Feces And Fetid Gray Suits: Behind Sacha Baron Cohen's 'Borat' Process

While Academy voters undoubtedly enjoyed watching Sacha Baron Cohen carry out his Borat junket responsibilities entirely in character, inquiring about the sexual availability of the siblings of any reporter willing to point a microphone in his direction and making the occasional straight-faced statement of solidarity with noted "anti-Jew warrior, Melvin Gibson," they probably won't be inclined to write in the name "Borat Sagdiyev" on their Oscar ballots. Realizing that Cohen would need to do some interviews as himself if he's serious about a landing a nomination, his publicists have finally convinced him to doff Borat's trademark gray suit and put aside canned references to his alter ego's proud rapist lineage and take some time to spotlight an actorly transformation so complete that even his bowel movements became prisoners of his process. Reports the LAT's Patrick Goldstein:

"It was exhausting," he recalls, slumped in the booth, fighting off a nagging cold. "I had to be that way all day and all night, because even if the tiniest detail had gone awry, it could've made them suspicious. I mean, even if I went to the bathroom, I had to make sure I went to the bathroom as Borat."

He allowed a tiny sliver of a smile. "There would definitely be potpourri in the toilet so you'd know Borat had been there." [...]



...A stickler for authenticity, during filming he never washed his gray Borat suit and never wore deodorant.

"The smell is an added thing for people to believe that I'm from a country where hygiene wasn't a necessity," he explains.



Should this late wave of out-of-character press land Cohen a nomination, expect Fox to further stress the impressive work that he put in to making the Borat illusion so complete by sending each Oscar voter a plastic bag full of Cohen's feces, reminding his peers in the Academy one last time of his incredible dedication to his craft.
Published 1/9/07 by


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