Breaking Baz @ Cannes: ‘The Apprentice’ Star Maria Bakalova On Admiring Ivana Trump’s “Don’t Get Mad, Get Everything” Attitude
21.05.2024 - 21:13
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Dahlings, Oscar-nominated Maria Bakalova is channeling an essence of Ivana Trump, who she praises as a “boss lady,” when we meet on a terrace at the Palais to natter about her slyly sublime portrait of Donald Trump‘s first wife in filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s Cannes hit The Apprentice.
Bulgarian-born Bakalova plays Czechoslovakian-American Ivana Trump opposite Romanian-born Sebstian Stan’s astute portrayal of Donald Trump.
They married in 1977 when, perhaps, excess and bad taste weren’t as frowned upon it is today.
Bakalova is wearing a bespoke navy blue short-sleeved jacket with white cuffs that match a white skirt created for her by London-based Han Chong’s Self-Portrait label.
“Yes, it was made as an inspiration for Ivana,” says Bakalova, “because we didn’t want it to be exactly the sam, but a nod to Ivana, like a power dressing, power style.”
The gold earrings and gold chain necklace by IVI remind me of the kind of gems I used to spot Ivana wearing when I lived in New York City in the early’80s.
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I’d see her swanning about the city’s nightspots and poshest restaurants and most upscale fundraisers, squeezed into an Arnold Scaasi here or an Oscar de la Renta there.
Draped over her shoulders would be a sable, a mink or a chinchilla coat. Once in a while, on cold nights, she’d manage to combine all three types of fur.
On reflection, the opulence was obscene, but back then the idea that “greed is good” was omnipresent.
Bakalova’s Ivana, perhaps more than any other character in The Apprentice, epitomizes those times.
“Oh my God, she’s been such an icon with everything,” Bakalova cries. “Especially, the one part