‘Anora’ actress gives Tara theater love, visits Clermont Lounge

Miranda’s story of being discovered sounds like it could have been plucked from a Cinderella-like screenplay.

Credit: JOEL V

Credit: JOEL V

In the summer of 2022, Miranda was working at a Brooklyn strip club and came in to cover for another dancer. She ran into a couple who spoke with her about her acting aspirations. This might have been a quickly forgotten moment of small talk, but Miranda happened to be talking to filmmaker Sean Baker and his producer wife, Samantha Quan.

They offered her an audition for the role of Lulu, the best friend and co-worker of sex worker Anora, who would be played by future Oscar-winning best actress Mikey Madison. “No way they were going to cast me,” she told Diaz after the screening. But Baker and Quan not only cast her but also used her as a consultant, using her knowledge of the strip club business — including the proper lingo and attire.

“I sent them a giant PDF of stripper and Brooklyn memes,” she said, for inspiration.

Miranda played Lulu as someone new to the business and still relatively innocent. The first scene she shot was at a Brooklyn mansion with 100 extras partying hard with a DJ, open bar and fireworks. “When I look like I’m in awe, I wasn’t acting,” she said.

When Anora suddenly marries the spoiled rich kid of a Russian oligarch, Lulu is supportive. “She is Anora’s only friend,” she said.

For Miranda to go from being a stripper three years ago to an actress standing on the stage of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in front of millions was “absolutely surreal,” she said in a brief interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I remember when they called our movie for best picture, I started running, then I don’t remember much. I blacked out!”

Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Miranda came to Atlanta for the first time in part to support local independent theaters like the Tara.

Movie theaters have not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic with attendance at about 70% of 2019 numbers. This past weekend was especially dismal with the top film grossing less than $10 million domestically. Regal shut down Tara in late 2022 because of poor attendance. Escobar, who owns the Plaza Theatre, gathered investors and reopened the theater in 2023. Holding special events like this, he said, helps draw traffic and build loyalty, a strategy that worked well at the Plaza.

And Escobar was thrilled “Anora” filmmaker Baker, who made a full-throated plea on stage at the Oscars for people to go to movie theaters and keep that experience alive, supported the screening via his social media account.

“Anora,” created entirely independently on a modest $6 million budget, won out over much bigger films like “Conclave” and “A Complete Unknown” at the Academy Awards. The film has grossed $20 million so far domestically and another $31 million internationally. It is available on Hulu as of March 17. (Thanks in part to Miranda’s appearance, Tara was the No. 3 theater in the nation over the weekend in ticket sales among 1,062 screens.)

“I think watching films in a theater with other people is a rite of passage,” Miranda said. “It’s so human. We are ritualistic creatures. But those spaces are disappearing. It’s not good for us mentally.”

She first saw “Anora” at the Cannes Film Festival in France. “The screen was immense and my face looked so big,” she said.

After the Tara screening, Miranda visited the legendary strip club the Clermont Lounge for a couple of hours.

“Luna was able to meet Blondie!” Diaz said in a text, referencing the legendary stripper. “We experienced a famous Atlanta spot through the eyes of Luna. It was great to see the tables turning. We showed her Atlanta and she showed us part of her world at the lounge. She was our tour guide. She said it reminded her of her own club. There was dancing and partying. It was a great way to end the night!”

She sent Escobar a text about her experience: “It seems like the Clermont Lounge is an institution with a history and that people in the community really respect the space and the dancers. It was really cool to see such a diversity of women and we had a blast. I definitely want to go back when I don’t have a flight the next day so I can, you know, close the place down!”

Miranda has already finished shooting the indie sex comedy “Youthful Pleasures” and produced an erotic slasher film, and hopes the Oscar win will give her more opportunities in the business. “For me, the thing is to have fun,” she said. “Life is so short. Making films is hard. If you’re not having fun, what are you doing?”