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He\u2019s adamant. No more Borat. No more Bruno. No more Ali G. They\u2019re too hard, he says, too risky. He\u2019s tired of hoodwinking people to expose their prejudices, and he\u2019s even more tired of the death threats that periodically follow. There are easier ways to make money in this business, and eventually his luck will run out.\n\n\n\n\n\tThe trouble with his declaration, however impassioned, is that he has been making it for years. He\u2019d routinely say he was done before he made the 2020 Borat sequel, which, incidentally, earned two Oscar nominations, and he was even more insistent afterward. And each time he says it, he believes it to be true. He wants it to be true, he tells me. So, why are we here, I ask, discussing an Ali G revival?\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cBecause I\u2019m terrified of where our society is headed, and the way I can comment on that is through my comedy,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to show the extremism on both sides of the political spectrum and the danger of virtuous violence.\u201d There\u2019s a level of seriousness that belies the 90-minute comedy film he\u2019s made, which features an imbecilic white rapper who speaks in Caribbean-British slang and a contraption that shoots bullets out of one\u2019s rear end. Recognizing this, he adds: \u201cAnd obviously we wanted to make the funniest film that\u2019s ever been made.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tHis longtime collaborators have other theories about his return. Anthony \u201cAnt\u201d Hines, who\u2019s been working with Baron Cohen since The 11 O\u2019Clock Show, where the Ali G character originated, believes his pal had missed the adrenaline rush, just as he had. \u201cIt\u2019s a visceral buzz you get from making a movie this way,\u201d Hines says, \u201cand nothing comes close to it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tDan Mazer, whose friendship with Baron Cohen dates back to secondary school in the U.K., wasn\u2019t particularly surprised to get the call about dusting off Ali G, in part because they\u2019ve never stopped talking about the character. In fact, whenever they got together, they\u2019d often slip into Ali G\u2019s voice, he says, and imagine what patently absurd things he would be saying or doing in different situations.\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cI also think it\u2019s a knowledge that Sacha is the Michael Jordan of this sort of filmmaking,\u201d says Mazer. \u201cAnd yeah, Michael Jordan went off and tried to play baseball, and you go, \u2018OK, you\u2019re a pretty good baseball player,\u2019 but he\u2019s not the Michael Jordan of baseball. And Sacha is the Michael Jordan of this, and to an extent, we all are. We invented this genre, and nobody else has matched what we\u2019ve done.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tWhatever the reasoning may be, Ali G is back, rolling into theaters Oct. 23 before landing on Amazon Prime Video soon after. And like plenty else that Baron Cohen has done, it\u2019s already prompted a full-blown meta-outrage cycle, complete with a campaign to boycott the film. With each new trailer or PR stunt posted to social media come fresh accusations of an outdated caricature and of cultural appropriation \u2014 the latter a central plot point in the film, in which Ali G\u2019s progressive nemesis (also played by Baron Cohen) attempts to cancel him on those very grounds. Some in his camp have speculated that it\u2019s more of a coordinated attack by pro-Palestinians who are critical of Baron Cohen\u2019s past support of Israel. (Though he\u2019s been quiet about Israeli politics and the conflict in Gaza in recent years, Baron Cohen is a prominent Jew who has sounded the alarm about the surge of antisemitism on social media, reportedly telling TikTok executives in 2023 that what was happening on their platform was \u201ccreating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis.\u201d)\n\n\n\n\n\tColton Dunn, an Emmy-winning Ali G superfan and one of three Black writers hired on the film, is aware of the cultural appropriation claims. \u201cBut we knew where we were coming from, and we dealt with it all in the movie,\u201d he says, \u201cand at the heart of it, Sacha and the movie want to defeat evil and hate. That\u2019s the intention behind it.\u201d Still, the internet has suggested the backlash has Amazon spooked. Courtenay Valenti, Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 head of film, streaming and theatrical, offers this: \u201cWe want to be in business with exceptional storytellers who have distinctive creative visions, and Sacha is exactly that. He has always been fearless in his comedy, with a unique ability to tap into the cultural conversation in ways that are both provocative and entertaining.