Maria Bakalova Interview: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

The final installment of James Gunn’s MCU trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, is only days away. While the Guardians build a new life on Knowhere, Peter Quill continues to mourn the loss of Gamora. But when secrets from Rocket’s past threaten his life, Peter and the other Guardians rally together to protect him, no matter the cost. If they fail, this could mean the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy as they know it.

Gunn returns to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, making him the only MCU creator to write and direct all three movies. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 features a star-studded returning cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, and Maria Bakalova. Joining the cast are Chukwudi Iwuji and Will Poulter as the High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock, respectively.

Screen Rant spoke with Maria Bakalova about playing Cosmo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. She shared how sticking with Gunn while on set helped her learn and grow as an actor. Bakalova also discussed the audition process for Cosmo and what she believes to be the secret to Gunn’s ability to make audiences fall in love with lesser-known characters.

Maria Bakalova on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Screen Rant: Congratulations on Cosmo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Phenomenal role, and amazing job that James Gunn did to bookend the Guardians of the Galaxy series. Can you talk to me about collaborating with James Gunn to craft Cosmo in the Holiday Special and in Guardians 3?

Maria Bakalova: Thank you so much. It’s an honor for me to be a part of this movie; to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the family of all of these people. Not only on screen, but in real life, they feel like a family. And I felt like I’m part of this family even though I came 10 years later. But it’s been just exceptionally satisfying and fluttering and welcoming to a point that I still pinch myself, “Is it actually real?”

But working with James and being around him [was great], just vacuuming everything that he says and listening to him and crafting the character together because he is extremely intelligent. He is a walking genius for God’s sake. But not only that, he is open for us to discuss with him ideas and to collaborate and develop it even more and try things, just improvise.

If it works, it works, if it doesn’t work, we move on. And we did work together. I remember the second audition or third audition that I was doing, that was the first time I got to meet him in person and tried weird different things, things that are over the top, because at the end of the day, that’s an animated character and she is a dog. And we’ve seen dogs all over the world, how excited they are, how much more energy they have, and how much more playfulness they have. So we were talking about these things.

For me, the most important thing is the eyes of every single creature. And we’ve seen puppy eyes, we see them all over the world. Their sparkles, they’re dedication, they’re love, and loyalty as well. So we talked a lot. And we had a dog on set called Slade, which we used as a reference for our Cosmo.

Every time when I was thinking about, “Am I doing it right? Should I remind myself?” He was showing me Slade. He is a trained dog, and he’s perfectly disciplined, but every time when you go and pet him, if it’s in the scene, he eyes somehow change and start being shinier and shinier.

I learned a lot from James and working on this and just experiencing the idea of opening my mind more and remembering what is it like to be a kid and being able to imagine and daring to play on the ground, get dirty. At least you don’t have your parents yelling at you, “No, don’t get your dress dirty.” Now you can do it. So it’s been just the best experience of my life.

My dad has a Golden Retriever, so I connected a little bit with Cosmo. On set, you did the mo-cap for Cosmo, but when you weren’t doing that, you were with James Gunn pretty much all the time. How did that experience help you grow as an actor?

Maria Bakalova: A lot. I started acting when I was 12, and I was in high school, college, university. After university, lots of theater, stage acting, and very much independent cinema. Dogme 95 Manifesto has been the highlight of my life before all of this craziness with Borat and everything. And I have lots of teachers in my life, but the real ones are literally James Gunn and Sacha. And being able to see and feel, what is it like, what is actually happening behind the scenes. Because we all see the product.

We’ve all seen Marvel movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, which has been the reason that I became a Marvel fan, the first one. But we don’t know how this is all working together because there’s so many people, all of them working together, and how are you actually achieving this to think the same way, to work the same way.

It’s a well-oiled machine, and he’s the reason that’s happening, him and Kevin Feige, who have changed history for God’s sake, and he’s just a very good human being. The best person that I’ve met in my life. Everything he does, he does politely, generously, and with a smile on his face in a way that he makes you smile as well. Appreciate your work and know that that’s going to be worthy.

It’s important to be a good person. It’s important to be a nice guy for real, because if you are, maybe you’re going to change somebody’s bad day into something good. And little by little, you’re going to change the world. Maybe that sounds idealistic, but that’s true.

He’s dedicated. He’s done absolutely everything. You see that he’s drawing every single shot, you see that he’s writing everything on paper. You see that he has so many more rewrites on the script. At the same time, he’s improvising. He’s overseeing the hair and the makeup with so many creatures, and he’s going there and seeing every single one of them, every single costume, every single hairpin than the editing, the music, the soundtrack.

We all have been obsessed with the soundtrack of the previous two movies. With this one, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be as well. So it is just a dedication and love that he has. I hope I have it in me, and I hope I develop it more because he’s a role model for sure.

James Gunn is a phenomenal director, but he’s an incredible writer too. He knows how to really capture the dynamic of family and also found family. What do you think is the secret to James Gunn’s ability to make you care about these lesser-known characters in the MCU?

Maria Bakalova: Well, I’ve always appreciated and admired people, creators, writers, artists that take the story of the underdog, the misfit, and follow that because we all have good and bad in ourselves. We all have black and white. It’s just the two sides of the coin. And then when you underestimate somebody, for example, so many people have underestimated me because I’m coming from Eastern Europe, a completely unknown region of the world, Bulgaria, and they don’t know a lot. But the thing is that things are way more layered.

And James knows how to develop layers in a way that you can both criticize, but mostly empathize [with] all of these characters and get to know them, their stories, and get a feeling of them. Feel for them. Root for them. Because now in this last installment, we’re going to follow the story of one of the characters more deeply and the relationship between him and another character, and how they are connected.

I’m trying to be organized and not spoilers, but it’s interesting. And he is extremely smart in a way of doing it, in a way of developing it, in a way of putting it the right way and also the freaking dialogue. He is genius because you hear them, and you trust them. And that’s something that’s one of the best things in Guardians. And in every single movie that he does, it feels real. It’s real. It sounds real.

What surprised you the most about working with this Guardians team, and what will you take away from working on Guardians to your future projects?

Maria Bakalova: I’ve been a fan of all of them my whole life because they’re just [some] of the best actors in the world, probably the best actors in the world. You have Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper for God’s sake, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff. They’re exceptional.

They’re so talented, and they’re so big, as they should be because of the work they’ve put out there. Every single one of them have been one of the [most] grounded people that I’ve met and good human beings, generous people, welcomed me, and made me feel like I should not be scared. I always have this feeling that I might not fit. I’m the newest one.

I don’t want to disappoint them. And every single one of them made me feel like I’m at home, I belong there, and I’m part of their family. So that’s probably the lesson that I am taking from everyone here, that you just have to be good. You have to be a nice person. And then if you have a great process, the result will follow. It’s going to have that result because you’ve had fun, you enjoyed it, and you’ve been around your friends. Not with your colleagues that you don’t really speak to.

About Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

In the final chapter of the trilogy, the Guardians of the Galaxy are adjusting to life on Knowhere while Peter Quill is still reeling from the loss of Gamora. When a new threat from Rocket’s past resurfaces, Peter rallies the Guardians to save one of their own and once again protect the universe. However, failure could mean the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Check out our other Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 interviews here:

• James Gunn & Chris Pratt
• Karen Gillan & Pom Klementieff
• Chukwudi Iwuji & Will Poulter
• Sean Gunn
• Nathan Fillion