With the joke running thin for Ali G and Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen had to come up with an even more outrageous character to reinvent his comedy routine. Enter Brüno, the gay fashion reporter
WHEN SACHA Baron Cohen wrapped up filming on his last movie, he knew he faced an intractable problem. As soon as Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
became the smash hit of 2006, going straight to number one in the US box office, and taking in nearly €300m, Baron Cohen realised he had effectively killed off his main character, and sabotaged any hope of a sequel. For the character of Borat – a racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic reporter for Kazakh TV – to work, he had to be anonymous, his victims unaware that this tall, awkward, boorish, mustachioed chap in a cheap suit was really a well-known British comedy actor in yet another one of his brilliant disguises.
In the movie, Borat encountered real Americans who accepted him at face value, believing he really was making a documentary for Kazakh TV. The comedy came from watching their discomfort as Borat spouted his medieval views on race, women and Jews – the punchline came when some were duped into revealing their own prejudices. Once Borat became a household name, though, his comedy stock went through the floor. It would be hard now to find anyone in the western world who doesn’t know who Borat is – without the element of surprise and ignorance, he would no longer be able to shock, outrage and offend. If Baron Cohen wanted to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable in comedy, he would have to come up with a new, even more outrageous character.
Enter Brüno (ooh, you are awful), and exit any last vestige of restraint, caution or political correctness. Brüno is a gay fashion reporter from Austria, and he is set to mince his way onto cinema screens on July 10th. Brüno the movie (unofficially subtitled Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-shirt)follows a similar template to Borat, cranking up the discomfort quotient through some squirmingly funny sequences. Brüno gatecrashes Milan fashion week wearing his latest fabulous creation – a Velcro jumpsuit. He hangs out with gun-toting survivalists in the wilderness, taking his life into his hands by making references to Sex and The City. And, at a crowded baggage reclaim area, he picks up his newly-adopted black baby, all boxed up on the carousel. "Angelina's got von, Madonna's got von – now Brüno's got von!" he gloats.
BRÜNO IS QUEERER than folk, the gayest thing to come out of Austria since The Sound of Music. He dresses like a cross between Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Right Said Fred and Daffyd from Little Britain. He speaks in a mock-Teutonic lisp, like a camp German prison guard from a 1960s film – indeed, he harbours some decidedly Nazi views. He's genetically programmed to make heterosexual men nervous in his presence – if anyone can bring out the latent homophobe in males, Brüno's your man. And he seems to gravitate towards places where homosexuals are not just exotic, rarely seen creatures, but a totally alien species that may well pose a threat to America's moral fabric.
Will Brüno out-gross even Borat at the box office? If he does, then it'll be a hat-trick of successful creations for Baron Cohen. His first hit character was, of course, Ali G, the clueless rapper from Staines; the American version of his TV series, Da Ali G Show, featured earlier incarnations of Brüno.
In one memorable segment, the flouncing fashionista attends a football game in the rabidly hetero state of Alabama – as a cheerleader. In another, he interviews a pastor who claims to be able to drive the demons of homosexuality out of the soul. And he risks life and limb by turning up at a gun show in Arkansas and making some folk there mad as hell.
Brüno is adept at luring hapless citizens into his venus flytrap – it’s a technique that Baron Cohen and his production team have been tweaking ever since Ali G began interviewing such unwitting foils as John McCain, Donald Trump, Noam Chomsky, Tory politician Neil Hamilton and former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The “victims” would be led to believe a well-dressed “decoy” was doing the interview; at the last minute, Ali G would step in and the snare would be shut. For Borat, subjects were told that the segment was being filmed for faraway Kazakh TV. What they didn’t realise was that it would also be shown on cinemas across the US and worldwide, and would eventually become a part of comedy lore.
Several people who made unwitting appearances in Borattried to sue the filmmakers, with little success. Two college students claimed they were duped into making offensive remarks while drunk, and an etiquette teacher also unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit. Even the Kazakh government threatened to sue over Borat's portrayal of that country.
Brüno, meanwhile, is dealing with what will surely be only the first of many lawsuits. A woman in California alleges that she was attacked by Baron Cohen, in his guise as Brüno, at a charity bingo game. She is suing for assault, battery and fraudulent misrepresentation.
Libertarian congressman Ron Paul was subjected to a different kind of attack, when Brüno apparently tried to “seduce” the politician. “I was expecting an interview on Austrian economics,” he told a reporter. Instead, says the congressman, he was lured into a room beside the studio that was done up as a bedroom. “By the time he started pulling his pants down, I was, ‘What in thunder’s going on here?’ I ran out of the room.”
