CALLED OUT

Sacha Baron Cohen Shades Trumpy Billionaire Who Funded His New Movie

Jeff Bezos’s company is producing the actor’s controversial film.

Sacha Baron Cohen is publicly mocking billionaire Jeff Bezos, whose Amazon MGM Studios produced his upcoming film.

At the premiere of Ali G: Who Iz I? in Los Angeles, Baron Cohen, 55, answered questions from a Variety reporter in his Ali G avatar when Bezos, 62, came up.

Baron Cohen appeared to mock Bezos when discussing Amazon MGM’s involvement in his feature directorial debut.

“Jeffrey Bezos came through. You know that bloke? Him flew over here from the Amazon, where him lived up a tree, you know?” he said. “Him has his dong out. Him is just very natural there. But him has got a company now—them sell like, I don’t know, everything. And him said: ‘Look, here’s some cash money, make a documentary about you life.’ And I said: ‘I will, so long as you’re not in it.’ That’s how we did the business.”

Ali G: Who Iz I? marks the return of one of Baron Cohen’s many satirical avatars, and has sparked major backlash. Some activists are pushing to boycott the film, which features Ali G, a white, wannabe rapper who wears fake dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat and is being deemed racist.

NO RESPEK

Pressure Mounts in Campaign Against ‘Racist’ Ali G Movie

Eboni Boykin-Patterson

The racism accusations date back to the inception of Baron Cohen’s character. In 2000, the Guardian reported that Baron Cohen, a Jewish Cambridge graduate, was accused of “mocking black people and using language and performing material that broadcasters would not tolerate from black comedians.”

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With the new mockumentary, these accusations have resurfaced. Media bias organization NewsCord launched a campaign against the film, in which they declared Cohen uses Ali G as a “cover for enforcing racist stereotypes.”

“Sacha Baron Cohen retired Ali G. Amazon revived the caricature. Cinemas can refuse it,” reads the landing page for the campaign, which is urging theaters to refuse the film. They also slammed Sony Pictures for their marketing tagline: “He iz back. We ain’t liable.”

Over 55, 940 people have sent emails in support of NewsCord’s movement.

Baron Cohen has been unapologetic about the backlash, writing a facetious message to fans on X: “In an age where a comedian’s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I’d play it safe and bring this guy back.”

Ali G: Who Iz I? is set for release on October 23.

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Meera NavlakhaEntertainment Reporter

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