Graduate plays supporting role in movie that won Oscar's Best Picture

February 4, 2025 (Volume 48, Number 11)
Article by Annie Pettit

Lindsey Normington in dress on stage singing

Communications graduate Lindsey Normington has had a successful acting career, including a role in 'Anora.'

Lindsey Normington graduated from Grand Valley in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in communications studies and a minor in theater. Last year, she stood with her colleagues at the Cannes Film Festival as "Anora," in which she had a supporting role, won the Palme d’Or, the top award presented at the festival.

"Anora" also earned five Oscar awards, including Best Picture. “I’m so proud of the entire cast and crew,” Normington said. “We are lucky to have had a beautiful piece of material to work so hard on.”

Directed by Sean Baker, the film follows the story of Anora, who thinks she found her fairytale ending when she marries the son of an oligarch. His parents, however, have different plans. Normington plays the character of Diamond, an experienced stripper who feels insecure about her position in the club hierarchy.

Normington described the role as a dream come true. “Sean is my favorite director and I never would’ve anticipated this happening,” Normington said. “He encourages a lot of improvisation of his actors and actresses, which shows how much he values us. That type of trust can really be hard to come by.”

Normington said she thrived in Grand Valley's theater department and especially enjoyed working with professor Allison Metz in ReACT!, a theater group that promoted consent and safe sex. “I was taken very seriously in a way I was missing before,” Normington said.

Her performance as Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" led Normington to pursue an independent study class during her senior year, where she wrote and performed a one-person show, "Figurehead." “I took my play to New York City the following year and performed it and won an award for best emerging actress,” she said.

Figurehead’s success led Normington to much of her success post-graduation. Her work includes guest starring in an episode of "All Rise," acting in the music video for “I’ll Call You Mine” by Girl in Red and participating in a traveling mixed reality production called "Anti-Gone," which went to the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.

Normington encouraged theater students to take risks and "let their work be weird."

“College is such a pivotal, transformative time in people's lives. Try to cultivate the essence of that struggle and put it into something,” she said.