Just off the trailers of Sean Baker’s Anora, Mikey Madison’s jet black hair shines under the lights of Las Vegas as strands of tinsel peek out. Mikey Madison’s transformation into the titular Anora is in part due to the amazing makeup and hair that details the whirlwind romance turned shattering saga.

Offscreen Central had the opportunity to speak with Hair Department Head Justine Sierakowski and Makeup Head Annie Johnson about the story behind the hair tinsel, tracking continuity of Madison’s bruises, and the collaboration of Sean Baker’s set in telling the tale of Anora.

Jillian Chilingerian:  Hi! I’m very excited to talk to both of you about your work on Anora in bringing her to life.
Annie Johnson: Thanks for having us. We’re really excited to be here.

Jillian Chilingerian: First I want to start with how you both came onto the project and the conversations you had with Sean initially. 
Annie Johnson: It was a small project, and I had previously worked with my friend Jocelyn, who was the costume designer she had recommended me for the makeup department position, and I knew that I wanted our makeup swing to be Callie Filion and she had worked with Justine before.  I met Justine, and it was like an instant connection. We fell in love. It started this just like an amazing personal and work relationship. Right from the get go we were just throwing ideas.
Justine Sierakowski:  She had gone through quite a few interview stages first. Sean and Sammy, his partner wanted to make sure, everyone just fit in with what they needed so she had an interview and then they had interviewed me. We had started the process of talking with Sean and what he wanted.

Jillian Chilingerian: That’s so interesting to hear about the interview process of everyone down to the PAs. When everyone really cares about the project, and has the same vision it translates to the screen. Once you both came aboard, where did you start with this character of Anora? I read some interviews where Mikey was involved in the process of having a Pinterest board.  I love her introduction, with her hair just glimmering, and the fluorescent lights of the club. 
Justine Sierakowski:  We had a meeting with Sean for a breakdown of every character, and he was very clear to us that he didn’t want her to be too overdone. Most of Sean’s movies are real people. He wanted her to stand up, but not in an overly glammed way. Joss had sent us her mood board and then Annie and I started talking on the side about what we thought would look great.
Annie Johnson:It was a collaboration between departments, and I would really like to say to Sean’s credit, he’s amazing at picking his crew. He put so much trust in us and our ability to do our jobs. He was like, if you have an idea, let’s run with it. Let’s play these ideas off of each other.
Justine Sierakowski: The hair tinsel I had like remembered from Adrian Maloof from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I remember just being kind of like. Hmm! Didn’t that lady get glitter in her hair and didn’t Beyonce have glitter in their hair like on a red carpet? I started on Pinterest and found some, and I sent it over to Annie. I was like, is this dumb? Is this cool like, I don’t know. Should I send it to Sean? 
Annie Johnson: Like, hell yeah, let’s go.
Justine Sierakowski:  Then we did our test shoot and everyone’s kind of like what’s going on with all of this color, because we had put a bunch of different colors to see what it looked like. We finalized on a color with Mikey and she seemed super into it, and it was a good call on all of our ends.

Jillian Chilingerian:  When I first watched the trailer my eyes went to her hair, and it reminded me of when I was in 6th grade, when, hair, tinsel was a thing, and I remember getting one strand, and then, like I brushed my hair, it came out.
Annie Johnson: Speaking of tinsel coming out, I mean, there was so much tinsel coming out every day. There was tinsel everywhere like we were finding it in our bags and clothing for months after we wrapped.
Justine Sierakowski: Super glad we did it. I’ll never do it again to that extent for that long.

Jillian Chilingerian:  What was the prep time of doing the tinsel?Justine Sierakowski: I had never really done it before. I  practiced a couple of times like, Okay, great whatever. I thought it’d be like three hours. It took longer than that for the first install.  But then it’s just like keeping up with it, and I remember the first day once we’re shooting.  I was like, Oh, my God, she’s going to have to wash her hair and I didn’t think that far ahead. I was like, okay, well, now we’re here and we have to do it. Between what I had to do, and all that Annie had to do, we were prepping three hours ahead of time every day. It was like 1:30 in the morning wake-ups to be onset at 3 am. Every day.

