Maria Bakalova never dreamed of doing comedy.
But upstaging Borat has a way of changing your life.
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Maria Bakalova is not concernedabout getting hurt.
She gave an impassioned speech to a room full of frowning conservative women about her first time masturbating.
Instead, she became Baron Cohens foil, co-conspirator, and surprise supplanter.
She wasnominated for an Oscarfor the part, becoming the first Bulgarian actor to get that recognition.
Ive always been extremely shy, she says.
What is she going to do there?
But in my weird mind, I was like,Well, its not going to be me.
Everything is so freaking this or so freaking that.
Bakalova asks herself aloud.
She decides shes not.
I think Im just awkward and weird.
A hurricane strikes, and the group decides to play a casual game of whodunit that quickly turns deadly.
ItsCluewith a newCharli XCXsong and a TikTok dance break.
Unlike inBorat,Bakalova doesnt drive the films jokes; if her character is funny, its by accident.
They receive it as awkwardly as she presents it.
Everybody wants to be funny because thats very direct and you get gratification immediately.
Bakalova grew up in Burgas, Bulgaria, where she was an accomplished young singer.
By high school she wanted to try something new.
I was a drama queen:Life is so difficult!
Everything is so bad!
Im depressed about everything!And I wanted to escape, she says.
It worked, and Bakalova became one of only three people to sign up for the courses.
But she had no idea how to break into film.
She watched American movies and dreamed about making them.
She learned about Danish cinema and became obsessed.
She doodledMarilyn Monroequotes on her desk.
So I was like,Huh, so thats never going to happen.
Shes just this punk actress in a Louis Vuitton bomber jacket.
What should the power dynamic be?
I really appreciated that she was so willing to carry my perspective, Stenberg says.
(I ask Bakalova if shes in a relationship herself.
Only with my computer and my phone, she says.)
The challenge for Bakalova was to let her character flail in her tense, self-conscious way.
The character is often quiet, waiting for a lull in conversation before she can break in.
If she makes a joke, its mangled by her own tepid delivery.
Maybe, like each of us, shes going to attempt to be funny to break the ice.
Bakalova never had much opportunity to study English in school.
Bakalova says that Hollywood usually sidelines actors with accents, relegating them to small or stereotypical roles.
She wants to change that.
Its usually going to some huge, big star or somebody that has absolutely zero knowledge of the culture.
When Bakalova was in school, she wasnt aiming for Marvel.
She hoped to move to Denmark and find work there and even started learning Danish.
But then she was cast inBorat.
I spent a solid year working on a political satire.
Its been an unusual turn from wanting to be inDancer in the DarktoBorat Subsequent Moviefilm,but who knows?
Theyre both kind of extreme in one way or another.
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