Sacha Baron Cohen wanted to get canceled in real life and include it in Ali G: Who Iz I?
The actor and comedian wanted his new comedy to have a meta element, but he didn't have enough money to follow through.
Photo: Amazon MGM Studios
Sacha Baron Cohen knows his brand of comedy is controversial and prone to backlash, and he would have exploited that for his latest film, Ali G: Who Iz I?, if he’d had enough money. “In the script, there was a moment where Ali G is canceled, and the way we wanted to do that was that I, Sacha, should be canceled in the real world and the idea was to use the footage of me being canceled and stick it into the movie,” Baron Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter in a cover story published on Wednesday. “And we did actually get some of the second bit, but we didn’t have the money to open up the movie and put the footage in. That was the intention, though.” Baron Cohen revives his Ali G alter ego for his new comedy, Ali G: Who Iz I? The actor knows his film comes at a particularly sensitive cultural and political time, when comedians can be immediately criticized for jokes that come across as offensive or inappropriate. And his Ali G character is exactly the kind of person who’d be considered problematic and accused of cultural appropriation.
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