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Get on the Maria Bakalova awards train or get off the voting body, as I like to say.
Her performance as Tutar inBorat Subsequent Moviefilmis whatdirector Jason Woliner calledthe literal definition of courageous acting.
Its a seemingly impossible balancing act of a performance, meriting a well-deserved nomination.
We caught up with Bakalova shortly after she got the news.
Congratulations on your nomination!
How are you feeling?Happy, excited, grateful, humbled.
I have no words to describe it … Im shaking!
I didnt even freak out, and now Im freaking out completely.
Its beyond what Ive ever dreamed.
Meryl Streep was eligible in this category, and she didnt get a nomination.
Shes my biggest idol.
Its the first-ever acting nomination for a Bulgarian in the West.
The skys the limit now, somehow.
Its something everyones really grateful for, in my country.
These people are really hard workers, talented.
Were coming from small resources, and people get creative.
Roles that are not going to only be portraying Eastern European people as villains or the bad guy.
Speaking of Tutar, you made this character so sympathetic.
Her emotional arc was grounded and her story was moving, but its also this very heightened comedic performance.
It was literally two weeks before we released the movie.
These people developed this character.
And the producers who actually counted on me, that I would be able to handle it.
And of course, the emotional parts, which we rehearsed many times with the director Jason Woliner.
We have kind of a script.
Its crazy, like we know each other better than I know myself.
[He] can read my mind.
Its amazing to watch.
But unfortunately, to have a movie, it has to be a certain amount of minutes.
But this didnt make it into the movie.
Theres been a lot of material that we havent seen.
So [one of the boys] asked me I dont even remember.
It was something terrible.
Tutar was going to say, Oh, I killed 17 dogs.
You have a dog?
Okay, Im gonna kill it, something like that, something horrible.
And this is not right.
The scenes with the babysitter were very touching.
But they were saying things like, No, you cannot get [an abortion].
You brought this life, so you basically have no choice.
Id have an intuition to start saying something, but I know that I have to keep quiet.
And Im thinking, this person is so incredible.
And shes so worried about this girl that is from some made-up place, this completely fake character.
Why are you behaving like this?
But you have to keep going.
Were there any times you felt like you were in danger?
What was the scariest or most difficult scene that you filmed?In physical danger?
I dont think I ever felt that way.
Because first, we had an incredible security team.
And second, Sacha really took care of me the entire process.
I was probably a bit scared at the rallies because Sacha was on the stage.
Its a scary situation.
Its a gun rally.
But still, I had to be convincing.
So it was mentally scary.Am I going to ruin it?
Am I going to reveal that Im actually an actress?But we were lucky.
Have you heard from Sacha yet since the nomination?Yes, I did.
I heard from Sasha probably 15 minutes after the nominations.
I was on the phone with my family Im going to call them that.
Hes been like a father figure to me this entire process.
Its just beyond, beyond incredible.
