‘Borat 2’ Aims To Expose The Danger Of Authoritarianism Through Comedy, Says Sacha Baron Cohen
By Ethan Anderton/Oct. 18, 2020 1:00 pm EST
Speaking with The New York Times, Sacha Baron Cohen points out how the world has changed since Borat came to America in 2006, but not necessarily for the better. Cohen says:
Cohen took on even more risks and put himself in plenty of stressful situations to make this sequel. Not only did he wear a bullet proof vest to protect himself as much as possible during an appearance at a conservative rally held in Olympia, Washington, which he wasn’t confident would keep him safe when the crowd ended up turning on him, but he had to spend five days in lockdown with a group of conspiracy theorists. Cohen recalled:
“In 2005, you needed a character like Borat who was misogynist, racist, anti-Semitic to get people to reveal their inner prejudices. Now those inner prejudices are overt. Racists are proud of being racists. My aim here was not to expose racism and anti-Semitism. The aim is to make people laugh, but we reveal the dangerous slide to authoritarianism.”
“The hardest thing I had to do was, I lived in character for five days in this lockdown house. I was waking up, having breakfast, lunch, dinner, going to sleep as Borat when I lived in a house with these two conspiracy theorists. You can’t have a moment out of character.”
