Sacha Baron Cohen’s spoof documentary, whose fictional Kazakh reporter Borat has sparked the controversy, says he could never put himself and others in embarrassing situations if he weren’t in character.
Cohen’s spoof documentary, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” follows his Kazakh TV journalist character on a cross-country trip to report back to his homeland on American culture.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine Cohen says,
I think I’d find it hard to. I think you can hide behind the characters and do things that you yourself find difficult.
Cohen, a devoted Jew who keeps kosher and the Sabbath when possible, says he purposely made his character biased.
Cohen says, “By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it’s anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism.’
