“Borat” actor Sacha Baron Cohen asked viewers Friday to decide for themselves if his latest film shows President Trump’s attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani acting inappropriately or not.
“If the president’s lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior, then heaven knows what he’s done with other female journalists in hotel rooms,” said Mr. Baron Cohen.
“I just urge everyone to watch the movie,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It is what it is. He did what he did. And make your own mind up. It was pretty clear to us.”
Mr. Baron Cohen, the star and producer of the new “Borat” sequel, was reacting to Mr. Giuliani recently denying he acted improperly while unknowingly participating in its filming.
A scene in the sequel, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” shows Mr. Giuliani being interviewed in a New York hotel room by Mr. Baron Cohen’s co-star, 24-year-old actress Maria Bakalova.
The scene, in part, shows Mr. Giuliani reclining on a hotel bed with his hand down his pants while next to the woman he believed to be a reporter.
Mr. Giuliani, 76, called the footage a “complete fabrication” earlier this week before the film was released and claimed he was caught on camera innocently adjusting his clothing.
“I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar,” Mr. Giuliani said Wednesday on Twitter.
Mr. Baron Cohen, 49, said on “Good Morning America” that he was “quite concerned” for his co-star while she filmed the scene in the hotel room with Mr. Giuliani.
“It’s my responsibility as a producer as well to ensure that the lead actor is looked after,” Mr. Baron Cohen said on “GMA.”
“I’ve always felt safe with our team, with our crew, with Sacha in my corner,” said Ms. Bakalova. “I actually never felt that I’ve been in danger. That’s why I’m lucky, because I had them.”
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” became available online Thursday exclusively through Amazon. The mockumentary is a follow-up to 2006’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said in July that he was ambushed by the “Borat” star at a Manhattan hotel and accordingly called the police.
“I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me,” Mr. Giuliani told The New York Post at the time.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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