“Borat” star Maria Bakalova found out she was nominated for an Oscar on the set of Judd Apatow’s film “The Bubble.”
Maria Bakalova was shooting a scene opposite Pedro Pascal for “The Bubble,” an upcoming meta-comedy about actors filming a movie in the middle of a pandemic, when she found out she landed her first Oscar nomination. “We were in the middle of a take,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh, did I do something wrong?’” Instead, director Judd Apatow stopped the cameras to inform Bakalova that her high-wire comedic performance as Tutar Sagdiyev in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “I think I started shaking and literally lost my mind for a second,” she says. Pascal shared in the celebration and praised his co-star on Twitter, writing, “That moment when your scene partner gets nominated for her first Oscar.” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which sees the return of Sacha Baron Cohen’s famed Kazakh journalist, also received an adapted screenplay nomination. Though Baron Cohen wasn’t singled out for his portrayal of Borat Sagdiyev, the character he made famous in 2006’s mockumentary “Borat,” he received a nomination for his supporting role as the comedic provocateur Abbie Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s historical drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Bakalova, who had few credits to her name prior to the “Borat” sequel,” will compete in a stacked category that includes Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”), Olivia Colman (“The Father”), Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”) and Yuh-jung Youn (“Minari”).