Jillian Chilingerian: It looked great. Going back to her hair, because her hair stands out to me, and seeing it be her being able to keep it for this film, which I think speaks to that idea you touched upon that I appreciated that these are not caricatures of a community that is exposed and exploited in media. That speaks to how we see Anora with her full look. How was it figuring out what pieces of Mikey to emphasize from either her hair or her eyes?
Justine Sierakowski: When Sean casts people, he casts people that he doesn’t really want to change much either, because that’s what is authentic about so many of like all of the characters, and we did a couple of haircuts here and there, just to like fine tune things with other characters, but I honestly can’t imagine changing Mikey’s hair at all.
Annie Johnson: That’s the thing, too. We were walking a really fine line of wanting to respect Sean’s style of keeping the character and Mikey real. Seeing her real hair and through that tinsel, and her real even though there’s makeup on it. It is a more elevated movie than his others, but still keeping it, you know, as real as possible.

Jillian Chilingerian:  I love the scene of all of the dancers in the locker room and seeing all the different looks and different variations of how dancers would be without it they have to look this way, it’s just such a beautiful array of the types of people.
Justine Sierakowski: For most of those people that were in the locker room scene, you need to have diversity, because that’s already there and the great thing was we made sure no one looked insane but made sure that everyone still brought their unique piece.
Annie Johnson: We don’t want to change anybody and every special thing that they’re bringing to the table.

Jillian Chilingerian:  As we go on the course of this film,  I read it as it’s like this fairy tale, and then it’s like the glass shatters or when you have a night where you’re out and drinking, and then you wake up to like reality. How did the story point to where she goes to evolve her look? We see her vulnerability shine through the armor she has created. 
Annie Johnson: As far as the makeup went, I did have many collaborative talks with Mikey about the looks, especially those scenes where they’re running around. She wanted herself to look real, to her credit, everything about her that she put forth in that movie was making herself so vulnerable, including, you know, the way she looked. She has a few scenes where I did make her look more tired and she gets a little ragged there near the middle when it gets a little crazy. She gets broken there in the middle, and she wants to convey that through her looks.
Justine Sierakowski: With her look, it’s when less is more. If we’re gonna have this wild goose chase, why would she have a bunch of makeup on like? She’s been sleeping all day, so maybe she’s the residual, and her hair is messy or whatever. It helps somebody perform more because it’s feeling that space of I do not have a lot of makeup on I feel pretty vulnerable. I feel shitty. Even when we flip to another day, and we to have her back in a dance look, she’s like I have makeup again and feel pretty not just beaten down and devastated.
Annie Johnson: There was a conversation we had about her lashes. Lashes were her safe space, that next morning, after she washes her face they’re taken off, and then it’s the mask comes off and she’s getting really real. That was a point in the film where you see a shift in her.
Justine Sierakowski:  Those 24 hours Annie and I were talking that was a hard continuity to do for a period because you’re in and out of different looks all the time. For me, it’s pulling tinsel out after I’ve just added a bunch of tinsel, and then like quickly retying it in at the top. 

Jillian Chilingerian: I’ve always been intrigued by continuity, do you let the makeup, and the hair do its own thing as they’re continuing these actions, or are you stepping in to do placements and smudges? 
Justine Sierakowski:   Sean pretty much doesn’t want a lot of stepping in and changing things. There is the scene where she’s tied up where the hair placement was more of a concern for him so that was pretty specific. 
Annie Johnson: For the continuity though we were really spot on for those looks. Justine and I, which is so great about the way we met and worked together, it was like a Vegas marriage. Our departments mesh so well, and we were able to jump into each other’s departments where we needed help. So Justine was jumping into my department and I was helping her. It was such a monster for us to have to do with the continuity and keeping track of the people. I was really lucky to have her throughout the process.
Justine Sierakowski: Our swing was good at keeping continuity through the scenes app. We would all like to add to it. We realized it was better to have like one person who just did that most of the time. You have to say this bruise has to look like this through the scene and the hair has to look like this to the scene.
Annie Johnson: Mikey even had some bruises in real life and we’d go to shoot the scene so I had to recreate that actual bruise that she had in real life. I was taking photos of actual bruises and fake bruises and comparing the two.

Jillian Chilingerian: Well, thank you both so much for this time. I appreciate it, and congratulations. Getting to hear both of you talk about it, and your excitement makes me more excited.
Justine Sierakowski: It’s so exciting, more people post, or hit you up about it like I can’t wait for this. It excites you.
Annie Johnson: Yeah, well, thank you so much for letting us share about it. It’s really fun.

Anora is currently playing in select theaters.
You can read our review of the film here.