Man Of The Year Sacha Baron Cohen
On using art to hold a mirror up to 2020 society…
In any other year, Sacha Baron Cohen playing Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 would have a been a personal ambition fulfilled as well as an impressive performance. Hoffman had been a hero of Baron Cohen’s and “this role was a 13-year journey,” he admits. “In 2007, I heard that Steven Spielberg was making this movie. I called him up and asked him to let me audition. It went through a long process, and he eventually cast me. But at the time, that role was not as relevant as it is now.”
But as we know, 2020 hasn’t been like any other year. The last 12 months of real-life dramatics – Covid, BLM, a crossroads American election – have made Hoffman’s political activism even more urgent and prompted the return of another game-changing political agitator of Baron Cohen’s making, Borat. His character of a sexist, racist Kazakhstan TV reporter bumbling through the USA famously revealed the dark underbelly of American bias (and unleashed the mankini) in 2006, and his follow-up adventures, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, dropped on Amazon Prime in October, famously featuring a compromising scene with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“I only brought Borat back because of the election,” Baron Cohen tells Total Film. “I used Borat as a tool to try to get America to look at what it had become under this demagogue [Trump]. The idea was to release it just before the election, to motivate people to vote. Obviously, that was a high ambition.” Given the record turnout, perhaps this was a film that actually made a difference? “I think probably our biggest contribution was the Giuliani scene, in that we released the movie a few hours before the final presidential debate. On that day, Giuliani was intending to discredit Biden with this presentation of a hard drive that would ‘destroy’ the Biden presidential campaign. We released the movie, and suddenly Giuliani was on the backfoot. He was defending himself rather than being on the attack,
and we later heard from the Biden campaign that they really appreciated the timing...”
Not a bad achievement, then, delivering two performances to actually, possibly, affect real cultural change. “The idea was to make a hilarious movie with my most successful character, but to use that to get people to get up and vote. I think everyone’s got a responsibility to stand up against ignorance and hate.”
It’s that drive that pushes Cohen through the scariest moments in his Borat pranking (crashing a Republican convention dressed as Trump, infiltrating a gun rally, jumping Giuliani dressed in lingerie), some of which can only be watched through fingers. “When it works, satire can humble the powerful and expose some of the ills of society. But on the day, I’m often in a position where I think, ‘Shit, I have to go through with this,’” he laughs. “But I felt that democracy was teetering on the edge, so if I get arrested, or if I get hurt a bit, it might be worth it.”
All of which is why we’re crowning Cohen our Man Of The Year for combining artistic endeavour with zeitgeist intent. “Amazing. What a foolish thing to do,” he jokes bashfully. “I really appreciate it. It’s pretty rare when I get given awards, so thank you very much.” And how will he top 2020? “The reason I’ve done very little over the last 22 years is from being a little bit choosy, but also being fundamentally lazy. So I don’t think you’ll see Borat for another 14 years, if that.”
For someone who likes surprising audiences (singing in Les Misérables, whimsical in Hugo, chameleonic in The Chicago 7), he could throw his hat into the ring for the next Bond, we suggest.“It’s time for the Jewish Bond,” he muses. “You know, I’d never say no to the Broccolis. I’ve certainly got the hairy chest that Sean Connery had!” For an actor of Baron Cohen’s mercurial talents, never say never… THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 IS AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX. BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO.