Can ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ bring ‘Anora’s nuanced take on sex work to the mainstream?
Sean Baker’s Anora was historic in multiple ways. For one thing, it was one of the rare independent movies to win the Oscar ‘Best Picture,’ and one of the lowest budgeted films in recent years as well. Made for just $6million, its cost pales in comparison to recent winners like Oppenheimer ($100million), Everything Everywhere All At Once (about $25million), and Green Book ($23million).
Another way in which Anora broke new ground was in its portrayal of sex work. Mikey Madison’s Anora (otherwise known as Ani) works in a strip club and marries a young, outlandishly wealthy patron after a whirlwind romance. Although much of the film revolves around the struggle between Ani and her erstwhile husband’s family, the part that takes place in the strip club demonstrates Baker’s dedication to portraying the profession as authentically as possible.
Movies have always had a problematic relationship with sex work. Either the character is a hooker with a heart of gold like in Pretty Woman or a tragic victim of trauma like in Monster and Leaving Las Vegas. Often, sex work is simply skirted around as if it were an unspeakable taboo. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for example, Holly Golightly is portrayed as a wealthy, young single woman in Manhattan who does not appear to have a vocation at all, despite the clarity in Truman Capote’s source material.
In Anora, sex workers are portrayed as – believe it or not – human beings. They eat dinner out of Tupperware, chew gum, and argue with their boss over labour conditions. Ani has colleagues she loves and colleagues she can’t stand. She’s great at her job, and she seems to enjoy and be exhausted by it in the same ratio that most of us enjoy and feel exhausted by our jobs.
One of the main reasons Baker was able to achieve this level of normalcy is that he hired sex workers as consultants and actors, which almost certainly informed how Ani is portrayed. She is an instantly compelling figure who doesn’t fit into any of the usual sex worker stereotypes. The audience is drawn to her from the very first scene not because she is a tragic figure in need of saving or even a figure desperate to break free of her lot in life, but because she is so at ease with herself. She is in control from the opening moments of the film, and it makes her an enthralling protagonist.
But Anora was an indie film, and indies can pretty much be whatever they want. What about studio-produced projects? So far, as Pretty Woman demonstrates, the track record is pretty dismal. But in a post-Anora world, will creators finally feel obligated to raise their basement-level bar? This question was made all the more pressing when it was announced that Apple TV+ would be making a series based on Rufi Thorpe’s novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Released in 2024, the book tells the story of a 19-year-old who falls pregnant after a brief romance with her English professor. She decides to keep the baby but soon finds that there is no way to maintain her university degree or her work as a restaurant server and take care of her newborn at the same time. She decides to start an OnlyFans account, cultivating a fan base by dreaming up creative nude content.
It’s easy to see why Apple TV+ leapt at the chance to adapt it. The novel is the definition of charming, and it’s full of quirky, loveable characters. Crucially, however, it treats Margo’s sex work as both a career and a passion. She starts her account because she desperately needs money, but she quickly discovers that she has an aptitude for it. She becomes more ambitious both as an entrepreneur and as a filmmaker, and it opens up a path not just to good cashflow, but to professional fulfilment.
So far, the Apple TV+ series has an impressive lineup of creators and stars. It’s spearheaded by David E Kelly, who is the creator of a host of successful series, including Ally McBeal, Big Little Lies, and The Lincoln Lawyer. Elle Fanning is set to play Margo, while Michelle Pfeiffer is lined up to play her self-involved mother and Nick Offerman is signed on to play her father, a former professional wrestler struggling with substance abuse. Nicole Kidman will play a mediator for Margo and her child’s father, who the perfectly cast Michael Angarano will portray.
This stellar lineup suggests that the show will be a hit for the streamer, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate whether the series will take its subject seriously. One early green flag in that regard is the casting of Lindsey Normington, a stripper and actor who played Ani’s antagonistic colleague in Anora. She’s set to play Rose, an OnlyFans influencer who teams up with Margo to make robot-themed videos for the platform. Hopefully, her inclusion means that the production won’t gloss over this aspect of the story.
Although the book follows Margo’s difficult relationships with her parents and her custody battle, the bulk of it is about her journey from being terrified of her circumstances to being a thriving business mogul in complete control of her destiny. It’s a feel-good narrative if ever there was one, and it only works if Margo’s evolution as a sex worker is a key part of the plot. Hopefully, the series will see this as an opportunity rather than a stumbling block.
