Who is Ali G? To answer that question, you have to start with Sacha Baron Cohen.
The comedian joined “60 Minutes” for an in-depth interview with Ariel Levy on Sunday night, wherein he explained his viewpoint on his more controversial mockumentary characters Borat, Bruno and Ali G, who often trick unsuspecting people into revealing more than they’d probably care to on camera.
“I think a lot of the times, they’re not making fools of themselves. I think a lot of those — in the Ali G interviews — they come across well, actually. I think it’s the same with Borat,” he said of his participants. “There’s a huge amount of stuff you don’t see, which is us behind the scenes looking at who we’ll interview going: ‘Not them, not them.’”
“Borat is, again, a funny character,” Cohen added. “But he also shows the kindness of people as well, who are so nice to him, but also can expose, you know, the layer of hate and bigotry below the surface that people normally wouldn’t go on air and show.”
His comments come after controversy surrounding his upcoming directorial debut “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” which has faced accusations of racism. Some U.K. watchdog activists have even urged theaters not to screen the social satire.
“There have been reportings that this film is racist. We have seen it, and sadly, it is not,” Borat says in the film’s second teaser trailer, seemingly addressing these concerns.
This new movie follows 2002’s “Ali G Indahouse,” with Cohen’s characters also popping up in projects like “The 11 O’Clock Show,” “Da Ali G Show,” “Borat’s Television Programme,” “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “Brüno” and “Who Is America?”
“Ali G: Who Iz I?” finds itself in theaters for one weekend only on Oct. 23.
