When Sacha Baron Cohen introduced Ali G more than 25 years ago, the character was outrageous, unpredictable and genuinely shocking. A clueless fool who mimicked British Jamaican hip-hop culture, Ali G exposed the prejudices, absurdities and hypocrisies of the people he encountered. He interviewed leading experts, asking questions so ridiculously absurd that audiences couldn't help but cringe and laugh at the same time. No one had seen anything quite like him before, and the character quickly propelled Cohen to fame, success and fortune.
In "Ali G: Who Iz I?," Cohen brings him back, but the result falls far short of the original’s comic impact.
The problem isn’t simply that times have changed or that audiences have become more sensitive. Cohen’s greatest weapon was always his ability to catch unsuspecting people off guard, allowing their own words and behavior to deliver the punchline. Today, however, the shock value has diminished. Provocative opinions that once seemed astonishing have become familiar, while social media has made outrageous behavior and public humiliation part of everyday entertainment.
The film also struggles under the weight of its own ambitions. Its scripted storyline, political satire and attempts to address cultural appropriation compete with the unscripted encounters that once made Ali G so effective. Rather than allowing the character’s absurdity to expose the people around him, the film too often spells out its targets and relies on crude gags that generate more discomfort than laughter.
Cohen remains committed to pushing boundaries, but provocation alone is no longer enough. The original Ali G succeeded because audiences never knew how far he would go or how people would react. In this revival, the formula feels familiar, the surprises are fewer and the satire lacks its former bite. Cohen has brought Ali G back, but he hasn’t managed to bring back the magic.
In conversation, Sacha Baron Cohen initially comes across as far more serious than one might expect from the man behind Ali G and Borat. But as the interview progresses, flashes of his irreverent comic persona emerge. Beneath the outrageous characters, however, lies a comedian who sees humor as a tool for exposing uncomfortable truths.
How did the character of Ali G come about?
“I was hired by "The 11 O'Clock Show" to create an idiotic youth reporter. I'd already developed Borat a little, and I began improvising a DJ character. An earlier version was an upper-class white character pretending to be a West Coast gangster rapper. Ali G was more realistic and middle-class, but still white. I instinctively felt that putting the world's biggest idiot next to an expert on a subject would be funny.
"These characters don't actually change. The world changes, and you see those changes through the character. Ali G is still a white cultural appropriator, one of the stupidest people in the world, but fundamentally a good person. Despite his sexist comments and inappropriate behavior, he believes in increasing the peace and stopping hatred.”
Why have you decided to bring him back after so many years?
“I wanted to show how divided society has become. Bringing him back also gave me the opportunity to bring in two other characters I developed for "Who Is America?," one from the far left and one from the far right. We’re living in an age of 'virtuous violence,' where people can be hateful or violent because they believe they’re acting ethically.
A scene from 'Ali G: Who Iz I?'
(Photo: Courtesy)
"I love the idea of dropping him into today's world, with its social and cultural divisions and identity politics. He's the same, but the world has completely changed. It felt like the perfect time to bring back a character who should have been left in the 2000s.”
Given how famous you’ve become, how do you find people who don’t recognize you or your characters?
“It’s a huge process. The film took several years to make, partly because we repeatedly shut down scenes that weren’t working. We also have a large team searching for people who don’t know who I am."
For one scene involving an English doctor, the team interviewed 1,600 doctors before finding someone who didn’t know Ali G. The character is much less well known in America than in England. In Britain, he became so famous that, according to Prince Harry and Prince William, even the Queen Mother once said “Booyakasha” at Christmas dinner with the Queen.”
You directed this film for the first time and starred in it, how did you manage that?
“I storyboarded every scene because I was playing the main characters and needed the cameras to know exactly which shots I wanted. Almost everyone in the movie is a real person who doesn't know they're participating in a film.
"The project was particularly complicated because I was playing three characters in a thriller and action movie involving real people. I needed to be in control of every shot, so I brought in Markus and McFeely, two writers from "The Avengers," to help ensure the film had the necessary stakes.”
The film's final sequence is an extraordinary continuous shot. How did you pull it off?
“Rob Legato, who has won three Oscars and worked on 'Titanic' and Martin Scorsese's films, called it the most difficult scene ever shot in a movie. It's an eight-hour continuous shot involving 40 cameras, 12 locations spread across 50 miles, explosions, a drone and a woman giving birth. I insisted it had to be one continuous shot because we were conducting a psychological experiment inspired by the Milgram experiment.
"The sequence had about 400 separate beats that all had to work perfectly. If one failed, the real people might realize something was wrong, and the entire scene would be ruined. The first time we attempted it, a forest fire forced the crew to evacuate, costing $4 million. The production was insured for only $1 million, so I had to cover the remaining $3 million.
'I love the idea of dropping him into today's world' says Cohen of his Ali G character
(Photo: Courtesy)
"I wanted to push myself further than ever before and make something audiences hadn't seen. Three sequences in the film were shot this way, accounting for roughly half the movie.”
How important is the big-screen experience for your comedies?
"The movie is in theaters for this weekend only, because I wanted hardcore fans to experience laughing together. I edit specifically for the cinema. Even in 'Borat', there are long spaces that allow a theater audience to laugh. I work with the editors down to two frames to make sure the laughter has time to subside before the next joke begins.
