Maria Bakalova’s role in Creature Commando allowed her to play both feminine and sinister

Capital StudiosMax cartoon show for adults Commando Creatures Surprised new and old fans. It wasn’t just that His first season Another great show to add to the vast repertoire of comic book series, and it also served as a harbinger of what What the future of DC Studios will look like Under the guiding hands of James Gunn. It certainly didn’t hurt that he had all the flair, humor, heart, and sex appeal hitherto unheard of in a DC project.

Like a lot Suicide Squad (Gann version), Commando Creatures It sees a strange group of strange DC characters tasked with completing deadly tasks suitable for the monster. The main rejected characters include Rick Flagg Sr. (Frank Grillo), The Bride (Indira Varma), GI Robot (Sean Gunn), Weasel (also Sean Gunn), Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), and Dr. Nina Mazursky (Zoe). Chow), Frankenstein (David Harbour) and Circe (Anya Chalotra).

While many of the aforementioned characters reveal themselves to be more than what they initially appear to be as a force for good throughout the show, Princess Ilana Rostovich proves to be quite the opposite. In conjunction with the show’s season finale, we spoke with Princess actress Ilana Maria Bakalova to ask her if those fluttering eyelashes and Disney Princess forehead were real or if she was just playing with the audience’s sympathies.

This interview has been edited for brevity.

Isaiah Colbert, io9: This isn’t your first time working on a comic book project for James Gunn. It was your first appearance in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Like the talking space dog, Cozmo. What attracted you to join another Gunn business?

Maria Bakalova: It’s James. I’m just a huge fan of everything he does. He’s a master storyteller (in) the way he builds characters, the way he builds stories, (and) the way he tells stories is exceptional. It’s unusual.

You can always find his signature because of the humor and love found within these characters and the idea of ​​somehow finding your place in life and finding people you can identify with. You can find your chosen family to some extent. You can find friends and feel like you belong somewhere, which I feel like, as humans, we’re always born with that feeling of, “I want to belong somewhere. I want someone to see me. I want someone to understand me.” We see that with Commando Creatures. We’ve seen that with Guardians of the Galaxy.

All of these projects contain these monstrous creatures and misfits who are somehow united by the idea that they are outsiders to the world and don’t fit anywhere. However, they can be the greatest heroes in the end, and you can find yourself falling in love with them, rooting for them, and wanting them to be successful in their mission. Although I’m a bit biased here (and) I don’t want them to kill my princess, let’s say she’s also part of the creature commando team, because I don’t want to end up in prison either.

io9: Commando Creatures Filled with a cast of characters who are not what they first seem, including Ilana. Throughout the show, Ilana goes from being a Disney princess to a cold, conniving villain. How did she balance these two contrasting tones of her character?

Bakalova: Ilana is a character I’ve never played before. I’ve worked on a lot of interesting projects (that were) very different from each other, but I’d never played a villain before. I didn’t play someone who uses manipulation to get what he wants. Sacrificing their dignity and humanity to achieve the goal of power and control over society. It’s interesting.

I’m always curious about how people end up in this place and how they go from just thinking about it to actually starting to take action on it. She’s a complicated woman. She can be seen as innocent, fragile, and really in need of protection. But she’s not as silly as she pretends to be, and she’s not as fragile as she wants people to think she is.

Although she revealed a little in front of Rick, she said, “I’m a woman, and I get what I want. I know I can handle a lot of things. I don’t need a boy. I want a man.” It’s a little hint that maybe she’s not exactly who they think she is. She wants to play with her charm, and she wants to play with her femininity. She wants to play with the idea that (she’s) not dangerous, she’s in danger – when in reality she’s the biggest danger of all.

I was able to play something similar when I was trying to convince people that my character was a real human being in 2020 Borat (later film). Sometimes you just have to let people believe what they want to believe, and I think that’s her goal too. She just allows Rick and the creatures to think they need to protect her. That’s why she plays it like this, “Okay, I need protection, just don’t stay (in) my way.”

Later, we reveal that, especially when she speaks her language, she is a completely different person. She’s a monster. She has some terrible ideas for the future. But yeah, she’s an interesting character to play.

io9: You mentioned that Ilana has an affair with Rick Flagg — an unprofessional one — that leads to the funny scene where Dr. Phosphorus covers up their intimate relationship. James Gunn shared a clip of you kissing the back of your hand to make that noise on his social media. Did this scene require an intimacy coordinator, or was it just going to the booth and performing various tasks necessary to make it work?

Bakalova: No, as much as I think you need an intimacy coordinator if you need one, for this particular scene, at the end of the day, I personally didn’t need one. If I needed someone to be there with me, I could always ask. It’s always an open conversation with James and with everyone behind DC.

But what James does well is use humor throughout. Yes, it’s an animated film for adults, but it’s done with a lot of humor. It’s not dangerous. Even when we look at the scene itself, we look at the people in front of the door, and we hear them being very angry and violent. And it’s like: “How long is this going to last? What’s even going on? It’s not like a romantic scene. It’s not like… Beautiful woman. It’s a scene about two characters using emotion in some way, for example, to distract themselves from the real danger and the real problem. This is funny. He’s hilarious.

They’re not supposed to, but they do Which. Rick is fully aware that this is not his job there, but he does it. Ilana knows she shouldn’t do it because she might put herself in danger, but she does it. This is strange. This is funny. This is strange.

It was fun to enjoy because Commando Creatures It is a great show. It’s a multi-layered show rich with characters, places and music. It’s beautifully edited, but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s not this weighty, finger-pointing thing (saying), “This is wrong and this is right.” It’s a fun show. Dark but fun. I didn’t need an intimacy coordinator. I don’t know about Frank (Grillo). Maybe, if he needed one, he would have gotten one, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

io9: Speaking of darker moments, in a future sequence from Circe, we see Ilana taking over the world and killing off a group of DC heroes, including Peacemaker, Wonder Woman from the Justice League, Batman, and Superman. Which member of the Justice League do you think Ilana would have had the most harsh encounters with and why?

Bakalova: Oh! Perhaps if I had known that the bride would kill me, I would have been more vicious against her. This is my biggest enemy here because I can fool anyone else, but the bride is my biggest problem.

io9: Throughout the show, Ilana’s status as a villain is played up ambiguously, given the Creature Commandos’ back and forth regarding whether Circe’s visions are true. All of this isn’t helped by Ilana endearing herself to characters like Flag and Weasel. Was Ilana’s affection for them real or was it a facade?

Bakalova: I think it’s a bit of a facade. Maybe with Weasel, (it’s) not as much of a front. But to be completely honest, you just have to play the game. If she wants to succeed (in) her goal, she puts on a mask (pretends) that she is fun and cheerful and enjoys their company. It’s so fake at the end of the day. She has a bigger mission. She has world control. If she had to pretend she loved them so much, she would love them.

Maybe, when we’re not around, she’ll kick the weasel and throw it away when Flagg’s not around. Maybe there’s someone else she can have a good time with. I don’t really buy that she sympathizes with them.

io9: Even though your character dies at the end of the game Commando CreaturesAre there other comic book roles you’d like to do?

Bakalova: Who knows? I’ll keep this to myself for now, but sure. I want to play more comic book roles.

All seven episodes Commando Creatures Streaming on Max. Season 2 is on the way.

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