Cohen’s portrayal of loud and silly characters has brought him to fame despite the backlashes and danger he faces for doing so. His bodyguard felt it too and recommended he should have a bulletproof clipboard on hand.
Sacha Baron Cohen, known for his character Borat, carried a bulletproof clipboard when he shot one episode of “Who is America” out of fear that the participants would shoot him.
Who is Sacha Baron Cohen?
Sacha Noam Baron Cohen was born on October 13, 1971, in London. Cohen was born into a Jewish family who sent him to the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he decided to pursue his career in the entertainment industry. He was cast in a comedy TV show, The 11 O’Clock Show.
Cohen portrayed several satirical characters like Ali-G, a hip-hop journalist, Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion reporter, and his most famous character Borat, a racist, anti-semitic homophobic Kazakh reporter.
Cohen also appeared in films starting in 2005. He was the voice behind the king of lemurs in the animated movie Madagascar. He was also part of Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Billy Bobby. In 20016, Cohen’s name became renowned when he released his movie Borat in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Cohen continued his film career with Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd, created a feature film with Bruno as his main character and focus. In 2012, he released The Dictator, a movie depicting his new character, a despotic military ruler of a fictitious North African country. (Source: Britannica)
He also starred in Hugo, Grimsby, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Trial of Chicago 7, and the musical Les Misérables. Cohen still is active both in film and television series today, both on and off-screen. He is married to Austrian actress Isla Fisher. The couple has three children, Olive, Elula, and Montgomery. (Source: Biography)
Who is America Series
Who is America was Cohen’s TV series that aired in July 2018. The show was a seven-episode satirical series. Each episode only lasted 30 minutes. Cohen wrote and directed all episodes himself, all of which “will explore the diverse individuals, from the infamous to the unknown across the political and cultural spectrum, who populate our unique nation.” (Source: Sho)
On the second episode of Who Is America, Cohen pretended to be a far-left lecturer and gave a presentation at a public meeting in Kingman, Arizona, announcing the construction of the world’s largest mosque outside of the Middle East – though he has now admitted that he was very concerned about how the participants would react to his prank. (Source: Ace Showbiz)
In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, he explained that they hired a bodyguard and didn’t regret the decision. The bodyguard was alarmed with the number of guns they were taking off people who were attending the show. For extra precaution, he had Cohen carry a bulletproof clipboard. If someone pulled out a gun and tried to shoot, at least he had a way to defend himself. (Source: Canoe)
The series ended in August 2018 and were met with unfavorable reviews. Though Cohen has proven his skill in creating outlandish characters, the plot of the entire series wasn’t rebounding well with the audience. The episodes were written similarly to his previous sketches with Borat and Ali-G, but the style is already “out of time.” The world has progressed, and the flavor of satire Cohen brought with the series is no longer a hit. (Source: Rolling Stone)