Sacha Baron Cohen’s played some pretty raunchy characters, from the over the top Ali G to the well meaning Nobby, but no character has ever generated more controversy than Borat.
The 2006 film saw the ignorant Kazakh journalist head to the U.S., where his bizarre behaviour and dramatic stunts caused quite a commotion among poor unsuspecting Americans, the Independent reports.
When speaking to WTF with Marc Maron though, Cohen revealed that his character’s naughty behaviour attracted the unwanted attention of the FBI.
Cohen explained:
[The FBI] got so many complaints there was a terrorist traveling in an ice cream van… that they started compiling a little file on us and eventually they came to visit us at the hotel. I obviously went missing when I heard because they were like ‘FBI’s downstairs’.
The actor admitted that he actually had to hire a man to protect him, the crew and even his wife, Isla Fisher after Kansas police said they’d arrest him if he carried on with his antics.
He said:
We hire a guy and his job is, he’s a bit like [Grimsby’s] Nobby, actually… his job is to prevent me from being arrested.
When filming continued the police were called, and ridiculously Cohen had to jump out of a window under the advice of his bodyguard, breaking his heel in the process and shutting down production for a while.
Sounds like the filming was a great success…
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.