"It’s a communal experience. When the film eventually streams, I hope people watch it with others—even their political enemies. They may discover they have something in common by the end."
Ali G’s behavior can be offensive. How do you ensure audiences understand that the satire is aimed at prejudice, rather than endorsing it?
“One of our writers, Colton Dunn, put it well: 'Ali G is not racist. He’s a tool to expose racists.' Ali is a white cultural appropriator. He’s a middle-class suburban kid from Staines who admires Tupac Shakur and Buju Banton and imitates the lives and mannerisms he sees as more glamorous than his own.
"In one scene, my character Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello visits a Black community center. The people there are concerned about real issues, including gentrification and the murder of Black men and women. Then this white savior arrives to tell them what they should be worried about. It’s completely condescending.
"With comedy, you can make something that everyone immediately understands, or you can try to create something groundbreaking that exposes prejudice and promotes tolerance. I’ve chosen the latter, and that has always led to controversy. When I made 'Brüno', which was intended to challenge homophobia, some people accused the film of being homophobic. You hope you’re doing some good while making audiences laugh.”
*****
Cohen was born in London to Jewish parents. His mother, Daniella, was born in Israel in 1939 to German Jewish parents. Her mother, Liesel Weiser, trained as a ballet dancer in Germany before fleeing the Nazis in 1936.
Daniella later moved to London, where she worked as a movement instructor and photographer, exhibiting her work in Israel and Britain Thanks to his mother, Cohen speaks Hebrew, which he also used in "Borat."
In "Ali G: Who Iz I?" Daniella makes her film debut, though Cohen joked that she was a terrible actress.
“My mom has a hilarious voice,” said Cohen. “I thought she would be funny on television because my friends always found her hilarious. But when I tried to film a show with her, she completely froze. I considered cutting her from the movie but delivering that news would have been difficult. She might cut my pocket money.”
You’ve often promoted your films in character. Why are you doing more interviews as yourself this time?
“I haven’t abandoned Ali G. I’ve been touring as both myself and the character. It’s been fun, although Ali is difficult to share a bed with—he comes in late and isn’t faithful to his wife.
"Because this is my directorial debut, there’s a lot to explain about the film’s nuances that would be difficult to discuss in character. I’ve also been doing social media appearances and going out on the streets of New York and London, and the response has been incredible.”
What made you realize that Ali G still has a place in today’s world?
“The world has changed so much that I thought it would be brilliant to bring this dinosaur back. For about seven years, before I became publicly known as myself, I did no press as Sacha Baron Cohen. People saw Ali G, and hardly anyone had a photograph of me.
Recently, I went to Wimbledon one day as myself, and nobody paid much attention. The next day, I returned as Ali G, and there was a crowd of 500 people. It was bizarre.”
You play three characters in the film. What was the most challenging part of the transformations?
“Two of the characters require heavy prosthetics, and the makeup process takes five hours every morning. After an eight-hour continuous shot, it takes another hour to remove everything.
The final scene takes place in the desert, where temperatures reached about 110°F. Several people were hospitalized with dehydration. I was wearing a muscle suit and drinking around 17 liters of Pedialyte a day. Because the suit didn’t allow sweat to escape, the liquid soaked through it. It was an extraordinarily difficult scene, especially while directing and working with real people, with hundreds of things that could go wrong.”
Ali G is now recording for Def Jam. How did the music develop for the film?
“A few months ago, I wasn’t happy with the music, so I spoke to my brother Aaron, who composed the original music for 'Da Ali G Show.' We recorded a drum-and-bass track, 'Ali in the USA,' and suddenly the audience connected with it.
Then Andrew Watt approached me about creating an Ali G track. Having worked on 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Les Misérables,' I thought we could use a musical structure in which the songs express the main character’s internal dialogue. Hit-Boy joined Andrew to produce the music.
We created 11 tracks in about six weeks. The songs had to reflect what was going on inside Ali’s mind, with each one presenting a decision or revealing another layer of his identity.”
You’ve worked with directors including Martin Scorsese, Tom Hooper and Alfonso Cuarón. What have you learned from them?
“I generally make my own movies, so when I get the opportunity to work with great directors, I want to learn from them. While filming Hugo, I asked Martin Scorsese if I could sit quietly at the back of his directing tent. He let me do that for several months.
With Tom Hooper on 'Les Misérables,' I noticed how he began with a close-up and moved out to a medium shot and then a wide shot. He made sure he had the perfect performance in the close-up before moving on. In other films, by the time the crew gets to the close-up, the actor may already be tired. I try to learn something from every director.”
What motivates you as a comedian, and what role does satire play in your work?
“I enjoy nothing more than making people laugh. I'm obsessive about exploring the extremes of comedy and human behavior. I screen my movies relentlessly, measuring the laughs per minute and adjusting scenes to make the laughs as big as possible.
"But my comedy is also satire. I want to raise issues we haven't really discussed as a society. When I sang 'Throw the Jew Down the Well’ as Borat, people in an Arizona bar started singing along. It revealed an undercurrent of antisemitism. Satire can shine a light on subjects we might otherwise avoid. My aim is to help create a more tolerant society.”