Maria Bakalova solidified her status as a breakout star in a Hollywood upended by the coronavirus pandemic by scoring a Golden Globe nomination.
The Bulgarian actor, 24, was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” She plays Tutar, the 15-year-old daughter of fictional Kazakhstani TV personality Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) who, among other things, appears in the film’s most infamous scene with Rudy Giuliani.
In a statement after the Golden Globe nominations were announced Wednesday, Bakalova said playing Tutar will “forever remain a highlight not only of my career but life.”
“I am the happiest person in the whole flat world,” she quipped, “and I hope that this recognition brings more attention to some of my incredibly talented acting and filmmaking colleagues in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe.”
Among critics and Hollywood insiders, Bakalova had been widely expected to receive a nomination. Her performance was widely praised for lending gravitas to a raucous and provocative comedy.
The actor, who now resides in Los Angeles, believes the sequel to 2006’s “Borat” is, at its core, a feminist story.
“It’s a movie of how a girl can grow up and should grow up,” she told The New York Times last year. “How people can treat you as not equal because you’re a woman and what kind of options you have.”
Similarly, the movie’s success gave Bakalova, who began her acting career in Bulgarian films, a chance to honor her home country on the big screen.
“Things like that are not happening to people like us, Bulgarians,” she said. “Most of the time, there is eventually a small, small extra part in a movie, two or three lines as like a prostitute or a Mafia guy. I will be really grateful to Sacha for giving this platform to an Eastern European, to play a strong and complicated character who’s not just one thing.”
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