English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer and notorious prankster Sacha Baron Cohen
is known for pushing the envelope with his original characters.
From British suburban rapper Ali G to Kazakhstani journalist Borat, Cohen's antics have established
him as a household name.
But we haven't heard much from the controversial actor lately, which makes us wonder: why won't
Hollywood cast Sacha Baron Cohen anymore?
Retired characters
Aside from a promotional appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2015, Borat hasn't shown up
much since 2008.
Austrian fashion reporter Brüno and Admiral General Aladeen have all but disappeared as
well.
The humor of Cohen's films came from fooling unsuspecting victims, which is almost impossible
to accomplish these days.
"And then we all laugh, high five."
(laughs)
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Cohen explained:
"Every new person who sees the movie is one less person I can be Borat or Bruno with again,
so finishing a movie means having to say goodbye."
Ali G still shows up every so often, though.
Most recently, he was a presenter at the 2016 Academy Awards.
Cohen explained that the Academy wanted him to present as himself, so he had to sneak
his costume in.
"But my thing was I knew that they would be trying to see if I would smuggle anything
in, so my wife very kindly smuggled the beard in her underwear."
Too risky
Cohen's brand of humor is, admittedly, not for everyone.
For an episode of Da Ali G Show, he dressed up as Borat and lead an antisemitic sing-along
in a bar in Arizona.
Cohen received a number of complaints about the incident.
The Anti-Defamation League even wrote to him, saying:
"We are concerned that the irony may have been lost on some of your audience.
[…] In attempting to expose bigotry and prejudice you also bear a responsibility to
be sensitive."
But society has changed since Borat hit theaters in 2006.
"We support your war of terror."
In an interview with The Telegraph, Cohen admitted that he didn't think his films would
get made if he pitched them today, as studios would rather make a profit than take a risk.
Disruptive and destructive
In September 2008, Cohen, as flamboyant fashion reporter Brüno, crashed Milan fashion week.
He used fake passes to get backstage at an Agatha Ruiz de la Prada show, and wore a suit
made entirely of velcro.
He even managed to get onto the catwalk, which he strutted down with a variety of costumes
stuck to his body.
Eventually, the lights went out, he was removed by security, and had to explain himself to
the Italian police.
A spokeswoman for the National Chamber of Italian Fashion told The Telegraph that while
Cohen's stunt gave her a good laugh,
"Some people were very angry and annoyed."
However, many of Cohen's victims have moved past anger and into lawsuits.
In an interview with Today, Cohen joked that he thinks he holds the Guinness World Record
for most sued actor in history.
The executive director of Desert Valley Charities tried to sue the Bruno crew, claiming that
one of Cohen's pranks left her confined to a wheelchair.
A Palestinian grocer who was portrayed in Bruno as a terrorist settled a slander suit
against both Cohen and David Letterman for defamation of character.
Two South Carolina college students, a Baltimore driving instructor, a Macedonian singer and
the Romanian village of Glod have all tried to sue the man behind Borat.
"Mmmm…"
Borat also ended up offending the entire country of Kazakhstan with its backwards and bigoted
portrayal.
But former deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliyev seems to have realized that all publicity
is good publicity, as he invited Cohen to Kazakhstan, saying that he wanted to show
Borat that:
"Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes, and Jews are free to go to synagogues."
Too offensive
While one might assume Cohen isn't concerned with political correctness, that's far from
the truth.
"This is our Mexican chair people.
Demi Moore have two of them in her house.
Sit here."
If you can even believe it, plenty of his jokes have ended up on the cutting room floor.
"9-11, it's the best."
(speaking foreign language)
Cohen told The Telegraph that he and his writers will always stop to discuss whether they're
going too far with any of their jokes, saying:
"There are a lot of jokes that I would not make.
[…] I am continually filtering stuff that is too much."
But today, as society has become more inclined to speak out against the offensive and the
insensitive, Cohen's job has only become more difficult.
He says:
"Comedy is a weird thing that's hard to analyse.
I work very hard to make these films.
[...] I want the movie to be as good as possible.
[…] Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't."
He bailed on Queen
In 2013, Cohen was set to play Freddie Mercury in an official bio-pic sanctioned by the surviving
members of the band Queen.
But when creative differences arose, Cohen called it quits.
In an interview with Howard Stern, Cohen talked about Queen's lead guitarist, who was also
the lead producer of the film, saying:
"Brian May is an amazing musician, but he's not a great movie producer."
"They are a band.
They want to protect their legacy as a band.
They wanted it to be about Queen, and I fully understand."
In an interview of own, May was less polite, saying:
"We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas, but he went off and told untruths
about what happened.
[...] It's obvious that it wasn't going to work, him playing Freddie.
It wouldn't suspend your disbelief."
Diminishing returns
Since Cohen's breakout hit, Borat, each of his subsequent films made less money than
the one before.
His latest film, The Brothers Grimsby, was a flop, with an opening weekend gross of only
$3.2 million.
Sony's former distribution chief Rory Bruer told Variety:
"We certainly wanted more.
Sacha is amazing and we love him, and we tried to crack the code on it, but it just didn't
happen for us."
However, Cohen is still developing his own films.
In 2016, he was attached to an American remake of Klown, a Danish comedy, as well as a film
adaptation of the classic comic strip Mandrake the Magician.
Will he really be able to work his magic and get back in the spotlight?
Time will tell.
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