Borat 2 star Maria Bakalova said her mom cried for two hours after watching the movie. The film came out exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on October 23rd, 14 years after the original 2006 movie. Borat 2 was filmed in secret throughout 2019 and 2020 and most notably featured a character that, to many fans, added a sentimental dimension to the titular Borat -- his daughter, Tutar.
Bakalova is a 24-year-old actress from Burgas, Bulgaria, who’d only just graduated from drama school in Bulgaria when she was cast to play Borat’s 15-year-old daughter in the sequel. Before Borat 2, Bakalova had never done a movie of this scale before, and she’d never done comedy or improvisation. This makes her performance even more praiseworthy as Borat’s temperamental teenage daughter. Throughout the film, Bakalova improvises with Sacha Baron Cohen as they journey through an America adapting to a pandemic and upcoming election -- her most talked-about scene, the climactic interview with Rudy Giuliani.
Recently on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Bakalova said her mom Facetimed her after watching the movie and was sad. “Her eyes were full of tears; she was crying for maybe 2 hours. Because she’s kind of a masochist, obviously, she watched it twice, and she was even more sad,” Bakalova tells Corden, imitating some choked sobs. She explains her mom was emotional about her character, saying she’s “never seen something like Tutar, it’s so sad.”
Bakalova also elaborates on her audition experience and subsequent filming. She said the initial audition tape began as a joke, after returning from her university’s prom, where her friend shot the video for her at 5 am while still drinking and smoking. She recalled improvising her character in the video by saying, “My daddy is the best daddy in the whole flat world because he gives me cigarettes, he allows me to drink, and everything is amazing.”
It appears her video stood out among the 600 others, as a few more tapes later, she flew to England. There was so much secrecy around the film that Bakalova couldn’t tell her parents exactly she was filming until it came out. Perhaps this is why her mom watched the movie twice, to see her daughter’s Tutar in the unexpectedly endearing father-daughter duo.
While Bakalova spent time away from her family during filming, though, she seems to have found a temporary family in the cast and crew of Borat 2. She said filming the Giuliani scene was a nerve-wracking experience, but through it, all Cohen looked out for her in the closet. Bakalova’s mom may have cried after watching the movie, but this is due in large part to her daughter’s ability to bring Tutar to life. It will be exciting to see what’s next for breakout star Bakalova, whether she continues to pursue comedy, improv, or a new direction with the on-screen talent she possesses. In any case, fans of the film can, like Bakalova’s mom, give Borat 2 another watch on Amazon Prime Video to relive her hilarious performance.
Source: The Late Late Show with James Corden/YouTube