“Right now, I am blasting a playlist called ‘My Ivana’ that I was listening to while working on the movie,” says Maria Bakalova, who plays a fictionalized version of Ivana Trump in The Apprentice, which made its splashy Cannes Film Festival 2024 debut on Monday.
Bakalova’s curated soundtrack—which includes ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money,” Charlotte Cardin’s “Dirty Dirty,” and Madonna’s “Material Girl”—is merely one way she is paying tribute to her character in Ali Abbasi’s fictionalized account of Donald Trump’s rise in the New York City real estate world. Getting ready for her film’s starry red-carpet premiere, she tells Vanity Fair, “We wanted to do, let’s say, power styling” that nods to Ivana, but remains modern. “Something that feels like her, but in 2024—keeping it young and fresh and contemporary.”
By Bertie Watson.
Written by Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman and starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, The Apprentice “is remarkable because it’s an exploration into the underbelly of the American empire,” Bakalova says. “If you’re born there, if you’re born somewhere else, you know about this place, the United States, the land of freedom and opportunity,” she continues, “and it’s a beautiful exploration of New York with interesting characters that are driven by power. What are you ready to sacrifice in order to achieve your dream and desire?” For Bakalova, the aim is “always to make people feel and be moved” by the characters. “You can criticize, you can sympathize with them, as long as you feel something for them. I think that’s most important.”
Bakalova felt an instant pull to her Dolce & Gabbana premiere dress, which she laid eyes on for the first time about a month ago. “It was a mind-blowing moment because it was just perfection,” she recalls of the 2016 archival piece, shown to her by stylist Jessica Paster. “I’m wearing this beautiful, gorgeous Dolce Alta Moda gown—it’s emerald green, white, [and has] this beautiful painting of all the people behind the single dress.” The skirt of Bakalova’s ornate gown features a print “honoring all the designers, all the painters that are doing the details of these art pieces that we’re having the chance to wear,” she says. “It’s making me feel like a princess. It’s special, it’s fresh, and it has a feeling of festivity as well. It’s a look that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
By Bertie Watson.