Boy Meets World

Actor Mark Eydelshteyn's first English-speaking role is a vape-smoking, frenzied son of a billionaire in Sean Baker's fairy tale gone wrong.

- Bilge Ebiri

Mark eydelshteyn and I are in a car zooming down a mountain road on the first day of the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The young actor sits in front, while I’m in the back with two of the film’s publicists. His eyes light up as the driver informs him that his seat has a massager; he can’t believe such a thing exists. A few minutes later, he exclaims, “Guys, it really works! Let’s stop in a few minutes and change seats so you can try it out.” ¶ About half an hour later, as we settle in for our conversation in a restaurant with a dramatic view of the valley below, his buoyant mood has changed somewhat. He looks at me and asks quietly, “In your eyes, who am I?” ¶ Even stranger is what he says next: “I’m nothing.”

He may not be a recognizable face or name in the U.S., but Eydelshteyn is about to be far better known as one of the stars of Sean Baker’s sex-worker comedydrama Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and is entering awards season trailing clouds of anticipation. So he’s not nothing. But the actor is still trying to figure out why anyone wants to talk to him. “I’m just some weird guy who somehow became a part of Sean Baker’s movie,” he says, baffled. He’s curious to know what interviewers think of him, he says, because then he might be able to give them the right answers. Or at least interesting ones.