Sacha Baron Cohen Will Not Make Another Borat Movie
Sacha Baron Cohen has made a very successful career out of putting on a pretend mustache and a fake Kazakhstan accent to pull the truth out of strangers. Sometimes he exposes kindness in humans, but most times he just exposes creeps, racists, assholes, and in one case, a literal asshole. But Sacha recently revealed he’s happily giving up his title as the king of embarrassing America’s most gullible.
Sacha could probably continue to slip into a variety of costumes and forever trick people into thinking he’s anyone but award-winning actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. But he doesn’t want to do that, because what was once fun for a laugh is now stressing him out and stretching his sanity thinner than the Spandex shoulder straps of a lime green mankini. Sacha started playing a variety of characters interviewing real and unsuspecting people in the late 90s on UK television, which evolved into several investigative-style mockumentary films, like Borat, Brüno, and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, as well as the 7-episode political Showtime series, Who Is America?. It was filming Borat 2 that made Sacha decide to stop with the disguises. Sacha, who is up for three Golden Globe awards this Sunday, recently revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he just can’t take the danger that now comes from trying to trick people.
Cohen confirmed that he is done with disguise movies. “Because it got too dangerous. [The Trial of the] Chicago 7 had its own challenges. You know, you’re working with some of the best actors in the world…but for Borat, there were a couple of times I had to put on a bulletproof vest to go and shoot a scene, and you don’t want to do that too many times in your life. I was pretty lucky to get out this time, so no, I’m not doing it again. I’m going to stay with the scripted stuff.”
The scene Sacha is referring to was when he went undercover as “an American” and crashed a right-wing, anti-COVID March For Our Rights rally in Olympia, Washington. That rally was put on by a right-wing militia group, which means there were plenty of firearms in attendance. When asked by his Trial of the Chicago 7 co-star Eddie Redmayne how he’s able to sleep the night before he knows he’s about to shoot a scene in Kevlar, he answered:
“I don’t. The night before something like that – that rally – you’re trying to go through everything that can go wrong. In a normal scene like what we’re doing, we’re trying to make sure, ‘How do I make sure my performance is real? Have I done my research? How do I make sure the accent’s perfect?’ In this one you’re going, ‘OK, if a bunch of guys with guns come from that side of the stage, have I got a way to get out? What happens if someone shoots me? What if a bunch of people start shooting me?'”
He added that as an increased security measure, the production team also built a bomb-proof amplifier for the stage so that if someone did take a shot, he could hide behind the speaker until it was safe to exit. He says: “I don’t want to do it again. I got away with it. I’m not pushing my luck again.”
So there you have it. No one should be waiting with bated breath for Borat Third Time Follow-Up Film, because it’s not going to happen. Prank journalism is a tricky game, and it’s not worth losing sleep over. The uneasy, nauseous sick feeling, terrified of what horrors you might possibly be exposed to. And I’m not talking about seeing Rudy Giuliani on a hotel bed with his hands down his pants.
Pic: Amazon