Maria Bakalova

Born on June 4, 1996 in Burgas, eastern Bulgaria, Maria Bakalova already demonstrated her talent at the age of six, when she began to learn to sing and play the flute. She graduated in theater from the National School of the Arts, in her hometown. In 2019 she studied acting, at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy of Theater and Film Arts, in Sofia, with an eye on working only on stage. 

In the end, she thought better of it, so she made her film debut as a student in a troubled class in XIIa, unknown outside of Bulgaria. Soon after, Maria Bakalova begins to stand out as a secondary in El padre / The Father , from her compatriots De ella Kristina  Grozeva  and Petar  Valchanov . She appears in flashbacks, in which she plays Valentina as a young woman, the wife of a painter who tried to contact her husband before he died, who had difficulty getting along with their son. She gave samples of her talent, surrounded by first-class actors. She was given her first leading role in  Transgression, where she was a young woman who had an unusual relationship with a veteran rock star. Right after she gave life to a young woman about to commit suicide, who changes her mind for love, in  Last Call  (2020).  

One day, his agent told him that the British Sacha Baron Cohen was looking for a young European actress to give life to Tutar Sagdiyev, daughter of the protagonist, in the sequel to  Borat ., his greatest success. She had to be unknown in the United States, so that no one would know who she was in scenes shot on the street with a hidden camera. After two tests, she was preparing for the final one when a member of the production team gave her some advice: “Don’t come too clean or glamorous. Try not to shower.” She thought that she could not do such a thing. “I was shooting another movie, so I couldn’t go with a bad smell, and make life miserable for my colleagues. But I came up with a solution: I made a stinky, stinky concoction, using banana peels, rotten eggs, vinegar, olive oil, and onions. I mixed it all up, and it gave off the worst smell you can imagine. When I got to the casting I threw it on and started hugging and touching everyone. I thought they wouldn’t catch me, but two weeks later we started filming.” Apparently,Sacha  Baron  Cohen , who doesn’t wash his suit while playing Borat, so that his stench gives his co-stars a sense of truth. “She’s the best fit for the character,” he said.  

In  Borat Subsequent Moviefilm , her father commits all kinds of aberrations with her, since she offers a vision of Kazakhstan as a barbaric country, where women are treated like cattle, even locked in cages. In fact, the reporter Borat travels to the United States where he will try to offer the girl as a gift to Vice President Mike Pence. In the most controversial scene, Maria Bakalova – who posed as a journalist – interviews Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, and former mayor of New York, with whom she flirts. After asking for her phone, Giuliani moves to a bedroom, lies on the bed and puts his hands in his pants, according to his later words to put on “his shirt.” At that moment, Borat bursts in stating that her daughter is fifteen years old (the actress was actually 24).

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm It premiered on Amazon in the middle of the electoral campaign. The Democratic team was convinced that the controversy that it caused had an influence when it came to making Donald Trump lose votes, with a view to his re-election. “In decisive days, the Republicans were forced all the time to explain what happened,” said Sacha  Baron  Cohen . The play goes down well in the world of cinema, which explains why Maria Bakalova received a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and finally an Oscar nomination for Best Secondary, for a fairly minor job, in a three-for-a-quarter comedy. 

Despite everything, the film has made her a celebrity, especially in the United States, which portends that she will have a long career. Comedy specialist Judd Apatow has been quick to sign up Maria Bakalova for her film as a  director The Bubble , about a film crew that must paralyze her activity due to the coronavirus pandemic.