Despite the successful reception to the surprise sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and its headline-making climax that showed how easy it was to catch Rudy Giuliani in an extremely embarrassing situation, Sacha Baron Cohen is signaling that he’s ready to retire from his undercover satire days. While sitting down for a lengthy interview on his Golden Globe nominations for the Borat sequel and The Trial of the Chicago 7, Cohen expressed his fear at continuing to do disguise work. “At some point, your luck runs out. And so I never wanted to do this stuff again,” he told NPR. “I can’t.”
As Cohen explains, he’s still understandably shaken from his experience at a Three Percenter Rally where he disguised himself as a country singer for a scene in the Borat sequel and led the crowd in a racist song. However, things went south when someone eventually recognized him and began chasing Cohen and his film crew, all of whom managed to escape, barely, after jumping into a waiting ambulance/getaway car. Prior to filming at the rally, Cohen had an exchange with his makeup artist that still weighs on his mind.
Via NPR:
I remember putting on the bulletproof vest before the scene, looking in the mirror of a nearby hotel, and … I remember asking the makeup guy, “Do you think I’m going to get shot today?” And he’s like, “No, no, no, no.” I said, “Well, why am I putting on the bulletproof vest then?” And he didn’t really have an answer.
Despite nearly getting shot and/or beaten by an angry mob, Cohen still feels that making the film and getting it out before the election was worth the risk. “We did it because there was a deeply unethical government in power,” he said. “We had to do what we could to inspire people to vote and remind people of the immorality of the government prior to the election.”
(Via NPR)