Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Had Maria Bakalova Talking To Dogs For Her Role As Cosmo

Maria Bakalova may be relatively new to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise, but you can't say she's not committed to her role. The actress best known for her performances in movies like "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" and "Bodies Bodies Bodies" made her Marvel debut in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" last year, playing the friendly space dog Cosmo. Though Cosmo isn't exactly the star of the Guardians team, she pretty much immediately became a fan favorite, thanks in part to Bakalova's chipper voice coming from the Russian Golden Retriever. Bakalova lent more than her voice to the role, though; she also gave a motion capture performance that she says allowed her to get in touch with her imagination.

/Film's Jenna Busch attended a press conference ahead of the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." There, Bakalova (who returns as Cosmo in the new movie) spoke about what it was like to get the role of a very good dog. The actress said that when auditioning for the part, she went all in: "It was so interesting because you can dare to be a little bit more over-the-top because she's a puppy, she has more energy!" Bakalova also had an appropriately enthusiastic response to the news that she'd gotten the role, admitting, "When I got the call from my team that I'm getting the job I was checking my phone and I didn't know what to do, what to expect, and I think I started jumping."

Bakalova's performance apparently involved an on-set element in which she acted opposite other actors in a mo-cap suit: if you've seen Sean Gunn act as Rocket on set, it's probably a bit like that. This means that Cosmo is likely largely CGI, but there is a physical dog who plays a part in the performance, too. A dog named Fred is credited as originating the role of Cosmo during a cameo in the first film, and a pup named Slate was reportedly involved in the holiday special, though visual effects supervisor Stephane Ceretti noted on Twitter that the real dog was only used for lighting and behavior reference.

"I found out I can be on set, actually, and work with a mo-cap suit and imagine that I'm a child again," Bakalova explained at the recent press event, "Use my imagination to be like 'Okay, today I'm gonna be a dog, tomorrow I'll be a flower, the next day I'm gonna be a butterfly.'" It sounds like playing Cosmo helped Bakalova get in touch with a bit of childlike innocence. "It's interesting, we tend to forget about imagination when we grow up," she noted, even admitting that the role inspired her to quite literally get on dogs' levels. When asked if she studied dogs for the role, Bakalova responded, "Absolutely! I was like trying to speak with them, bark with them, and be on my knees."

The actor's doggy detour was apparently only part of her on-set experience filming the third "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, as writer-director James Gunn said she also stuck around to watch her co-stars perform long after her work for the day was done. "As much as we all love each other, okay, we're still working. So the minute people are off the clock they're out of there," Gunn explained, noting that he's the same way. Bakalova, though, was apparently happy to spend time immersed in the Marvel movie magic. "Maria comes to set on the first day, she's here, you know, two days earlier and she comes and she sits on set every day all day long," Gunn said. He explained that during the shoot, Bakalova often arrived, then "does her bit as Cosmo, and then she comes and she sits with me all day long."

Gunn said that "even though she's not the biggest character in the movie," he spent more time with Bakalova than many castmates, "because she just loved being on set and watching all the other actors." All the studying — of dogs and humans — paid off, as Gunn said he didn't even describe the character to Bakalova, but that the actress just showed up and "embodied this character."

Cosmo doesn't play a particularly major role in trailers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" so far, but given that Gunn has long since said that the final installment in the trilogy involves Rocket's origin story as the result of an animal experiment, it won't be surprising if his fellow experiment survivor gets a fair amount of screen time. The last time we saw Cosmo, she also hadn't yet taken on the role she plays in Marvel comics, as Chief of Security for Knowhere. Hopefully, the new movie will give this good dog a treat in the form of a promotion.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" hits theaters on May 5, 2023.