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tOver cappuccinos in the garden of the Chateau Marmont, Baron Cohen lets loose on the mounting backlash, his battles with studios and the $3 million day that nearly derailed his film.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPaul Smith robe; Wander socks; stylist\u2019s own slippers; Ali G\u2019s own jewelry, glasses, hat.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed By Beau Grealy\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tIn 2021, you allegedly performed as Ali G at The Comedy Store in Australia. How soon after did you explore the idea of another film, and what did those early conversations entail?\n\n\n\n\n\tDuring the pandemic, our family moves to Australia, and when they lock down in Australia, you cannot leave where you are. My ex [Isla Fisher] is from Perth, so we applied to go there. She\u2019s rejected. I find out that you have to show that there\u2019s a financial benefit to Western Australia to be allowed in. You have to apply to the police. So I say, \u201cListen, I\u2019m doing a stand-up tour. It\u2019s going to create 300 jobs. It\u2019s going to bring tens of millions of dollars into Western Australia.\u201d Obviously I had no intention of doing it. But then the police accept me. We spent 14 days in lockdown, and at the end, a police car turns up, an inspector comes out, and she says, \u201cI am in charge of your stand-up tour.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tSo, you had to do a stand-up tour.\n\n\n\n\n\tI did, and I had the police watching me. I ended up doing a 90-minute show, and what was interesting was that people really loved seeing Borat and Bruno, but when Ali G came out, there was a different response. It was as if people believed he was real. There\u2019s going to be a lot of amateur psychology in this interview, but my observation was that because Ali G existed before I existed as a public figure \u2014 for five or six years, I didn\u2019t give an interview [as myself] \u2014 people thought Ali was real and therefore there was this different response to him. So, I felt, \u201cHold on, is there a movie in this character?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tI came back to America at the end of 2021 and started talking with the team about it. We all felt Ali by himself wouldn\u2019t be a satirical movie because he was from a bygone era \u2014 this relic from another period who\u2019s unaware that he is deeply problematic. But what if we brought in another character, an ultraprogressive extremist [also played by Baron Cohen] who\u2019s his rival and make it a thriller like The Fugitive? We had in our mind this line that goes, \u201cWe have a cultural appropriator on the loose,\u201d from that famous speech in The Fugitive. That felt funny to me.\n\n\n\n\n\tIn the revisionist history of the film, you had ended Da Ali G Show because you couldn\u2019t come to financial terms with HBO. It left me wondering if there were any conversations or interest, from either side, about doing more?\n\n\n\n\n\tOh, yes. HBO wanted to carry on. I said no because at that time, in Britain, I think a lot of comedians were snobs about doing multiple seasons. So, there was no expectation or desire to do 15 seasons \u2014 to do the American way. I\u2019m very friendly with Larry David, and I\u2019m jealous of him that he can do Curb again and again. I probably would\u2019ve had a much easier life if I just carried on doing Da Ali G Show.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPaul Smith sweater, pants; Wander socks; Doucal\u2019s boots; Ali G\u2019s own jewelry, glasses.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tA decade ago, you said of this type of filmmaking: \u201cIt\u2019s a young man\u2019s game. You have to be prepared for a small amount of risk, and my philosophy was always: \u2018Well, if something bad happens, I\u2019m single and everyone\u2019s going to be all right if I end up in hospital for two weeks.\u2019 Now that I\u2019m married with kids, it\u2019s more difficult to justify.\u201d So, did you find a way to do it differently, or did you just say, \u201cFuck it\u201d?\n\n\n\n\n\tI\u2019m never cavalier. These movies are dangerous to make, but we try to limit the risks and keep everybody safe. But even physically, they\u2019re incredibly demanding. So, the final scene of this film is an eight-hour continuous scene that takes place over 12 locations. It\u2019s a continual shot. There\u2019s gunfire in it. There\u2019s a medical procedure. There are drones, there are explosions, and it\u2019s taking place in the desert. On the way to shooting it, I bumped into one of the great stuntmen and he said, \u201cYou will go to hospital if you make this movie,\u201d because I explained I\u2019m wearing a prosthetic head in a fat suit. He said, \u201cYou\u2019ll be so dehydrated you\u2019ll be in hospital for two weeks.