Sacha Baron Cohen has had one of the most unique Hollywood careers, to say the least. Even after portraying some of the most controversial, and questionable characters performing vile acts on screen, the actor doesn’t seem to have many regrets. The reputation of comedic genius known for breathing life into iconic characters such as Borat, Bruno, and General Aladeen, precedes the actor himself. As he is one of the best in the business, in turn keeping him from landing any trouble. But not all the time, In a true 2015 fashion, Baron Cohen revealed an interesting anecdote on an AMA Reddit session.
It is pretty hard for the people who have watched the 2006 comedic gem Borat, to delete some scenes from their memory, and one such scene almost cost the actor’s life. Here is what Sacha Baron Cohen had to say.
The Worst Part About Filming Borat
Amidst a multitude of bizarre scenes that could be contenders, there exists one that undeniably claims the crown. The 2006 Borat film, with a very lengthy and mouthful name, Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan had one scene that took Sacha Baron Cohen‘s breath away. No literally, as he almost was out of air and was very close to passing out. As Sacha Baron Cohen stated in his Reddit answer,
“The worst part filming Borat was the naked fight because I had a 250lb. man’s a** on my face, and his bu**ocks was so big that I couldn’t actually breathe when I was underneath there—So, I had about 30 seconds of air under there before I had to breathe in. And I had a signal with the director, which was when I thought I was going to pass out, I would hit the mattress three times.”
The scene in the mockumentary where Borat and his producer get into a chaotic naked fight in public that creates havoc has got to be one of the funniest yet infamous scenes to ever exist. And as many might have rightly guessed, it wasn’t as much fun filming for the actors. Thus, in an effort to prevent any mishaps, the actor devised a three-time mattress-hitting signal with the director, intending to act as a panic button, when things go south. However, what transpired after this left him questioning his life decisions.
This Infamous Borat Scene Almost Cost Sacha Baron Cohen His Life
Turns out, even after hitting the mattress three times, as evident from the movie scene itself, the director did not stop filming which led Sacha Baron Cohen to almost pass out. In the same Reddit reply, he further stated,
“If you look at the Borat film now, you will see that I do hit the mattress three times, and the director didn’t stop filming, which meant I was faced with this very stark choice, which was either to die, or to breathe in the rancid air from my costar’s rectum,—And when I was underneath there, I decided to die. Luckily, my co-star moved off and I managed to finish the scene. Otherwise, that would have been a very inglorious end to my life.”
At the time of panic, the actor was presented with two choices, and in a desperate attempt to avoid death, the actor chose to take the “rancid” air in. But fortunately, before he had to do that, his co-star moved away from his way saving him from a very “inglorious” death. It is true that the actor had to get into some pretty weird predicaments for his work, but according to him, this remains the worst of the lot to this day.
Source: Reddit
