Borat and Ali G to retire

Everything Else, Except for Advertising. Nobody likes a shill.

Borat and Ali G to retire

Postby CheMateo » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:42 pm

I thought this might be of interest to some.

Friday December 21 5:54 PM ET

British actor-comedian Sacha Baron Cohen says the time has come to shed forever his persona as Borat, the boorish, oversexed, TV journalist from Kazakhstan who became a surprise box office sensation last year.

In a rare interview as himself, Cohen told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper he found it painful to abandon his Borat character, and another of his oddball alter egos, Ali G, but felt both had become too familiar to the public.

Cohen created both personae as devices for improvised social satire, in which people he interacted with in interviews or casual encounters became his unsuspecting comic foils.

His act was most famously showcased in last year's movie phenomenon "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a faux documentary of the Central Asian reporter on a cross-country U.S. road trip.

"When I was being Ali G and Borat, I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them. So admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," he told the newspaper.

"It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really."

The Borat film was a box office smash that turned Cohen's cluelessly offensive Central Asian character -- complete with thick moustache, wild-eyed grin and boisterous catch phrases like "Very nice!" and "Sexytime!" -- into a household name.

The film benefited in part from publicity sparked by Kazakh officials protesting the unflattering portrait of their country as a backward nation of misogynists and anti-Semites.

Speaking from a hotel in Los Angeles where he now lives with his Australian actress girlfriend Isla Fisher and new-born daughter Olive, Cohen said he was sorry to leave Borat behind.

"But the success has been great and better than anything I could have dreamed of," said Cohen, who is currently starring with Johnny Depp in the musical "Sweeney Todd," playing Pirelli, a rival singing barber who meets a bloody end at Todd's hands.

Since creating Ali G and Borat, Cohan has rarely given interviews out of character. He said it was much easier for him like that -- and more entertaining.

"I think it can get a little (bit) tiresome if you're having to be the real person and talking about how important and interesting the role was," he said.

Cohen is now finishing work on his next project in which he plays Bruno, a gay, Austrian fashion reporter who also was introduced on his TV program "Da Ali G Show."

I was one of the few who was disappointed with the Borat movie but I'm looking forward to Bruno's turn. It'll probably be Bruno's final hurrah as well.
User avatar
CheMateo
 
Posts: 1771
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:13 pm
Location: Farmington Dist. L.A.

Postby WannaB » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:48 am

Thank G*d! I couldn't stand all those bullshit rumors that people were starting, saying that Borat II was being made, gonna be made, gonna be released soon, etc...

The sequal would've been too hard to pull off now that so many people recognize the name and face. Plus you kind of got the feeling it would never happen when Cohen would say he was thinking about it, yet Rupert Murdoch was saying shit like, "yeah, we've already got the script." Dumbass.

I am extremely excited though that he is bringing his Bruno character to the forefront. The spring break segment with Bruno on Da Ali G Show was hilarious. An uber-flamboyant, gay, German man will really elicit a lot of stupidity from whatever backwards, immature, racist, redneck, a-hole he puts on screen with him. It'll be great to see him showcase the actions & reactions of pure stupidity from America yet again.
User avatar
WannaB
 
Posts: 1342
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:22 pm

Postby atox » Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:42 pm

Borat 2 would have had to be done in a communist country where they dont get movies, as everyone knows who Borat is
atox
 
Posts: 452
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:22 am


Return to General Discussion



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 42 guests