storybook

When Andrea Werhun started writing her memoir, “Modern Whore,” nearly a decade ago, she was afraid to be honest about working as an escort and stripper. But she embraced going public to “use storytelling to advocate for the plight of sex workers.”

In the documentary version of “Modern Whore,” directed by Nicole Bazuin, Werhun has gone not one, but several steps further. Werhun, 36, is not only the main interview subject, she’s also the frequently topless star of all the vividly depicted reenactments of her experiences. The documentary also features bright colors, funky music and an often jaunty tone.

Werhun, who started escorting in college and still does sex work even while pursuing writing and acting, was a consultant on Sean Baker’s “Anora,” and he served as a producer here, offering feedback on their script and numerous cuts of the film. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 and is now available on video on demand.

Werhun and Bazuin recently discussed the film’s style and goals in a joint video interview edited for length and clarity.

How much were you consciously trying to make this different from other documentaries about sex workers?

Bazuin: I wanted this to feel like a storybook come to life — we literally jump inside Andrea’s book with Andrea as our storyteller and reenactor of her own experiences. People might expect a film about sex work to be be drab or dour, and we wanted to confront that right away with vivid colors and a stylized expressionistic mode that can support all the moods of her experiences. Stylized films sometimes can contain more truth than realistic forms.

Werhun: Cinema verité, which is typically how sex workers are portrayed in documentaries, inevitably comes off as voyeuristic.

Most documentaries about sex work don’t include R-rated reenactments starring the film’s subject. Why include that?

Bazuin: We wanted to disrupt expectations audiences might have and to make it a more human portrait.

Werhun: I love performing and I’d love to have an acting career and this was an excellent showcase of my abilities.

But also it would feel censored if there weren’t any tits, if there were no sex scenes in a film about sex. I’m not ashamed of the fact that I’ve used this body to make a living. Nicole and I crafted the scenes meticulously to convey a point that is artistic, funny and educational.

Bazuin: The movie runs the gamut tonally. It’s a “Trojan whore” for a feminist and sex worker manifesto for political and social change, so we also show the challenges and the assaults that Andrea experienced because we want laws that would make this work safer, including the decriminalization of sex work.

Andrea, why interview your boyfriend and mom on camera?

Werhun: The sex worker stereotype is that we’re isolated and vulnerable, with no support systems; that stereotype makes predators think we’re easy victims. I wanted to dispel the idea that we are incapable of having loving, meaningful relationships.

This is presented as a film memoir yet you then include other sex workers’ perspectives.

Werhun: Unfortunately, when it comes to sex work storytelling, there is a proliferation of cis white, educated women and those tend to be the stories that get platforms. But that experience is minute compared to the wide range of sex workers, so it was vital to expand the narrative to include other perspectives, whether it’s race, gender orientation or class. What we have in common is that we all deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

You say you’re rewriting the usual story of sex workers as victims or villains but you were a victim, both of exploitative working conditions and sexual assault. Will sex workers always be victimized without legal protection?

Werhun: Most of our clients are not bad people, they’re paying for a service we’re willing to provide. But under any criminalized model, there is inherently exploitation and people don’t feel safe accessing justice. If we don’t have labor rights, we’re going to be victimized. Even strippers are not comfortable going to the police.

We’re fighting a society that wants to keep our work in the dark, to pretend that this isn’t happening, that it can be abolished by throwing people into prison. Criminalization is harmful and guarantees there are more victims.

Where does OnlyFans fit into the sex work equation?

Werhun: The beauty of escorting and stripping is that you can dip in and out. With OnlyFans you’re working 24/7, creating content, interacting with your fans and doing constant self-promotion. With sex work in person, no one has to know about it but OnlyFans will follow you for the rest of your life. I did it for a year and a half and it paid my rent but it’s not my preferred type of sex work. It’s great for people who live online.

How did audiences respond to the film at festivals?

Werhun: Obviously, creating this film was a trust fall. The film is a song and dance on behalf of all whores, trusting humanity to hold me and not hurt me. I was pleasantly surprised by how audiences warmly embraced it. Some people were working through their prejudices in real time and it’s amazing to watch them transform. We hope the film can inspire social change. If it pulls your heartstrings, then when issues of criminalization and legal change arise, people might say, “I remember that movie and I think whores deserve to have equal rights with everybody else.”

The carriage has turned back into a pumpkin, the ballgown is once again just tattered clothing and all the horses have gone back to being mice.

