Maria Bakalova’s career has been amazing to witness. Having acted in a handful of films in her native Bulgaria, her international breakthrough came in 2020 when she played Borat’s daughter Tutar in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a role which garnered her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She followed it up with a main role in the cult hit Bodies Bodies Bodies, starring opposite Amandla Stenberg and Rachel Sennott. Now, she appears in her most accomplished role yet, playing Ivana Trump in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice.

The Apprentice recounts the early years of Donald Trump [Sebastian Stan], before he became a real estate tycoon and, subsequently, the President of the United States of America. We watch him become the apprentice of Roy Cohn [Jeremy Strong], the infamously shady lawyer and notorious “fixer” who manipulated his way through the courts, becoming one of the most powerful men in New York in the 1960s and 70s. The film is based around this mentorship, seeing where Trump learned it all, and how it all almost derailed when Ivana Zelníčková walked into Trump’s life.

We caught up with Maria to discuss the difficulties of bring the Trump story to screen, how her aim was to portray Ivana Trump as a real human being, and what it was like to act opposite Sebastian Stan’s Donald Trump.

Barry Pierce: How are you?
Maria Bakalova: I’m good, I’m happy to be here [London]! You know, for me, everything started here. My whole international journey and being able to speak to you today. I auditioned for Borat here in London in 2019. It’s a great feeling coming back.

BP: I mean, you’ve had a pretty amazing career since then. It’s been hit after hit for you and in such a short amount of time.
MB: I love this job. I love the opportunity to play and meet people. It’s the biggest dream to be able to do that more and more and more.

BP: So, Ivana Trump. What was it like to play a character like her? Did you audition for it?
MB: I did audition. I was filming a movie in New York and I received a script with a message from my agent saying that I should read it and, if I’m interested, we’ll meet with the director – Ali Abbasi. I knew Ali’s work, I’d seen his movies before and I knew he was such a visionary, such a talented person and everything he does has his signature. So, I read the script and went to meet with him the next day. I showed up with huge hair and make-up that I did on myself, because I was cautious that people might think I’m too childish-looking. I copied Ivana’s makeup, did a whole photoshoot on my own with a tripod and recorded scenes that I improvised based on interviews that she had given, even though I wasn’t asked to. It’s a challenging role. It’s such a complex character, and it’s based on a real person. So you have a huge responsibility to portray somebody with depth and a lot of colours. A few months later I got the call, I had got the role, and then I started my research into Ivana, who she really was, this person behind the face. 

“I showed up with huge hair and makeup that I did on my own because I was cautious that people might think I’m too childish-looking.”

BP: For that research process, were you trying to go more for an exact replica of how Ivana was or did you take some of her mannerisms and go for your own thing?
MB: I don’t think it’s possible to be completely the same as another human. For me, the most important part was to understand her and to, of course, play her with her specific mannerisms and specific accent. Because I have my own accent and if, one day, someone plays me I’ll be really grateful if they get my accent right. But it’s been difficult because having my own accent and trying to replicate hers is an even bigger challenge than trying to neutralise my accent, because we have completely different ways of speaking. I think the most important part was to be truthful and believable as an essence and a presence of this person. She’s been this huge, larger-than-life character that was not just black and white. She grew up in communist Czechoslovakia and she, similarly to me, took a leap of fate and jumped on a plane, on the ferry actually, went to Canada and from there went to do the Summer Olympic Games in New York for one night, and that was the night she met the person who changed her life.

BP: In The Apprentice, Ivana is essentially the only woman in the whole film, much like how she was the only woman in Trump’s life. What was that like? What was it like to film and be the singular female character?
MB: As a woman, I dream to see female characters on screen. I think it’s important to shine light on outspoken people, because women are so capable of handling things that usually we don’t see them capable of. The bravery of a woman is something that we need to explore more. And Ivana was brave. She was very outspoken and very demanding of her equality, to be treated equally, to be a partner, not just a wife. It was an empire that they built together.

BP: I feel Ivana Trump, for her whole life, was someone who was very rarely taken seriously. She was seen as this incredibly wealthy woman who wore all these designer outfits and had the hair and the make-up. But you take her and you make her an actual person. You show that she had a pretty successful career before Trump.
MB: Exactly. That’s why I’m so happy we have this movie. Because, for me, it was also a discovery to learn that back in the 70s there was a woman who dared to do things. She called herself a “doer.” She was well-educated, she was dedicated to her work. On the last page of one of the novels she wrote, she quoted Sigmund Freud saying, “If you want to count on people for doing hard work, you have to count on Czech people.” 

“For me, it was also a discovery to learn that back in the 70s there was a woman who dared to do things.”

BP: Tell me about working with Ali Abbasi because this is a very different film from the ones he had made previously.
MB: Ali is able to create an atmosphere on set that allows us all to trust each other, and because we know his previous work, we know that it’s brilliant. Of course, when you go on set, you have to be mentally prepared that the bar is high. We all did a lot of research. We all did a lot of homework. Then we presented it to Ali and let him guide us. He has such a great directorial approach because he will be building a scene as we go along. He’ll be like, “This time let’s walk around the room,” or, “Let’s completely change the position,” or, “Go whisper in Sebastian’s ear.” It felt like a kind of guided improvisation. Too much freedom doesn’t help anyone, he gave us a lot of freedom but he never stepped away from his position as director. He had a very clear vision.

BP: And working opposite Sebastian Stan, in that full Trump make-up, hair and accent, what was that like?
MB: There was a point during filming where I forgot what Sebastian looked like. We had an accent coach session together and I saw him without the hair and make-up and I was taken aback, like, “Oh, that’s Sebastian!” [laughs] It’s good to have a partner who you can trust. I knew that if he had an instinct to try something I should follow him, because it would be worth it. And if I wanted to try something, he followed me. It was a great collaboration.

The Apprentice is in cinemas today.