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WHEN Joe Biden was sworn in as US President on Wednesday, one Brit was cheering louder than anyone else.
For actor-writer Sacha Baron Cohen had risked his life making a movie that he hoped would prevent Donald Trump serving a second term.
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During filming for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, released two weeks before Americans voted in the election, one of Trump’s die-hard fans pulled a gun on the star.
The follow-up to 2006’s Borat! sees the return of the fictional Kazakh journalist — famous for his “very nice” catchphrase — as he exposes the dangers of the far-Right with often outrageous stunts.
In an exclusive interview Sacha, 49, said: “Donald Trump is on video encouraging violence towards me a number of times.”
In one scene, a crowd of the ex-President’s supporters cheer as Borat — dressed as a country singer — sings about chopping up journalists “like the Saudis do” and injecting the country’s chief medical officer with “the Wuhan flu”.
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A man even salutes like a Nazi when Borat sings satirically about “gassing them like the Germans do”.
What the movie doesn’t show is how badly the gun-toting crowd were baying for Sacha’s blood when they spotted his true identity.
‘You use fear to bring energy into a scene’
He said: “A group of people stormed the stage. One of them went to pull out his pistol. Luckily I had an incredibly brilliant security guard who grabbed the guy’s arm and whispered to him, ‘It’s not worth it, buddy’.”
The contingency plan had been to leave in a fake ambulance purposely parked close to the outdoor stage.
Sacha managed to get in quickly and was ordered to lock the doors for his own safety.
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But he could see the film’s director, Jason Woliner, being chased by the mob so Sacha waited for him to clamber on board before making their escape.
He recalled: “Some of them had threatened to shoot me already. And then at one point they pulled open the door to pull me out.
“Luckily, I was lying on the floor trying to hide anyway, and it meant I had the leverage of my legs and I could use them to pull the door shut. But it was very scary.”
The comedian — who has three children with his wife of ten years, Australian actress Isla Fisher, 44 — had predicted he would be a target and took all necessary precautions.
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His security team supplied him with a bullet-proof vest and built a huge amplifier that could withstand a machine gun.
Sacha said: “It would mean that if there really was a lot of gunfire I could jump behind that.”
One of the issues with filming Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was that both Sacha and his bumbling, anti-Semitic character are so recognisable. To pull off some of the stunts, Borat wears disguises.
Sacha also relied on his Bulgarian co-star Maria Bakalova, 24, who plays the protagonist’s daughter Tutar, to take care of the up-close-and-personal stunts with members of Trump’s party.
She stars in the most talked about scene with the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, 76.
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Tutar, under the guise of a TV journalist, flirts with the former New York mayor and they head in to a hotel bedroom. Hidden cameras capture Giuliani reaching into his trousers while laying on the bed.
Giuliani insists he was tucking in his shirt, but the disturbing encounter created headlines around the world. Sacha was protective of Maria and revealed he gave the fledgling actress some advice he had never shared with anyone before.
When Maria confided in him that she was “terrified” ahead of filming, he told her: “Yes, that’s good, that’s fantastic — you’re going to use that fear now and you’re going to bring it into the scene and it’s going to give you incredible energy.”
The actor, also known for creating hit fictional characters Ali G, Bruno and for his turn in 2012 musical Les Miserables, said: “I’d been dealing with all of this internally and I’d never shared it with anyone.”
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As film production had to be shut down last year due to the pandemic, Sacha was in a race against time to get the Borat sequel finished before the US election.
He headed out as soon as the first lockdown was lifted Stateside, but was warned many of Trump’s supporters refused to wear face masks at rallies because they believe Covid-19 is a hoax.
There had also been threats to spit in the face of anyone attempting to infiltrate their groups. Sacha said: “I’d heard at this rally that if they find out you’re not who you say you are, or they think you’re a Democrat, they will get coronavirus-positive patients to spit at you.”
And that did happen to one of his cameramen. He said: “They’d got suspicious and basically people started spitting at the camera.”
Sacha has long been open about his dislike for Trump. During an appearance on a US chat show in 2015, he said the then Republican presidential candidate’s push to ban Muslims from entering America was a sign he had “a brain like a female chicken”.
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Trump had previously called the comedian a “moron”.
Sacha’s late father, Gerald, shared his son’s fears about the former US Apprentice judge winning the 2016 election. Gerald, who died following a short illness in that year, told Sacha: “Firstly, he’s extremely entertaining, secondly, he’s a fascist.”
Sacha said: “I suppose with this movie I felt I had to be able to look myself in the mirror on [the day after election day] and say to myself, ‘I did everything I could to protect a political system that I value — democracy’.”
What sway the movie held in the election result we will never know, but as well as seeing Trump depart the White House this week, Sacha has been rewarded with talk of multiple Oscar nods.
It is no surprise given the first Borat movie won a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.
This time round, The Wuhan Flu Song, which was written by Sacha’s brother Erran, is likely to pick up a nomination for Best Original Song and Maria is hotly tipped to be on the Best Supporting actress list.
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Sacha’s Netflix film, The Trial Of The Chicago 7, about antiwar protest organisers clashing with police at the 1968 Democratic National Con-vention, is also an Oscar contender. He jokes that he wants “at least” two awards for Borat, adding modestly: “It’s wonderful that people are even talking about that.”
But Sacha was not looking for awards when he decided to bring back his most famous character after 14 years. He said: “The aim of the movie is to deliver a message. That’s the reason why Borat came out when it did.
“I thought the thing I can do to warn people is to use my funniest character, my most popular character, to show what I thought the dangers of voting for Trump were. I felt democracy was at a very dangerous point.”
Those fears were proved to be correct when Trump first refused to accept defeat in November then encouraged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill, in Washington DC, earlier this month in a bid to overturn the result.
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It led to violent riots with demon-strators breaching the building. Five people died, including one police officer.
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But with Biden now safely in office, Sacha is planning to take a well earned rest from filming.
He says: “There’s nothing up next. It’s been a busy year. Donald Trump is out and I want a break.”
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