone watching Anora will feel that.”
This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
