It’s being reported (thanks to a Drudge Report top-line link, natch) that British actor Sacha Baron Cohen is “offing” two of his most beloved characters, Ali G and Borat, but looking at the original quote in the Telegraph, I’m not sure there’s a story here. Here’s what Cohen actually said:
When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing… It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it’s fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I ‘get’ with Borat again, so it’s a kind of self-defeating form, really. It’s upsetting, but the success has been great and better than anything I could have dreamed of.
Everybody knew that the characters’ element of surprise couldn’t last forever, but I’m not sure I hear a statement of immediate abandonment of Borat here. Am I just in denial? He doesn’t say “it was hard” to say goodbye to them, he says “it is hard.” Okay, maybe I’m stretching it, but I still think there’s people somewhere who can be fooled by everybody’s favorite Kazakh reporter.
If not, there’s always Bruno. Oh, sorry: Brüno. If you haven’t seen Brüno’s interview with one of those pastors who claims to convert gays to straights, it’s a masterpiece of political satire and giddy ridiculousness, and you have to stop what you’re doing and watch it right now:
Make sure you get to the “nish nish”/”ach ya” part to find out if “eating lots of chocolatey stuff all the time” is gay or not. Anyway, Brüno is supposed to be the next movie from Baron Cohen, and while he’s apparently denied that shooting has begun, there have been unconfirmed reports of Brüno sightings in LA. Well, if it’s true Ali G and Borat are gone, rest in peace, but I can’t wait to see more of my favorite fake Austrian fashion reporter.