Sacha Baron Cohen.Photo: Vincent Sandoval/Getty
Sacha Baron Cohenfelt a moral obligation to finish theBoratsequel before the2020 Presidential Election.
In anew profile withVariety,the comedian and actor spoke about the making ofBorat Subsequent Moviefilm,and how he felt he had to revive the character in order to shed light on the dangers he saw threatening democracy.
“I felt democracy was in peril, I felt people’s lives were in peril and I felt compelled to finish the movie,” Baron Cohen told the outlet. (In 2007, the actor said he’d be retiring the Borat character but then reprised the character briefly before the 2016 election to warn Americans about voting for Trump.)
However, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic struck fear in the production team, with the film’s producer and co-writer, Anthony Hines, tellingVarietythat he “was emotionally resigned to the fact that this was not going to happen before the election.”
“It seemed to be dead in the water. I thought we’d have to reinvent the movie,” Hines said.
Baron Cohen, 49, on the other hand, felt even more determined to finish the movie after seeing how PresidentDonald Trumpwent about handling the situation.
“The movie was originally about the danger of Trump and Trumpism. What coronavirus demonstrated was that there’s a lethal effect to his spreading of lies and conspiracy theories,” he said.
Rachel Luna/Getty Images; MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
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With that in mind, the filmmakers decided to incorporate the pandemic into the plot of the film, and the team worked with public health experts from Johns Hopkins University to develop safety protocols to move forward with filming.
The movie finally premiered in October, following the original 2006 film. Many film critics praised theheavily improvised political satire, includingEntertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt, who suggested the comedy showed audiences “exactly what we need to see” in 2020.
source: people.com