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tYou hear that and think what?\n\n\n\n\n\tThat I have to fix the problem. So, I had an endurance specialist who does the Tour de France be by my side during the scene and they\u2019re measuring my weight. I think I had 11 liters of Pedialyte. And listen, a number of people went to the hospital for dehydration, including the bodyguard. There were dangers in the scene as well. One of the people grabbed a gun and almost did something very dangerous. These really are the hardest movies to make, but I suppose I made it because I\u2019m scared of this world of conspiracies and lies that are spread by social media and now by AI. If we don\u2019t have these shared facts, then democracies crumble and we can\u2019t have a tolerant society. And to make people laugh is therapy.\n\n\n\n\n\tAs I read your own quote back to you just now, you were laughing. Why?\n\n\n\n\n\tBecause I\u2019m always surprised at my own idiocy. I\u2019m very bad at looking into the future and imagining how I will feel. So, for example, the naked fight in Borat 1, we get to set and Ken Davitian, who\u2019s not conventionally attractive, is naked, and he\u2019s going to sit on my face. And I say, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do this!\u201d At that point, Larry Charles, the director, said, \u201cSo why did you write it?!\u201d I continually make these decisions that are very bad for my own health and sanity.\n\n\n\n\n\tYou are making this film in a very different moment, culturally and comedically. Do you derive some masochistic pleasure from that kind of challenge? \n\n\n\n\n\tI\u2019ll tell you, in the script, there was a moment where Ali G is canceled, and the way we wanted to do that was that I, Sacha, should be canceled in the real world and the idea was to use the footage of me being canceled and stick it into the movie. And we did actually get some of the second bit, but we didn\u2019t have the money to open up the movie and put the footage in. That was the intention, though.\n\n\n\n\n\tI\u2019m told you get a fair number of death threats, which now come from both the left and the right. When have you decided something wasn\u2019t worth it?\n\n\n\n\n\tI was about to do a scene [in Borat 1] and we had a cop who had his gun on his thigh and I said, \u201cWhy is your gun on your thigh?\u201d He goes, \u201cWell, I need to be really fast to draw in this area.\u201d I said, \u201cWell, how close are you to me?\u201d And he said, \u201cI\u2019ll be with you within three minutes.\u201d I realized that was not a good thing to do, so I pulled that scene. I will never do a scene if I think I\u2019m actually going to die.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tThom Sweeney shirt; Ali G\u2019s ring, sunglasses.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed By Beau Grealy\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tYou\u2019ve filmed in a bulletproof vest, so you\u2019ve clearly anticipated the possibility of being shot?\n\n\n\n\n\tYes, on Borat 2, there was a scene at a gun rights rally that I knew there was a risk of getting shot. But I felt it was an important film to be made.\n\n\n\n\n\tIs there anyone who says to you, \u201cHey, Sacha, I know this seems noble to you, but maybe it\u2019s not necessary\u201d? \n\n\n\n\n\tYes.\n\n\n\n\n\tWho? Your children?\n\n\n\n\n\tI don\u2019t talk about my children. But my brothers tell me that. And my mom and some of my team as well, because there are much easier options. I made a movie called Ladies First. I shot it in three months. It came out. A lot of people saw it [on Netflix]. And it\u2019s as financially beneficial as making something that takes years, and there\u2019s absolutely zero risk. There must be some masochistic nature to me, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just that. I want to give the fans who\u2019ve been loyal for the last 28 years something that they\u2019ve never seen before. I want to give them the most ambitious movie I\u2019ve ever made, which is a three-character movie. [Baron Cohen also plays a former Mossad agent.] It is my version of the Avengers.\n\n\n\n\n\tI\u2019ve always assumed that you were like Tom Cruise, after the same adrenaline rush that he is as he jumps out of planes. \n\n\n\n\n\tI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the reason I do it.\n\n\n\n\n\tYou don\u2019t? Your collaborators seem to \u2026\n\n\n\n\n\tNo. The first [for-hire] movie I did, Talladega Nights, I walked into my trailer and there was a bed there. I realized I\u2019d never been in a trailer before, and I go, \u201cHold on, this is a paid job where I can go to sleep?!\u201d I couldn\u2019t comprehend how relatively easy it was, and it was great fun. But as you\u2019ll probably deduce from this interview, I\u2019m not very self-aware.