Maria Bakalova didn’t want to portray Ivana Trump as ‘a trophy wife’ in The Apprentice

Maria Bakalova didn't want to depict Ivana Trump as a "trophy wife" in ‘The Apprentice’.

The 28-year-old actress plays the late businesswoman and model - who was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1990 - in the upcoming drama, and has now explained she wanted to properly convey Ivana as a "competitive" and "hardworking woman".

Maria told Collider: "I found myself really fascinated by her achievements and the fact that she's been so outspoken. It's still challenging to demand your position and your equality, even though we're living in 2024.

"That's been happening since the ‘70s, [her] standing up for herself and demanding to be treated equally, to be his equal — not just a trophy wife sitting at home, but work hand-in-hand with him. It's been a really remarkable achievement."

The film - which was directed by Ali Abbasi - follows Donald Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) rise to fame in the late 1970s as he went from a New York real estate mogul to a man synonymous with wealth and power, under the influence of the right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3’ actress added she was "very nervous" to helm her first non-fiction role, particularly as her co-stars had both done "a great job" playing real people in previous projects.

She said: "I was nervous. I was actually very nervous, mostly because I’ve never played a real person before.

"I knew that Sebastian and Jeremy have both played real people before, and they did a great job. I just wanted to be on their level. I wanted to not disappoint them."

The ‘Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm’ star also said she tried to familiarise herself with Ivana as best as she could so she could deliver an accurate portrayal of the model.

She continued: "I was trying my best to listen to as many recordings of her, watch as many videos of her, and know as much about her story as possible so I could deliver what they deserve."