#Sacha Baron Cohen Is Retiring Borat for Now

Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen has been discussing why now was the time to resurrect the Kazakhstani journalist, and while the sequel began as cautionary tale over the state of U.S. politics, it grew into so much more amid the ongoing global situation. Still, despite the huge success of Amazon’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Baron Cohen does not have any plans to don the iconic moustache again anytime soon.

“I brought Borat out because of Trump. There was a purpose to this movie, and I don’t really see the purpose to doing it again. So yeah, he’s locked away in the cupboard.”

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This comes as little surprise, as the character of Borat takes a lot of dedication from the committed comedian, with Sacha Baron Cohen having previously revealed that, in order to better humanise a couple of conspiracy theorists who feature in the movie, the actor decided to move in with them for five days, staying in character for the duration. Cohen revealed that he came to the decision to best show “that they’re ordinary folks who are good people, who have just been fed this diet of lies. They’re completely different to the politicians who are motivated by their own power, who realized that they can create fear by spreading these lies through the most effective propaganda machine in history.”

While the sheer devotion to bringing Borat to life no doubt took its toll on the star, Baron Cohen believes that 2020 was absolutely the right time to bring him back, and that only Borat could save people from themselves.

“I felt democracy was in peril. I felt people’s lives were in peril and I felt compelled to finish the movie.”

However, what Baron Cohen did not anticipate was how much the ongoing global circumstances would alter the movie, eventually resulting in major changes to both production schedules and the movie’s release plan.

“The movie was originally about the danger of Trump and Trumpism. What [the situation] demonstrated was that there’s a lethal effect on his spreading of lies and conspiracy theories. Rather than run away from how the world was dealing with [the situation], I felt we should lean into it. Borat is a fake character, played by me, in the real world… If we got people to take their masks off, it would be a fake character in a fake world, in a manipulated world, so the basis of the comedy wouldn’t work.”

While the current state of the world resulting in a slightly different cinematic experience than Baron Cohen had originally intended, his aim always remained the same.

“I don’t want to egotistically imply that people would watch ‘Borat’ and not vote for Trump, but that was the aim.”

While Baron Cohen has no plans to conjure the beloved character again for the foreseeable future, one can’t help but wonder what Borat thought of yesterday’s events…

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm stars Sacha Baron Cohen as the fictional Kazakhstani journalist and television personality Borat Sagdiyev, and Maria Bakalova as his daughter Tutar, who is to be offered as a bride to Vice President Mike Pence during the 2020 presidential election. The movie received praise from critics for both Baron Cohen and Bakalova’s performances and is available to stream now courtesy of Amazon. This comes to us courtesy of Variety.

Topics: Borat 2, Borat, Trump