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPaul Smith sweater; Ali G\u2019s jewelry.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed By Beau Grealy\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tI don\u2019t know that I buy that.\n\n\n\n\n\tOK. Do I enjoy it when something works? Yes. Am I upset when something doesn\u2019t work? Yes. So, for example, this final scene is an eight-hour continuous shot over multiple locations and no one had ever done that before. Normally we shoot a scene or two scenes a day. Here, we put probably 40 scenes together and shot them continuously. I had a variety of line producers and assistant directors refuse to schedule it. And there are 400 or so beats that must all go perfectly, because you\u2019re dealing with real people and if anything doesn\u2019t feel quite right, they will stop and say, \u201cHold on, this isn\u2019t real.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\tOf course.\n\n\n\n\n\tSo gunfire, the squibs have to go off perfectly. A medical procedure happens. That body that we use has to be believable. Then a fire breaks out during the first part of the scene. As we\u2019re driving to the second location to kidnap somebody with these real people, I find out that location four is surrounded by fire, and it\u2019s being evacuated, and we have to pull the scene. And each time we run it, it\u2019s $4 million and we\u2019re insured for $1 million, and I personally have to pay $3 million. So, we shut down production and we have a discussion, which is that it\u2019s completely idiotic that we\u2019re trying this.\n\n\n\n\n\tAnd everyone is telling you it\u2019s not possible?\n\n\n\n\n\tYes, and I\u2019ve lost $3 million that day. Obviously it was my money, which is a very stupid idea.\n\n\n\n\n\tBut you ultimately got it?\n\n\n\n\n\tWe got it. We had some of the team that worked on the Oscars because I was like, \u201cWhat is a movie or a TV show where nothing can go wrong? It\u2019s the Oscars.\u201d And even there, sometimes something\u2019s going wrong! I said to them, \u201cOK, this is the Oscars, it\u2019s just taking place over 50 miles in 12 locations. And it has gunfire and blood.\u201d But at the end of all of it, if you look at the behind-the-scenes footage, I\u2019m not jumping up and down. I\u2019m content.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Ali G film, which has Baron Cohen playing three different characters, suffered multiple shutdowns and a change of studios.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Legato \u00a9 2026 Amazon Content Services\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tWith 2020\u2019s Borat 2, you\u2019ve said that several of the places you pitched were concerned by the political content and the idea of running it before the election. How did this pitch compare?\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, the desire was always to have this come out a few days before either a presidential election or the midterms. A lot of my movies have come out around those times. Borat 1 came out almost 20 years to the day, on November 3, 2006, just before the midterms. It\u2019s a time for people to think about the choices that they\u2019re about to make. But this movie is more about the dangers of extremism on both sides.\n\n\n\n\n\tI get that, but you\u2019re also operating in an extremely risk-averse climate. I can\u2019t imagine there weren\u2019t any concerns \u2026\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, Hollywood is a superficial place.\n\n\n\n\n\tNoooo.\n\n\n\n\n\tI know. (Laughter.) But I pitched this after Borat 2 had won two Golden Globes and had Oscar nominations and was the most watched movie ever on Amazon. That\u2019s enough to convince studio heads to buy it. And everyone tried.\n\n\n\n\n\tIt was somewhere else first, no?\n\n\n\n\n\tYes. Amazon and Universal were the final contenders. We ended up going with Universal but, in the end, the movie took so long that we went back to Amazon. And it was actually great because we\u2019d had an incredible experience there with the last one. We really did. And that movie [Borat 2] also was at Universal and ended up at Amazon.\n\n\n\n\n\tSo, this one moved because \u2014\n\n\n\n\n\tIt was taking too long. You have to understand the basis of this kind of movie is that we have to find people who don\u2019t know who I am, which becomes harder and harder. I think our research department interviewed 5,000 doctors to get one [for a single scene]. Then we had a number of other things that kept on shutting it down. The fire. The writers strike. I ended up doing another movie in the middle.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tBaron Cohen was joined by 300 Ali G look-alikes who followed him around London for a viral promo stunt Oct. 11.