Everyone’s favorite Kazakh journalist Borat has been killed and his biggest mourner is his creator (and murderer) Sacha Baron Cohen.
“It’s upsetting,” Sacha confessed to the U.K.’s Telegraph.
“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.”
The comedic actor granted a rare interview as himself to promote his latest role in Sweeney Todd where in addition to talking about auditioning for the blockbuster, he opened up about fame, lawsuits and why he refuses to talk about his private life.
On auditioning for the role of Pirelli, the flamboyant singing barber who is killed off by his rival, Johnny Depp’s Todd:
“When I was at Cambridge University, I played Tevye in Fiddler On the Roof and that was the only thing I remembered, so I went in and sang “If I were A Rich Man” for [Stephen] Sondheim… That wasn’t enough so I had to sing about five other songs and luckily Sondheim thought they were OK, but there is one incredibly high note at the end of my piece and [director] Tim Burton doesn’t know this, but when I went in to record the sound I couldn’t reach it, even wearing spandex, so I brought in a very fat female opera singer to sing the final note.”
On being sued:
“Since last year I’ve been sued by about 3,000 people. Some of the letters I get are quite unusual, like the one where the lawyer informed me I’m about to be sued for $100,000 and at the end says, ‘P.S. Loved the movie.Can you sign a poster for my son Jeremy?’”
On winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical:
“It broke me out from being just a pure comedian into something larger, because in the entertainment business people are categorized either as comedians or actors. The award let people know there was a performance behind Borat, because the problem was that when I used to do Ali G. and Borat, people assumed that I was them and there was no acting involved.”
On fiancee Isla Fisher and their newborn daughter, Olive:
“I try and keep that part of my life separate from the professional part because I don’t think it helps people appreciate the work or the comedy or make me any funnier if they know what’s going on at home.”
(source)
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