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Mikey Madison’s early career-defining moment was her dramatic audition for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a moment that later resulted in her casting in Anora by director Sean Baker.
The 25-year-old actress won her first Oscar for Anora, at the 2025 Academy Awards. The movie’s filmmaker Sean Baker thanked Tarantino for introducing Madison to Hollywood.
According to an article by She Knows, Madison’s breakout role in Hollywood came when she auditioned for Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
She was only 19 at that point. She told Jimmy Kimmel in late 2024 that she put a lot of effort into her character Sadie, one of the Manson family members. She said:
"So, I did a lot of research into the Manson family, and I found out that they would take a lot of acid trips together."
To immerse herself, she painted a psychedelic canvas inspired by an acid trip, wrote a dramatic poem to Charles Manson on the back, and even sewed in a lock of her own hair before gifting it to Tarantino.
Although she gained attention thanks to her role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Madison's career didn't get a good push after that. In an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, she said that she found it hard to find work after the movie came out.
More about Mikey Madison’s Oscar win and Sean Baker’s tribute to Quentin Tarantino
Sean Baker supposedly got to know of Mikey Madison through her work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Anora's director was struck by her raw physicality in the film’s climax when her character met a gruesome end.
In Baker’s acceptance speech for Best Director, he acknowledged the indirect role of Quentin Tarantino in the success of the film and gave Tarantino a special mention.
"Quentin, if you didn't cast Mikey Madison in Once Upon a Time, there'd be no Anora,"
Baker said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he was so blown away by Madison’s work that he watched the scene two or three times, he said:
"She blew me away in that scene, so much so that I was like, 'Who is this person? She's stealing the scene from Brad Pitt!'"
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Baker said his decision to cast Madison was based on her work in the horror film Scream. Madison, unlike her audition experience with Quentin Tarantino, did not audition for Anora.
Matter Baker came to her directly with an offer, saying that if she agreed to star in the film, he’d start writing the script tailored to her (Entertainment Weekly).
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