Maria Bakalova Compares The Apprentice Backlash to Borat 2

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Academy Award-nominated actress Maria Bakalova’s latest film ‘The Apprentice’ tells the origin story of Donald Trump in 1970s New York, and it’s received huge backlash from the man himself. Speaking from the red carpet of the BFI London Film Festival screening of ‘The Apprentice’ she compared the reaction to the ‘Borat’ sequel she starred in which received similar backlash.   She stars as Ivana Trump in the film opposite Sebastian Stan who plays Donald, while Jeremy Strong plays Roy Cohn.    ‘The Apprentice’ is in cinemas in the UK from Friday 18th October. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00First of all, when the concept of playing Ivana comes to you, do you have any hesitation

00:06knowing that one day it might be perceived in a way that it has done?

00:10I mean, of course you have some thoughts in the beginning because when you are about to

00:15portray a real person, you know, they have flaws, they have things that you can empathise

00:19with, they have things that might inspire you, yet at the same time you don't know how

00:24it's going to be perceived.

00:25People have prejudice, people have assumptions about real people.

00:28I also had, but I didn't know, for example, that she's been so much outspoken, I didn't

00:32know that she's been so much ahead of her time, which made me really interested to know

00:35more and more and more and more about her.

00:37You know, the movie I feel like doesn't give too many answers, actually asks you more questions

00:43in a lot of ways, but it helps you understand how these people have been built, like as

00:48mature human beings.

00:49In a strange way, obviously we're talking about the promotion of this film, there's

00:54been some backlash from Republican America.

00:56Were you prepared for this based on the reaction of how Borat 2 was also upsetting Republican

01:01America back in the day?

01:03Well, that's a good question.

01:06I tried to stay neutral because my duty as an actor is to approach every kind of character,

01:12regardless is it a real or a fake character, fictional character, as honest as possible.

01:18I don't see any of the movies being politically engaged in anything.

01:22There is a political angle, definitely, because in The Apprentice we dive into the American

01:28system in general, like the power dynamics between people that create relationships based

01:33on leverage and things that they can build for themselves because of them.

01:38In Borat, we see people being treated differently based on their background, ethnic group, race,

01:43etc, etc, etc, so it does explore a political angle for sure, but I didn't expect that it's

01:49going to be so spooky to open up a conversation about this because, I mean, doesn't America

01:55have like the First Amendment and freedom of speech?

01:57It kind of makes me curious.

01:59And finally for me, we see Sebastian Stan playing a young Donald Trump.

02:03He's not doing an impression, but he's picked up on some aspects of Trump, hasn't he?

02:09How did you find the experience of being opposite Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump?

02:12It's been great.

02:13You know, as an actor, the biggest gift that you can receive is to have a partner that

02:18is willing to jump with you and improvise and try different things, change things in

02:21the moment, because that's how Ali works.

02:24We have all the homework done beforehand, and then when we get on set, it's easier to

02:28try new, different things that feel better, more organic.

02:31So Sebastian has been just willing to take a risk and try new things.

02:36Great partner.

02:37I think he's exceptional.

02:38Congratulations.

02:39Enjoy tonight.

02:40Thank you so much for your time.

02:41Thank you so much.

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