Also not very amused – on the face of it, at least – was Eminem, who found himself being straddled by Brüno at last week’s MTV Movie Awards. The rapper – whose lyrics have often been condemned as homophobic – was sitting in the audience at the ceremony when Brüno made his entrance, dressed as an angel and flying above the crowd. A “technical hitch” saw Brüno being lowered onto Eminem, trapping the rapper between his well-toned, g-stringed buttocks. “Is ze real Slim Shady going to stand up?” quipped Brüno as Eminem walked out in a huff.
Later, Eminem admitted what most already guessed – he was in on the stunt. Other pop stars have also reportedly got in on the act – it's been rumoured that Bono and Coldplay's Chris Martin have collaborated with Brüno on a mock-charity single entitled Dove of Peace, to be featured in the movie.
Brüno also graces the cover of this month’s issue of Marie Claire magazine; inside, he gatecrashes a photo shoot and spouts off his flamboyant philosophy. He outlines the Austrian dream (“find a job, get a dungeon and raise a family in it.”) and believes that the second World War would never have happened if there had been a Berlin Fashion Week in 1939.
He is full of praise for supermodel Naomi Campbell (“Fame hasn’t changed her a bit – she’s remained a total bitch”) and has no truck with people who say singer Amy Winehouse is too thin (“For ein junkie she ist actually zehr fat”).
Meanwhile, the real Sacha Baron Cohen is starting to come to terms with the realisation that he may no longer be able to keep a safe distance from his fictional creations. It's bad enough that he's about to have another smash hit movie to further erode his anonymity, but his fiancee, Australian actress Isla Fisher, with whom he has a 20-month-old daughter, Olive, has made the leap to leading lady via her starring role in Confessions of a Shopaholic. This is one celebrity couple who won't be able to avoid the A-list for much longer.
WHILE HIS CHARACTERS may be some of the biggest bozos in comedy, the real Baron Cohen was no class clown. Born in London in 1971, the youngest of three boys, his young mind was formed by his orthodox Jewish upbringing and his obsession with the comedy of Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, and Monty Python. Like Ricky Gervais, Baron Cohen also has the skeleton of a dodgy 1980s band in his closet, a rap group he formed with Jewish friends that regularly played bar-mitzvahs. He says they were prototype Ali Gs.
He went to Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, which he described as a "factory of comedy" filled with "cocky young Jews" like himself. While studying at Cambridge, he honed his talent for acting his way into people's confidence. "I started developing characters partly as a way to get into places without paying," he told Rolling Stonemagazine. "I would try to get myself and other people in, pretending to be the band or something . . . we would get into the clubs, claiming we were bouncers or drug dealers."
After he graduated, he gave himself five years to make it in the entertainment business, and got sporadic work on London Weekend Television and Channel 4, developing the prototypes of his characters, and earning extra money by working as a male model. As he neared his self-appointed 11th hour with still little to show for it, he got a call from Channel 4 to audition for satirical programme The 11 O'Clock Show. The show's segments featuring Ali G quickly gained a cult following, and soon Ali's fake-Jamaican patois ("booyakasha") was being mimicked by young fans up and down the UK. He got his own hit series and appeared in a video by Madonna. The movie Ali G Indahousefared only moderately well, but the success of Boratexceeded all its creator's expectations. Now, Ali and Borat are so ridiculously famous, Baron Cohen has announced he is retiring both characters.
If Brüno proves to be third time lucky for Baron Cohen, he may soon have to don his designer thinking cap and come up with a brand new persona to keep the public guessing.
CV SACHA BARON COHEN
Who is he?Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Ali G, Borat and now – hopefully – Brüno.
Why is he in the news?In the same week that Brüno dangled cheek-to-cheek with Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards, a Californianwoman is suing Baron Cohen for alleged assault at a bingo game.
Most appealing characteristic:Fans say his characters' obnoxiousbehaviour exposes hypocrisy in modern society. And he's very funny.
Least appealing characteristic:Detractors say his characters'obnoxious behaviour is just an excuse to be offensive in the pursuit of low comedy. And he is deeply unfunny.
He says:"My parents were incredibly loving, and I think that gives you the strength to go out into a crowd of people who hate you."
Brüno says:"Vy do zey give out Nobel prizes for physics, medicine und svimming, but not for fashion?"
