Following the ‘Anora' Star, as He Rides the Oscar Wave

New York Times

02-03-2025

Mark Eydelshteyn was jolted awake on Saturday by two stylists who rapped on the door of his hotel room, then entered with several racks of clothing and a very large dog.
'The beginning of the fitting was a little bit awkward because I was in boxers,' Mr. Eydelshteyn, a 23-year-old Russian actor, explained that afternoon over a cigarette outside Samy's Camera on Los Angeles's Fairfax Ave.
While making his way through the camera shop, which he had visited multiple times to drop off rolls of film, patrons stopped him to tell him how much they had loved his performance.
'It's impossible to be tired of it,' he said of the praise.
Mr. Eydelshteyn plays the alternately charming and snotty antagonist of 'Anora,' a nominee for best picture at the Oscars on Sunday. Along with the rest of its cast, he had been outfitted in designer clothing and swept up in a months-long awards season campaign.
To a Hollywood newcomer like him, the social whorl had been exciting, disorienting and not always as glamorous as some might imagine, he said. Even playing a hedonistic party boy in 'Anora' had not quite prepared him for the decathlon of schmoozing that is Oscars weekend.
'The last seven days are like a very strong wave,' he said, 'and you have to be a surfer.'
Mr. Eydelshteyn is lithe and soft-spoken, with a cloud of pale brown hair that resembles a mushroom cap. (Nearly every American outlet that covers him refers to him as the 'Russian Timothée Chalamet,' a label he seems to accept with some ambivalence.)
Mr. Eydelshteyn grew up in Nizhny Novgorod and attended Moscow Art Theater School. In 2022 he starred in 'The Land of Sasha,' a romantic, Russian indie film. But his life changed course when he was cast in 'Anora,' as an oligarch's playboy son who marries a sex worker played by Mikey Madison.
He had an easy chemistry with Ms. Madison on set, and a comfortable enough dynamic with the film's director, Sean Baker, to suggest script tweaks that would make his character, Ivan, more lovable early in the film.
Now the cast and crew of the film have spent months together attending awards ceremonies and their attendant social obligations. The experience has given him a different view into Hollywood.
'It's crazy sometimes to see sad stars,' he said. 'You know, when some huge star — I will not say the names, but almost all of them — we are used to seeing them with a smile.' In moments where a star is alone, 'you can understand that all of them are real people with their real feelings.'
As the sun set, Mr. Eydelshteyn climbed into a black S.U.V. that delivered him to his first event of the night, a party hosted by Giorgio Armani at its expansive boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
He walked past Kristen Bell, who he had watched host the Screen Actors Guild Awards in February. ('She did a good job,' he said, adding that he'd someday like to host an award show.)
He debated introducing himself to Samuel L. Jackson, who sat on a plush couch on the store's upper level, but decided not to interrupt Mr. Jackson's conversation.
Soon Mr. Eydelshteyn was approached by Thomas Pierce, a producer of 'The Brutalist,' another nominee for best picture. It appeared that Mr. Eydelshteyn had managed to charm his competition.
'If I don't win, I hope you win,' Mr. Pierce said.