Maria Bakalova is a star. The Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout not only captured national attention as Borat’s fictional daughter Tutar Sagdiyev in the 2020 mockumentary but she earned an Academy Award nomination for her efforts. Complete with uncomplimentary prosthetics and raggedy apparel, Bakalova fearlessly faced down judgmental southern debutants and, later, Rudy Giuliani’s roaming hands. But to hear her tell it, fear has always been central to her work and career.

Reflecting on her Oscar-nominated breakout role, the 25-year old star said, “I’m flattered and thrilled every single day. Like did that actually happen?” In her post nomination life, Bakalova remains humbled and committed to her Bulgarian roots, “That’s my home. That’s the place that I came from and I love my cinema and the filmmakers from Bulgaria and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately something that happened after World War II was the bridge between Western cinema and Eastern Europe was broken completely. I hope that that can be reconstructed now because you have all these talented people who don’t really have the chance to speak about their art or work with people from the other side of the world.”

In Women Do Cry, Bakalova plays a woman on the “other side of the world.” In the film, she steps into the shoes of aspiring musician Sonja who, after receiving an unexpected phone call from her lover’s wife, discovers she has contracted HIV. Living in Bulgaria, Sonja finds herself stigmatized, refused medical service by doctors, and feeling utterly rejected by the sociopolitical system meant to protect her. Sonja is surrounded by a network of women who have equally felt the hammer of their patriarchal culture, each struggling to rise up and have their needs met. Drawing a through line between her most recent films and the one she earned an Oscar nod for, Bakalova noted thematic feminist similarities, “Both movies, Borat and Women Do Cry, target political satire and women being subjugated by the patriarchal world that we still are living in, as well as misogyny.”

Female writer and director team Vesela Kazakova and Mina Mileva offered, “Maria was purely inspired by the setup and idea behind it but the script came later.” The creative pair joked, “We needed a script to help ruin it.” Bakalova admitted, “In my life, things just happen this way!” She talked about having joined both Borat and Women Do Cry without a script, adding, “It’s not about how talented you are, it’s about how right you are for the character. I’ve been lucky enough to go to auditions for roles that I can handle. Then when I get the chance to read the script, it’s only beneficial. With movies like Women Do Cry and Borat, you’re working with real life events, real places, and real people. So sometimes it’s scary to know too much.”

As far as her career path goes, juggling the scope of her projects remained a top priority. “I definitely want to jump between independent cinema then do something maybe out of this universe to something extremely funny to a horror movie.” Between Borat, Women Do Cry, Bodies Bodies Bodies and her work in Judd Apatow’s upcoming American Netflix dramedy The Bubble, Bakalova appears to be doing just that. Set to premiere at SXSW on March 14, Bodies Bodies Bodies is an A24 slasher film that stars Bakalova alongside Amandla Stenberg, Pete Davidson, and Lee Pace. Reflecting on real world horrors and what scares her most, Bakalova offered, “Everybody thinks that me doing all these movies is so fearless. I’ve been hearing that. But I have lots of fears. Every single day I wake up and I’m worrying about something. I’m scared even of the dark.”

Reflecting further on fear, the pressure of fame seemed to weigh on the emerging starlet, “I don’t want to disappoint people. I don’t want to hurt people. I don’t want to make mistakes.”

Though her formal education mostly focused on the dramatic side of theatrical performance, she has come to be known for her comedy. Despite Women Do Cry being a dark familial drama about a young girl contracting HIV, injecting comedy, levity, and life into the project remained a priority. To hear Bakalova tell it, Bulgarian humor is similar to British humor in that it’s “darker and sarcastic.” She continued, “People can make jokes about themselves where they’re less scared of embarrassing themselves because they have nothing to lose.”

Perhaps unexpectedly, Bakalova admits that before Borat she was “very unfamiliar with comedies” and had seen surprisingly few. Her roots were decidedly darker. “My biggest [influence] was Dogme 95, the movement and manifesto that Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg created in Denmark. Movies like Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, Celebration, The Idiots.”

Bakalova shared a piece of wisdom from an early teachers who once upon a time imparted, “To have a good film you need three things: good script, good script, good script.” “If the story is good,” Bakalova continued, “the budget should not matter. The country should not matter. If something is good, it should see the light of day.” Both Women Do Cry and Bodies Bodies Bodies will have the chance to do just that this week when they premiere at SXSW.

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