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJeff Spicer/Getty Images\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAmazon came aboard a third of the way through. What did their notes look like?\n\n\n\n\n\tFor better or worse, maybe for worse, I\u2019m a final-cut producer and director.\n\n\n\n\n\tSo, you\u2019re saying it didn\u2019t much matter what their notes were?\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, executives can have really fantastic notes. And they can have terrible notes. But I always listen to the audience and I\u2019m really guided by that.\n\n\n\n\n\tYou were once asked about comparisons between you and Andy Kaufman, to which you said, \u201cIn a way, he\u2019s more of an artist than I am in that I don\u2019t think he cared what the audience thought \u2014 and deep down, I really want to make the audience laugh. And that\u2019s why I fight to get jokes to be funny \u2026 I\u2019ll go to war with whatever studio has been stupid enough to pay me money to make a movie.\u201d Again, you\u2019re laughing \u2026\n\n\n\n\n\tI can\u2019t believe how honest I was.\n\n\n\n\n\tWhat did those fights look like on a film like this?\n\n\n\n\n\tIf something is funny, then I will go to war for it. And the studios know that because I make it clear when we do these movies, which makes me not very studio-friendly in some ways because my allegiance is to the audience. And I go to every single screening and I record the laughter and I grade the jokes and I have a few people that I\u2019ve trained to grade them too, and then I cut the jokes within a frame. It\u2019s obsessive and very intricate, but it\u2019s designed to deliver really funny movies. Some people find me incredibly arrogant because they\u2019ll come up and say, \u201cYou know that movie, Borat 2, wasn\u2019t funny.\u201d And I\u2019ll say, \u201cYou\u2019re entitled to your opinion, but you\u2019re wrong. I have 5,000 people laughing at these jokes and I can show you they are empirically funny.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tWhile the vast majority of the Ali G cast are unsuspecting nonactors, Baron Cohen and his onscreen partner, played by Morgana Robinson, are the exceptions.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Amazon MGM Studios\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tYou said that you\u2019re not studio-friendly, but, as you noted, this is a superficial business and if your model can put butts in seats \u2026\n\n\n\n\n\tYes, it\u2019s about money. But I\u2019m also a great supporter of the Oscars and other awards ceremonies because, however absurd they are, it creates another incentive for studio heads to make quality projects. Because studio heads do want to win Oscars and they want to get nominated. And we\u2019ve been very lucky in that the Academy and the Globes and some other organizations have recognized our work.\n\n\n\n\n\tIn fact, I was sitting at that table [pointing to another table in the Chateau garden] in 2006 having done Borat, and Sean Penn came and sat at the table and he said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you do an Oscar campaign for your performance in Borat?\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s absurd. They\u2019ll never give me an Oscar nomination.\u201d And he said, \u201cThey will.\u201d So, we went to Fox at the time and they said, \u201cListen, we\u2019ll pay for one Oscar campaign, but it\u2019s either writing or acting.\u201d At the time, I was actually winning some of the acting awards, to my great surprise, but I spoke to the team and we decided to push the writing. [The 2006 film was nominated for best adapted screenplay.] So, we gave up the acting campaign. Also, I was about to make Bruno and I didn\u2019t want to go on a baby-kissing tour, which would destroy my next movie. Me doing this kind of stuff [an interview as himself] destroys the ability to make another one.\n\n\n\n\n\tI know, I know. I\u2019m sorry.\n\n\n\n\n\tThere we go. Look what you\u2019ve done. You\u2019ve ruined me.\n\n\n\n\n\tAs you anticipated, it didn\u2019t take long for people to start lodging complaints. One criticism, which mirrors a plotline in the film, is that Ali G uses the character as a cover for enforcing racial stereotypes. What do you say to that?\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, I\u2019ll repeat what I\u2019ve said for many years, which is that Ali G is a white cultural appropriator who steals from the musical artists that he admires. The reason Ali G says \u201cWest Side\u201d is not because the Afro-Caribbean community in London was saying \u201cWest Side.\u201d Nobody there was. It\u2019s because Tupac Shakur, who he admires, is saying \u201cWest Side.