Sacha Baron Cohen: Difference between revisions
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“Borat is based actually on a guy I met in southern Russia. I can’t remember his name. He was a doctor. The Moment I met him I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albei totally unintentionally.” (source: http://suite101.com/article/borat-a29203) | “Borat is based actually on a guy I met in southern Russia. I can’t remember his name. He was a doctor. The Moment I met him I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albei totally unintentionally.” (source: http://suite101.com/article/borat-a29203) | ||
Revision as of 17:02, 18 June 2012
Born 13 October 1971. British stand-up comedian, actor, writer, voice artist and comedian. He is most widely known for his portrayal of unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, Brüno and Admiral General Aladeen. In his routines, Baron Cohen's characters interact with unsuspecting people who do not realize they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule.
Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O'Clock Show, and since then, his work has been further recognised with two BAFTA Awards for Da Ali G Show, several Emmy nominations, a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
After the release of the movie Borat, Baron Cohen stated that because the public had become too familiar with the characters, he would retire Borat and Ali G. Similarly, after the release of Brüno, Baron Cohen has stated he would also retire the title Character.
Family
The man of many international faces was born in London on October 13, 1971, to parents who hailed from Israel and Wales. Sacha, the grandson of Holocaust survivor is the second of three sons, with elder brother Erran and younger brother Amnon. His family is Jewish. His maternal grandmother who lives in Haifa, Israel, trained as a ballet dancer in Germany. Erran is a composer and has worked on several of Baron Cohen's films. Internationally renowned autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen is his cousin.
Education
Baron Cohen first attended St Columba's College Prep school, St Albans, Hertfordshire, before moving on to attend Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, a private school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, near London. He later spent a year at the Rosh Hanikra Kibbutz in Israel learning more about his roots and faith. He went on to the University of Cambridge, entering Christ College, where he read history under Niall Ferguson and wrote his dissertation on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, with emphasis on the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi. At the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, Baron Cohen acted in plays such as Fiddler on the Roof (in which he played Tevye) and Cyrano de Bergerac. While at Cambridge, he performed in Habonim Dror Jewish theatre performances.
Characters
Ali G
Ali G (born Alistair Leslie Graham), a boorish, uneducated, faux-streetwise poseur with a deeply stereotypical view of the world was born on a Council Estate to mother Tina. He has an older sister and an older brother. He has a younger sister and other younger siblings. When Ali was fifteen he went to live with his grandmother when his mother had another baby and there was no room for him and his older brother and sister, who went to live with their father. Ali's baby brothers are called Rory, Jamie and Guy.
Borat Sadiyev
Borat (born 17 February 1972) is a racist, misogynistic, antiziganist, and genuine Kazakh journalist and broadcaster. He was born in the village of Kuzcek in Kazakhstan to Asimbala Sagdiyev and Boltok the Rapist, the town rapist who is also stated to be his maternal grandfather as well as his brother and uncle. His mother gave birth to him when she was nine years old. He has a thirteen-year-old (born 1994) son named Huey Lewise and twelve–year–old (born 1995) twin boys named Biram and Bilak. He has an older sister named Natalya (who he has claimed at different times to be “the number four best prostitute in Kazakhstan”) and a younger brother named Bilo (who he describes as being mentally retarded, with hair all over his face and entire body).
Brüno Gehard
He is a 19-year-old, gay, Austrian fashion show presenter who just can't tolerate unfashionable people and would gladly put them onto a train to Auschwitz. He speaks in a high pitch moany voice in English with his German accent, he will always throw in a German slang term probably from the hardcore gay scene or Austrian youth. Brüno dresses in a tight fitting edgy outfit showing his arms and maybe his midriff if the seasonal fashion allows it. If you don’t meet his high fashion standards he will look down on you like a piece of dirt and won’t hesitate to throw an insult your way.
Admiral General Aladeen
Admiral General Hafez Aladeen is a dictator of the Republic of Wadiya (North Africa), who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country. He is a childish, lecherous, anti-western and anti-Semitic despot who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, refuses to allow Wadiyan oil to be sold internationally and is working on developing nuclear weapons.
Performer versus Characters
Baron Cohen has often been confused with the identity of one of his characters. When he posed as Borat to host the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon (He has twice presented the MTV Europe Music Awards, first as Ali G on 8 November 2001, in Frankfurt and then as Borat on 3 November 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal) the central Hungarian news wire agency MTI reported that the host was “Borat Sagdiyev”.
Baron Cohen appeared out of character to accept an award at the British Comedy Awards in December 2006. He said at the time that Borat could not make it to the awards as “he’s guest of honor at the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran”, referring to the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.
Personal Quotes
“Borat is based actually on a guy I met in southern Russia. I can’t remember his name. He was a doctor. The Moment I met him I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albei totally unintentionally.” (source: http://suite101.com/article/borat-a29203)
“I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, ‘The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.’ I know it’s not very funny being a comedian talking about Holocaust, but I think it’s just an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. The just had to be apathetic.” (source: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2006/11/sacha_baron_coh.html)
“I've been in a bizarre situation, where a country has declared me as its number-one enemy. It's inherently a comic situation. I mean, it's always risky when you don't go down the normal route. I wish I would've been there at the briefing that Bush got about who I am, who Borat is. It would have had to be great.” (source: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0056187/quotes)
“I think that, essentially, I'm a private person, and to reconcile that with being famous is a hard thing. So I've been trying to have my cake and eat it too - to have my character be famous yet still lead a normal life where I'm not trapped by fame and recognisability.” (source: http://www.movies.ie/interviews/interview_with_sacha_baron_cohen_for_bruno_)
“It's wonderful that the films are successful, but every new person who sees the movie is one less person I can be Borat or Bruno with again, so finishing a movie means having to say goodbye. Admitting that you're never going to play the character again is like saying goodbye to a loved one. And that's hard.” (source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1200145/Sacha-Baron-Cohen-Its-sad-I-kill-Bruno.html)
[on a scene in Hugo) “So I have a bath with the dog. What happens under the bubbles is our business. It seems to me that Marty (Scorsese) makes films for himself. He is an artist. And he's one of the last remaining artists out there, and I think we should respect that.” (source: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0056187/quotes)
Sources:
http://movies.yahoo.com/person/sacha-baron-cohen/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056187/
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1559883,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_G