Glass talks to Bulgarian-born actor Maria Bakalova whose star looks set to shine even brighter following her break-out role in the latest Borat mockumentary
Growing up, the actor Maria Bakalova was determined to expand her horizons one way or another. “I was like, I just want to escape from reality. I want to go to the moon; I want to go to different places,” she says. After deciding to train as actor, she made her debut in Bulgarian film Xlla in 2017, and since then there’s been no looking back.
This year she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Tutar, Sacha Baron Cohen’s co-star in the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, which itself won the best comedy gong.
She speaks to me over Zoom in London, where she is working on The Bubble, a comedy for Netflix. She is cresting her wave into international fame, a position she is particularly conscious of, given we don’t hear many names ending in “lova” during the awards season. More than this, she is the first Bulgarian to be nominated for the awards.
As she talks, Bakalova reaches for her phone to mime conversations she’s had, or picks up a glass to play out a mini-drama. She is animated in her answers to my questions, and passionate as she expresses her commitment to her roles.
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
I learn that when she was offered the part of Tutar in the Borat sequel she was working on two other films in Bulgaria. She tells me about the dramatic arcs of each, and how her approach to these dramas, and contrastingly comedic moments of Borat, are the same: “I don’t think there’s such a difference between playing a comedy and playing a drama … It’s just with a drama, the problems are bigger and more difficult, more painful.”
She emphasises the importance of approaching both genres with respect, whether the story is that “somebody died, or is it, oh, I broke my nail?”
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
In The Father (2019) and Last Call (2020), her characters deal with estrangement, grief and trauma, important issues which laid the foundations for her reading of Tutar.
In Bakalova’s eyes, Borat’s peculiarly naive daughter is a dependent “finding her own way to her destiny”, who must come to realise that “no matter if you trust somebody, no matter how much you love somebody, your life should be developed according to you, and the things that you care about”, as Bakalova insists is the case for us all.
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
Critics have repeatedly noted the sensitivity with which she plays the brash character of Tutar, as well as the intimacy she establishes with her infamously ridiculous father, Borat (for which Cohen won a best actor award).
Bakalova notes the “space” she was granted to explore the depths of her character: “I was curious, if I was this girl, coming from this crazy place where they keep women in cages, how I would feel when I can see with my eyes that there are places in the world where women can do the same things that men can do? Your whole idea of the world gets ruined. Maybe all the things that you’ve heard until this moment have been lies.”
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
Tutar is “a funny character”, she acknowledges, and “it’s a funny movie, but behind all of the silliness, and behind all of the jokes, there’s a way to show really important messages, like [the importance of] being independent, being brave, taking risks. And that’s why for me she wasn’t some silly girl: she’s not educated because she hasn’t had the opportunity to get an education. But now, when she sees all of these things, she reacts faster and she learns more than her father in a shorter period.”
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
Bakalova extends this sensitive handling of Tutar through the most bizarre situations, as Borat and his daughter expose the prejudices and test the beliefs of a cross-section of the American public. “It’s challenging for all of the scenes because you have no idea how these people might react. We had the script and we had what we wanted to happen, but these are real people.
“They’re unpredictable. And you just have to try to realise – to judge by their actions, their gestures, their facial expressions, their eyes, where the conversation is going … And it’s scary, because you have to be really convincing, and they have to believe that you’re a real person, you’re not a character.”
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
Politician Rudy Giuliani, a cotillion crowd witnessing a bloody fertility dance and a cake-maker happy to ice an anti-semitic message are among those who must believe in Tutar as a “real person” for the sake of the film. In the midst of all this, it is the kindness of the film’s “fairy godmother”, Jeanise Jones, who is employed as Tutar’s babysitter, and sweetly works to unpack Tutar’s damaging understanding of women’s roles, who struck Bakalova: “I’m just blessed I met a person like her, in real life, through the movie, that taught me, as Bakalova, how many more lessons I have to learn for the future. People like her, people that show kindness, are people that I want to be like.”
When I ask her how her life has changed in the wake of her nominations for Borat 2, she talks about that her responsibility as somebody who now might be recognised. “I’ve been given this platform and I want to use it for good. I want to send messages to the world about equality, feminism, what I believe in. And I’m going to try my best to work on humanity issues more. I’m more responsible in how I behave, because some little girl somewhere might [think], If she can do it, I can do it … I hope that they will achieve bigger things than me.”
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
Success beyond Bulgaria once felt like a pipe-dream for Bakalova. Now she thinks her lack of self-belief was her “biggest mistake” and is committed to ensuring others don’t make the same: “We should never forget our dreams. We should work harder and dream bigger, and believe that things are possible” as “it might happen, it should happen”.
The conversation turns to her hopes for the coming year, as she attends would-be-red-carpet events over Zoom in “some fancy top or jacket” and “sweatpants”.
Above all, she hopes that her friends and family will stay safe as the pandemic continues, and secondly, she just wants “to work as much as possible”. I ask her whether she would like to return to working in Bulgaria or further explore English-language films.
Maria Bakalova. Photograph: Joseph Sinclair
“I’m really grateful that Hollywood opened doors for me as a Bulgarian and as an eastern European … and I hope that will bring advantages to so many more talented actors from eastern Europe. I do want to work in American cinema, in British cinema, in a variety of places, because I have a feeling that, these days especially, people are hungry for diversity, for different stories all around the world. I’m happy that there is finally some recognition and representation of eastern Europeans in western cinema, but where I’m going to be next? I don’t know. And I’m open hearted and open minded to go with the flow.
Breakthrough, the theme of this issue, seems pertinent in Bakalova’s case. In her eyes, it entails breaking through stigma and prejudice and exemplifying other ways to be. She adds, “Bringing people together, experimenting with something and trying your best to make this world better – I sound like a hippy!”
by Connie de Pelet
First published in the spring 2021 issue of Glass.
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Photographer JOSEPH SINCLAIR
Stylist HOLLY WHITE
Make up KAY MONTANO at THE WALL GROUP
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Talent MARIA BAKALOVA
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