Mikey Madison has had a pretty busy start to 2025—her first Oscar for Anora, and now, her first time hosting Saturday Night Live. In her opening monologue, the actress set out to prove that she really had done her own pole dancing in the film.

“I performed all my own stunts for the film, including all the dancing, so it does kind of bother me when people assume it wasn’t actually me on the pole,” she said. “‘Cause it was and I can prove it right now. I haven’t done this in a minute, but here goes.” She then grabbed the pole before it cut to a completely different woman in a matching dress and wig spinning around the pole and doing some very impressive upside down push-ups while in the splits. It then cut back to Madison who spun around and winked at the camera as if she had done the dance herself.

Ok, so clearly, Madison didn’t do her own pole dancing on SNL—but did she pole dance in Anora?

In the Sean Baker film, Madison played Ani, aka Anora, an erotic dancer and sex worker who has a tragic coming of age after her dreams of a fairytale romance with a Russian client come crashing down around her. In the film, there are a number of pretty impressive dance sequences—including one involving some pole dancing.

As it turns out, Madison did actually learn to pole dance for the role—and did do all of her own dancing. “The first time I went to club I was watching these women move and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so effortless, I can do that, I can go upside down on the pole!’ she said on The Graham Norton Show. “And I tried a class and it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. I was like, ‘Oh I’m screwed.'” Madison was committed to doing her own dancing, so she bought her own pole to practice on. After five months of training, Baker called Madison to let her know that they were actually planning on filming in a lap dancing club. “I was kind of freaking out because I was like, ‘I’ve just, like, destroyed my body learning to do this and so I convinced him to let me have one scene in the film where I get to do some 10 second trick and the culmination of five months is just in that 10 seconds,” she said.

Madison took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in the film. Following her win, she texted fellow nominee Demi Moore. “She’s one of the sweetest, kindest women I’ve ever met, and I’m so grateful that I was able to meet her and witness her brilliance and talent in person,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I adore her and I can’t wait to see what she does next, what kind of characters she brings us. I think we’re all so ready and excited to see that.” Moore also gave Madison a shout-out in an Instagram post after her win.