Posted on 01/21/2007 6:00:10 AM PST by A. Pole
Until now Sacha Baron Cohen has insisted on being interviewed in character. Roland White discovers he’s not the man you expect
We remember him fondly as the hip-hop king of Staines. We have briefly been introduced to him as Bruno the fashion reporter, the campest man in Austria. And some of us are still reeling from the sight of that bikini-style thong that he wore as Borat, the glorious reporter make much comedy benefit Kazakhstan. Yet it’s rare that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who last week won a Golden Globe as best actor in a comedy, puts on a performance as his most intriguing character: that of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Concealed safely behind a comedy moustache, he will happily tell you that his hobbies are “ping pong, disco dance and taking photographs of ladies doing toilet without their knowledge”. Strip off the disguise, though, and he is much less forthcoming. We know more about the fictional Borat than about his real-life creator. Baron Cohen rarely gives interviews out of character — he says he finds them “terrifying” — but recently he spoke to America’s National Public Radio (NPR) and Rolling Stone magazine.
[...]
“I started developing characters partly as a way to get into places without paying,” he says. “At Cambridge there was something called the Cambridge balls, which at that time cost about £120 per head. I would try to get myself and other people in pretending to be the band or something. I remember when I came to New York at the age of 23 me and my friends would get into clubs claiming we were bouncers or drug dealers.”
[...]
One of the most intriguing questions about Baron Cohen’s characters is: why do so many people fall for the act? Partly he relies on good manners and politeness: “Ali G and Borat worked very well in England with the upper class because they were so polite. They would keep this person in their room. Members of the working class might have thrown him out; members of the middle class might not have revealed themselves as much.
“We found that the Deep South of America was very good for Borat because people were so polite and so welcoming of strangers. They were so proud of their American heritage that they would talk to this person about America and American values for an hour and a half.”
[...]
“I could just see the back of his head as he was running out of the stadium.”
LOL !!
Not all ideas are good ones . Dressing as a faggot in front of 60,000 Alabama fans is one of the bad ones
I don't know. I think it's pretty funny. He got away with it.
I have never like this guy nor his humor. He's like that obnoxious office jerk that everone hates but have to talk to because he wont shut up. I cant belive he is making so much money. I never liked his Ali show and even the clips of his movie are terrible. Some of his pranks are just hurtful to some of the people and you could see it on the victim's faces. Oh well to each his own..
I wish Borat would have been with me the time I dined with my best friend's in-laws a couple of years ago. His wife's family are Jewish and the anti-Christian bigotry that spewed from the mother's lips would have made even Archie Bunker cringe. No doubt, Borat would have had a field day that evening. LOL
"I think it's pretty funny. He got away with it."
He's obnoxious and a liar. He uses people for his own gain. He's ridiculed America and made a mockery of our national anthem.
I think he's funny.
Oh, he'd have had a field day with all my family no matter who's house he went to... ;-)
I think some of the things he's done have just been brilliant. I don't like all his stuff but there are few artists whose work I enjoy in totality.
The thing that fascinates me most in life is sociology and interpersonal relationships. So, for me, it is really interesting to watch how people interact with and react to such bizarre behaviour.
I'm keen to see what he does next.
Borat is smart enough to not offend part of his core audience, the urban intellectual crowd. That wouldn't go too well in places like NYC, much less the entertainment and national media. Notice how the feminists and B&B couple are the victims and contrast that with the others who are made to be the perpetrating buffoons. Very shrewd!
And for that honesty and forthrightness, they're lampooned by a tasteless, talentless jackass with all the staying power of Ray J. Johnson.
Ditto. I am not about to pay money to see him lie, cheat, and make fun of people through fraud and bigotry. So he liked to get in for free? That's stealing. If he is an orthodox Jew, then the 10 Commandments have been revised.
I am with you 100%. Setting people up to laugh at them (at least if they are not evildoers) is crass, rude and heartless. He is a bore...(a rich one, but a bore nonetheless).
I've had that experience, really nasty comments.
Some of the stuff that was said was interesting - not factually true - but interesting.
Either you love him or you hate him. There's really no middle ground with this guy.
Reminds me of why I like the South.
Most of my client base is the Southern California coast including La Jolla.
I have been really shocked at the level of anti Christian bigotry I have heard coming out of those incredibly rich mouths.
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