Sacha Baron Cohen Reveals Near-Death Moment While Filming ‘Borat’: “The Joke Suddenly Did Not Seem Very Funny”

Sacha Baron Cohen once revealed a terrifying moment from filming his 2006 comedy Borat during a Reddit AMA promoting his film The Brothers Grimsby. The actor described a scene that almost cost him his life.

Cohen explained that he usually only does scenes that he finds “hysterically funny.” But he admitted he doesn’t always think about the risks ahead.

“I have a mental problem, which is, I don’t see the consequences of my actions. So, I will often come up with something in the writers room, with me and my colleague, and not really think through how I’ll feel when I get to the day when I have to shoot it,” he said.

He specifically talked about the infamous naked wrestling scene with his overweight producer. “The naked fight seemed very very funny when I started talking about it in the writers room, but it got to the day, and when I was confronted with a naked 260 lb. man, who had not cleaned his a****** for 25 years, the joke suddenly did not seem very funny,” Cohen said.

Cohen described the danger of the scene. “The worst part filming Borat was the naked fight, because I had a 250 lb. man’s ass on my face, and his buttocks was so big that I couldn’t actually breathe when I was underneath there,” he recalled.

He only had about 30 seconds of air and had agreed on a signal with the director, hitting the mattress three times, if he felt like he was going to pass out. “If you look at the Borat film now, you will see that I do hit the mattress three times, and the director didn’t stop filming, which meant I was faced with this very stark choice, which was either to die, or to breathe in the rancid air from my costar’s r*****. And when I was underneath there, I decided to die,” Cohen said. Luckily, his co-star moved, and he was able to finish the scene.

Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a mockumentary black comedy directed by Larry Charles. Cohen stars as Borat, a fictional Kazakh journalist exploring the United States. Much of the film is unscripted, showing real Americans interacting with Borat, thinking he is genuinely foreign. The movie was a co-production between the U.S. and the U.K. and is part of a series of films based on Cohen’s characters from Da Ali G Show.

Released in November 2006 by 20th Century Fox, Borat earned $262 million worldwide. Cohen won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and the film received nominations for Best Picture in the same category.

Borat also earned Academy Award and Writers Guild of America nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. Though controversial before release and criticized by some participants afterward, the film has been praised as one of the greatest comedies of the 2000s and 21st century.

Critics widely lauded the film. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe called it “silliness at its most trenchant” and the funniest film of the year. Michael Medved gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it “simultaneously hilarious and cringe-inducing.” Peter Travers from Rolling Stone said, “You won’t know what outrageous fun is until you see Borat. High-five!” The Atlantic described it as “maybe the funniest film in a decade.”

The Guardian included it in the best films of the 2000s and later ranked it the 23rd greatest film of the 21st century. Even director James Cameron reportedly enjoys the movie.

This story shows the extreme lengths Sacha Baron Cohen went to for comedy. His willingness to risk his own safety underscores the intensity behind some of the most shocking and memorable scenes in film.

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