One of the most controversial comedians of our times, Sacha Baron Cohen has proved on numerous
occasions that he cannot live a year without getting into trouble. The 48-year-old should
probably expect some more with his upcoming film Borat 2, scheduled to be released on Amazon Prime
in late October. You probably remember how the first one landed him a lawsuit, and not only.
We rarely see the real Sacha Baron in public,
since he prefers to stay in character pretty much all the time.
But today we try to discover the true face of Sacha Baron Cohen. What is he trying to hide?
If you think Baron Cohen has always been a funny guy, you'd better ask the legendary clown Philippe
Gaulier with whom Sacha studied in Paris and who he calls the funniest man he has ever met.
Gaulier said of Baron Cohen: "He was so boring. But being
boring is normal. Sometimes you have to be boring before you can discover something new.”
So, probably, before discovering that SOMETHING in his approach to comedy,
Sacha tried to find himself in modeling.
After graduating from Christ's College in Cambridge, he worked as a fashion model before
hosting low-pay local and regional TV shows in the early 90s. Even though it was a brief period
in his life, for Sacha it was definitely a good prep for crafting the stylish Bruno.
By the way, while filming the movie, Baron Cohen and the entire crew were banned
from Milan Fashion Week with press releases warning people to be on the lookout for Bruno.
However, it didn't stop Baron Cohen from getting to the event.
In order to sneak into the venue, he insisted on the total change of his and his crew's appearance.
Long story short - they nailed it and became literally unrecognizable. The producers were
euphoric when Sacha fell onto the runway. Just as the team caught the required footage,
Sacha was cuffed and taken to jail for long questioning by seven police officers.
Another point proving that Sacha is a little bit of a fashionista
is the way he deals with his facial and body hair before introducing his characters to the world.
The actor grooms himself for each role separately. Borat took 6 weeks of growth to produce the
necessary mustache and body hair, Ali G took 4 weeks of facial hair growth. And for Bruno,
Cohen obsessed about cleaning his body, waxing himself, and working out.
As long as we have already started talking about Sacha's problems with the law,
we should mention several other memorable arrests, lawsuits, and even FBI involvement.
During the filming of Borat, the FBI received so many complaints regarding a terrorist traveling
throughout the United States in an ice cream van that they opened up a file on Cohen’s character.
Also, the local police chief in New York became so fed up with Cohen's stunts that he actually set a
trap to detain the actor. Cohen together with his team had to leave the state to avoid the arrest.
When the scandalous Borat was finally out, there added new legal battles. The main one was linked
to the fact that the scenes which supposedly took place in Kazakhstan were actually shot in Romania.
The locals were sure Sacha was filming a documentary on the issues of poverty. So,
they were NOT so happy about the final product they saw and promptly sued the production.
Another Sacha VS Police issue popped up recently when Donald Trump's former aide
Rudy Giuliani revealed how he tried to get Sacha's character Ali G arrested.
Giuliani, who is the former mayor of New York, thought that he was
invited for a serious interview. And it turned out to be a stunt by Ali G
who appeared in the studio wearing a pink bikini. Following which the
76-year-old instantly rang the police, causing Baron Cohen to flee the scene.
It was not the first time Sacha attempted to involve President Trump in one of his spoof
interviews. He Interviewed the president himself in 2003 as part of the series ‘Da Ali G Show’.
He asked the future president such questions as: “How long has there been businesses” and
pitched an idea involving ice cream-proof gloves. Some believe that it is not accidental
that Borat 2 will premiere just before the elections. Look at this shot. Any questions?
So, let us make a pause here, because if we enumerate all the cases when someone wanted
to initiate Sacha's arrest, we will need to come up with a separate 2-hour film.
While any ordinary person would prefer NOT to get into these kinds of situations,
Sacha seems to be even enjoying them pushing his experiments closer
to the edge with every new project of his. Several reports indicate that with Borat 2,
he risked his life so badly that he had to wear a bulletproof vest.
His wife, actress Isla Fisher, admits it is not a normal life.
She confessed in one of her interviews:
"Obviously it's not pleasant to say to your husband - instead
of 'Did you pick up the dry cleaning?' or 'Did you pick up someone from a play
date?' - 'Oh wow are we getting sued? Has anyone put a death threat on us?'"
But it doesn't make her love him less.
The pair met back in 2002 at a party in Australia and started dating.
They got engaged in 2004 and married in Paris six years later after Fisher converted to Judaism.
Talking about her Judaism, the mother of 3 says she truly embraced the religion
and loves the values that come with being Jewish.
We all know that Baron Cohen prefers to remain in character regardless of whether cameras
are rolling. We barely see the actor truly serious whenever he appears on the screen.
It is actually his way of keeping privacy while being a public figure.
Both Sacha and Isla are tied-lipped when it comes to their personal lives.
But what is Barcon Cohen like with his family?
Does he bring his characters home at the end of the day?
When Fisher was asked this question, she said:
“Oh my gosh, no. That would make life challenging. But he brings them home
visually. I’ll see a handlebar moustache when he’s doing Borat,
or he’ll have the blonde streaks from Brüno, his gay fashionista character.”
Still, sometimes awkward situations involving Sacha's alter-egos DO happen within their family
life. Once Isla's parents flew to Cape Town to see Sacha working, as they really wanted
to observe the creative process. Isla forgot to check the call sheet and when they arrived on set,
they saw two animatronic elephants and a crowd of people around it.
"We got closer, and we couldn’t see Sacha anywhere. Then suddenly my husband popped his
head out of the elephant’s vagina and proceeded to fight against the other elephant’s erect penis."
Any need to mention that the actress's parents were in awe? We don't think so.
In a recent development, just the moment the audience thought they
got used to Sacha's stunts and didn't expect something different from him,
there appeared Netflix mini-series The Spy based on the life of Israel's top Mossad spy Eli Cohen.
When asked about how she felt about the series, Eli Cohen's daughter said she lamented over
historical inaccuracies in the adaptation, but she highly praised the performance of Baron Cohen.
Honestly speaking, we were all struck by the actor's dramatic
talent demonstrated for the first time in his decade-long career.
Although he's dabbled in serious projects before, including Sweeney Todd,
this marks Cohen's first starring role in a drama, which he admits was a real change.
The actor and comedian has a childhood memory: In his family's living room in London,
there sat a book called Our Man in Damascus about Eli Cohen. Hardly could he imagine that
many years later he would portray the real-life character in the nervy six-episode thriller.
"I saw Eli Cohen, as he was written in the show, as an extreme version of myself.
The stakes were higher for him, because the price of failure is imprisonment and execution.
Eli Cohen was, in that sense, the greatest method actor of the last century."
This somehow explains the actor's perception of life and his career:
pushing himself to the edge of the impossible and making it… possible.
Even though it doesn't seem like Baron Cohen is taking all these challenging and risky projects
for money, he has the fortune to boast of. According to the website celebrity net worth,
Sacha's net worth totals $160 million.
Both Baron Cohen and Fisher are passionate about charity. In December 2015, they donated $500,000
to both Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee. That money reportedly went
towards protecting 250,000 children facing a measles outbreak in Syria.
It's also thought that the comedian and his actress wife gave $500,000
to New York-based International Rescue Committee.
That's all for today! We sincerely hope
you liked our new video and are looking forward to the new ones.