Snagging an interview with Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen may not seem like a big deal. But it is when you consider the 35-year-old British comedian, who rarely appears in public or the press out of character, agreed to be questioned as himself.
Cohen, putting his Ali G, Bruno, and Borat characters on the back burner, told Rolling Stone that he could never put himself and others in the embarrassing and ludicrous situations he does if he wasn't in character.
"I think I'd find it hard to," Cohen said in the article. "I think you can hide behind the characters and do things that you yourself find difficult."
The performer, who first found success on the British comedy Da Ali G Show, shot to international stardom with his fictional Kazakh journalist character Borat Sagdiyev.
The film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has dominated the box office since it opened two weeks ago, and follows the character on a road-trip across the U.S. But the character's way of getting people to make racist and sexist comments has caused a furor and even prompted a couple of lawsuits.
"Borat essentially works as a tool," Cohen told the magazine.
"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."
Cohen says he doesn't like to talk about how he gets people to say what they say in front of the camera, arguing that revealing his tactics would be "a disaster, terrible for me."
The comedian, a devout Jew, is engaged to Australian actress Isla Fisher.