\u201d And so he is funny because he is delusional. He lives this boring, white middle-class life in a suburban town, and he deludes himself that he\u2019s living in Compton, and that is the absurdity of Ali G. The core joke is that a white moron, possibly the stupidest man in the world, is interviewing a white expert or high-status politician, and that white expert or high-status politician believes that this imbecile played by me is real and that leads to comedy. And in my belief, it slightly undermines the power of the establishment. So it was fundamentally an anti-establishment character where we\u2019re pricking the assuredness of the establishment by saying, \u201cListen, these people aren\u2019t that smart. They believe that Channel 4 or HBO could have sent one of the most stupid people in the world to interview them.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tBaron Cohen as Bruno in 2009 in Berlin.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSean Gallup/Getty Images\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tWhat do you make of the argument that not everybody recognizes the absurdity and so the stereotypes being presented can have dangerous ramifications?\n\n\n\n\n\tEveryone is entitled to their own view. And a lot of the stuff on social media is orchestrated, and not necessarily orchestrated by people who really believe in what they\u2019re saying.\n\n\n\n\n\tWe\u2019ll get to that.\n\n\n\n\n\tBut when I did Da Ali G Show in America, the first people who gravitated to it were the Black hip-hop community. The first GQ Award that I was given was given to me by Method Man and Redman. I did a series of adverts for the NBA directed by Spike Lee, who\u2019s not naive about racial issues. They recognized these characters, these white cultural appropriators, and they found them funny. So, this notion of it being problematic hadn\u2019t been raised for 20 years.\n\n\n\n\n\tOK, but you seemed to know it would be this time around?\n\n\n\n\n\tYes. I knew, and I wanted to make sure that this was an anti-racist movie, which is why we were so concerned with having absolutely brilliant Black writers on board and consulting with brilliant Black cultural commentators.\n\n\n\n\n\tAs I believe you were referencing, there was a pretty sizable social media campaign to boycott the movie, and some have speculated that the campaign is tied to your pro-Israel stance \u2014\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, I haven\u2019t said anything about Israel. [Baron Cohen voiced his support for Israel and the hostages immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks but has been quiet on the Gaza war and Israeli politics in the years since.] I think people are being portrayed as things that they are not on social media and it\u2019s problematic. We are in a world where people can\u2019t distinguish between facts and lies, and that\u2019s something that I\u2019ve spent a lot of the last few years trying to fix. For example, I co-founded a group called Stop Hate for Profit with the NAACP and Color of Change and the ADL and certain other civil rights groups to stop the misinformation and incitement of racism on social media. So, I\u2019m not surprised that prominent Jews are being targeted. I knew that this was going to happen. The level of organization is surprising, but this is a trend of Jews being portrayed in certain ways and trying to be silenced.\n\n\n\n\n\tYou\u2019ve been vocal about the rise of antisemitism, broadly speaking. Have you felt any difference in your own Hollywood career after Oct. 7? \n\n\n\n\n\tNo, not really. I mean, maybe it\u2019s because I don\u2019t do much, but I haven\u2019t.\n\n\n\n\n\tWell, you\u2019re about to make your West End debut in a Quentin Tarantino play, which feels like a big leap, going from this film, in which you\u2019re in complete control as the writer, director and star, to being a puppet in Tarantino\u2019s theater. How did that come together?\n\n\n\n\n\tI\u2019ve never had a career plan, but I have this kind of no-brainer rule, which is if one of the best directors in the world asks me to do something, I\u2019ll say yes, even if it\u2019s instinctively the wrong project. So when Martin Scorsese says, \u201cI\u2019m doing a kid\u2019s film, will Sacha play the villain in it?\u201d And I read the book and the character\u2019s not that interesting. I actually had a lot of arguments with [screenwriter John] Logan about it [Hugo]. But I say yes because I want to learn how to make better films. And so if Quentin comes along and says, \u201cI want to do a play,\u201d I say yes. Then I actually read the play and I thought it was fantastic. And I felt, why not? So currently, I\u2019m doing nine hours of sword-fighting training a week. And I would just clarify, rather than be a puppet, Quentin did suggest that there would be some element of collaboration.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\tAs Borat, sporting a mankini in Cannes in 2006.