Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Noam Baron Cohenis an English actor, comedian, and screenwriter. A graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, Baron Cohen is most widely known for creating and portraying four fictional characters: Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard and Admiral General Aladeen. Like his idol Peter Sellers, he uses a variety of accents and guises for his characters...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth13 October 1971
CityLondon, England
thinking skills able
I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to work with good directors and for me it's not really a plan each time I'm on a set with one of them; I think about what I can learn from them because I'm very aware that my filmmaking skills are very modest.
thinking class community
I think in all small towns, all kind of working class communities around the world. They are kind of similar.
character thinking stuff
I think I think in the moment. So when I'm in character, I'm in character, and I'm obviously thinking about what's going on around me, but it's easier to do stuff when you're in character.
thinking fake documentaries
I think pulling off, pulling off a kind of fake documentary of me being a, you know, actual dictator would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible.
thinking talking ideas
I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.
responsibility thinking insulting
I think you can be politically incorrect, but there's some responsibility with that. You've got to make sure that you are not condoning or bolstering any racial or other stereotypes. You've got to be free to make jokes, but just make sure...you don't want to go and black face somewhere to just prove a point. If it's insulting and offensive just for the sake of it that's problematic.
responsibility thinking people
On the other side of the spectrum, you see someone like Donald Trump, who is using as the basis of his campaign political incorrectness. It's clearly intentional. He'd have to be a complete moron just to coincidentally insult Mexicans, and women, and disabled people, and Muslims. So clearly he's using it as a vote winner. But I think with comedians there's a responsibility.
thinking people upset
There's a joke in the movie...it's got a fairytale ending, and this is a spoiler: Donald Trump does contract HIV. I think people are upset about that, mainly because they feel the reputation of AIDS has been destroyed by associating it with Donald Trump.
thinking humour persecution
I think if you come from a history of persecution you have to develop a sense of humour.
enjoyed
I enjoyed being anonymous.
comedian tendencies jew
Jews have a tendency to become comedians.
real character careers
Dictators are ludicrous characters, and, you know, in my career and in my life, I've always enjoyed sort of inhabiting these ludicrous, larger-than-life characters that somehow exist in the real world.
done interviews
I've never really done any interviews as myself.
hollywood film
Thank you to every American who has not sued me so far.