'Borat 2' Star Maria Bakalova Earns Golden Globe Nomination For Best Actress

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.”