The Ducks’ Cinderella run through the NHL playoffs came to an end Thursday in a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series. And the end came well before midnight, with goals by Mitch Marner and Brett Howden in the first 8½ minutes giving Vegas a commanding lead before many in the late-arriving weeknight crowd had made it to their seats at the Honda Center.

The Golden Knights will move on to the Western Conference final with the Colorado Avalanche next week while the Ducks will move on to summer. But it’s the team’s latest start on the offseason since 2017, the last time the Ducks made it to the second round of the playoffs. So even if the glass slipper didn’t fit this time, the Ducks have reason to celebrate.

“I think our team, we learned, myself included, just how to play in those games,” said winger Troy Terry, the only remaining link to the Ducks’ last playoff team. “That’s kind of the difference in some of these games, a team like Vegas, learning how to manage those close games. It stings right now, but I think I speak for everyone that we’ll be hungry going into the summer.

“It was fun to play in this. It’s been a long time.”

Ducks center Leo Carlsson passes the puck as Vegas’ Shea Theodore defends during the second period.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

This team, after all, wasn’t supposed to be at the ball this long. Fourteen players on its roster had never been to the postseason before; most of them had never even played for a winning team in the NHL before. But the team’s youth and inexperience proved to be a strength, not a weakness.

They didn’t know they weren’t supposed to win in the playoffs, so they did, dispatching the Edmonton Oilers — who made the last two Stanley Cup finals — in the first round and outplaying the veteran Golden Knights, a playoff team in eight of the franchise’s nine seasons, throughout much of the second round.

Rookie Beckett Sennecke, just 20, had four goals and an assist in the six games with Vegas. Winger Cutter Gauthier, just 22, led the team with 12 points in his first trip to the playoffs. Defenseman Olen Zellwenger, also 22, had a goal and assist in his first two playoff games and Olympic gold medalist Jackson LaCombe, 25, led the team in ice time — and was third in points with 10 — in his first postseason.

That’s the core of the team going forward and the playoff experience they got this spring will be invaluable.

“We’ve got a super young core here,” Sennecke said. “We’re a fast team and we play with a lot of skill, a lot of pace. … The next few years are exciting.”

Ducks left wing Alex Killorn moves the puck ahead of Vegas right wing Keegan Kolesar in the first period.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“It doesn’t make this any easier,” added center Mikael Granlund, at 34 the second-oldest Duck to play Thursday. “Tonight was kind of the story of the season. In the first period we’re down three goals. In the regular season, we were able to come back. But in playoffs, it’s not easy.

“So yeah, there’s a lot of good signs in this team, but at the same time, it’s never easy.”

However, the fairy godmother’s spell wore off early in Game 6, which was just 62 seconds old when Vegas went ahead to stay.

Marner opened the scoring with a spectacular breakaway goal, skating on to William Karlssson’s two-line pass as he entered the offensive zone and beating LaCombe up the center of the ice to the crease. When he got there, he pulled up, turned his back to goalie Lukas Dostal, then shoved the puck just inside the right post for his seventh goal of the playoffs.

Howden doubled the lead with a shorthanded goal 7½ minutes later, finding miles of space just to the right of the goal and banging in a pass from Marner that split LaCombe and Alex Killorn. The goal was Howden’s eighth of the playoffs, temporarily giving him the NHL postseason lead, while the assist gave Marner 18 postseason points, also best in the league.

“I thought we had a really good vibe going in and felt good about guys being excited,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Couple of quick goals, and we certainly lost a lot of our excitement. That was tough.”

When Shea Theodore scored off a faceoff seconds into a power play late in the period, it gave the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead at the intermission with the goals coming on a power play, the penalty kill and with the teams at even strength.

The Ducks led the NHL with 26 comeback wins during the regular season, but against the poised and patient Golden Knights the deficit was too big. The Ducks left the ice to a chorus of boos after the period, though they came back to dominate the second period, getting the only score at 12:46 when Mikael Granlund notched his fifth goal of the playoffs on a power play, lining a snap shot into the side netting from the middle the left circle.

But the Ducks would get no closer, with Vegas icing the game on two third-period goals from Pavel Dorofeyev, who had four goals in the final two games. The first came off a turnover from the Ducks’ John Carlson deep in his defensive end 2:52 into the final period and the second on a shot from a difficult angle to the right of the goal that ricocheted in off Dostal with 6:28 left in the Ducks’ season.

The two goals gave Dorofeyev nine for the playoffs, passing Howden for the league lead.

“They worked for what they got,” Quenneville said of the Golden Knights. “They deserve to move on.”