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Harvey \u2013 PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tHave you seen it yet?\n\n\n\n\n\tA little bit, yes. But Quentin and I have been talking about doing a project for at least 20 years. We talked about doing The Scarlet Pimpernel about 20 years ago. Borat came out and Quentin and I would have dinner monthly and I almost did a part in [his 2012 Western] Django Unchained. In the end, I had to drop out because I ended up doing Les Mis\u00e9rables. But I came very close to doing a scene with Kerry Washington. I even had a prosthetic chin made because Quentin was very adamant that I would resemble this character he\u2019d liked from the \u201940s.\n\n\n\n\n\tAnt Hines, one of your longtime collaborators, suggested you\u2019ve tussled with Amazon in the promotion of this new film. \u201cWe\u2019re giving Amazon panic attacks on the daily,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey\u2019re used to Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet eating some chicken wings; they\u2019re not used to 300 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamets attempting to take part in the London Marathon, which is a thing they shut down.\u201d \n\n\n\n\n\tThis is why it\u2019s best not to talk to somebody like Ant. (Laughs.) You know, they\u2019ve actually been great in terms of the marketing. But it\u2019s not a traditional process when you work with me and you\u2019re marketing a movie.\n\n\n\n\n\tYou did end up with 300 Ali G look-alikes following you around London. That had to be validating, if a little overwhelming.\n\n\n\n\n\tThe really concerning thing was that these fans were coming out with catchphrases that I\u2019d completely forgotten. I was like, \u201cWait a minute. I recognize that \u2026 What is that from?\u201d And they\u2019d go, \u201cIt\u2019s you!\u201d And some of them were doing better Ali G impressions than me. There was one guy there, an Ali G impersonator, and I had to explain, like, \u201cListen, you\u2019ve been doing this at weddings and bar mitzvahs every week for the last 20 years. I haven\u2019t been doing this.\u201d I\u2019ve actually had that happen before. We did a movie called Bruno, and Jonah Hill was one of the writers. And in the writers room, he was doing impressions of Bruno, and they were better than Bruno. Then when I started shooting the movie, I realized that I was doing an impression of Jonah Hill doing an impression of me.\n\n\n\n\n\tIn any genre, there\u2019s always an \u201cIt\u201d person, and at various points, you\u2019ve employed those people shortly before they reached that status: Jonah, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and, most recently, Nathan Fielder, who worked on your Showtime series, Who Is America? What do you think of what Nathan has done in the eight years since you worked together?\n\n\n\n\n\tOh, I think he\u2019s a comic genius and he reinvented the genre that I, I suppose, created or developed. And he had a rule, really, which was to not do anything that I had done. But he\u2019s a brilliant, brilliant mind, and absolutely hilarious. I think his documentary [You Can See Everything] is going to be huge, so I\u2019m very excited for him.\n\n\n\n\n\tBut it\u2019s been an honor to have all of these incredible people come and work with me. Seth and Evan, the story with them was, it was the Ali G Show, and they came in with an idea for Bruno \u2014 instead of Girls Gone Wild, it was Boys Gone Wild. I said, \u201cOK, you\u2019re hired, but I\u2019ve only got enough money for one writer, so unless you want to share a hotel room and a bed and a wage, I can only hire one of you and it\u2019s going to be Seth.\u201d They came back and said, \u201cWe\u2019ll split the wage.\u201d And basically they would write in a double bed in the Best Western hotel we were in. They had beers all around them. They were smoking and they\u2019d write in bed.\n\n\n\n\n\tThat\u2019s fantastic. For you, what do the incoming calls look like these days? \n\n\n\n\n\tI think they\u2019re kind of what comes in to everyone. I get the traditional comedies, kernels of comedy ideas, and then dramas.\n\n\n\n\n\tIs one genre more appealing than the other right now?\n\n\n\n\n\tNo. I want to do stuff that challenges me. So again, I\u2019m not doing Borat 3, which also would be incredibly challenging. Again, this movie I just did is the most challenging movie I\u2019ve ever done, but I\u2019m not doing more.\n\n\n\n\n\tUntil the next one \u2026\n\n\n\n\n\tNo, no, I really have had enough. I know you don\u2019t believe me.\n\n\n\n\n\tI do not.\n\n\n\n\n\tOh, I really pray that in six years\u2019 time, you don\u2019t come to me and quote me to myself.\n\n\n\n\n\tThis story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. 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