1.4K views Jul 2009
Sacha Baron Cohen recounts trying to interview a real terrorist, including finding security for the meeting and a confused code-word plan about the weather.
0:03 You know, when we were making this film, we wanted it to be better than Borat, and we thought, what could people see that they'd never seen before on film? 0:11 And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist. 0:14 Mhm. 0:15 So... which I think has never been done before, for good reason. 0:20 Um, and so we showed the script, you know, the the outline of the script to the studio, and they said, oh, this is great, who's going to play the terrorist? 0:28 And we said, no, we're going to find a real terrorist. Now, it's not that easy to find an actual terrorist. 0:37 In fa- in fact, your government has been looking for one for about 9 years. 0:45 You're exactly right, yeah. 0:46 There- there's no Craigslist in Beirut, for example. So we called up a contact we had at the CIA and said, uh, can you help us? 0:59 We're looking to find a terrorist. 1:00 Bruno, Bruno has a contact at the CIA. 1:05 Bruno doesn't, but I knew somebody who did. 1:07 All right. 1:08 And the guy at the CIA said, you know, we've got a lot of names of terrorists, but we have almost no addresses. 1:18 And so eventually, after a few months, we found somebody who actually lived in a town that had a terrorist from a pretty nasty group called the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who are kind of the number one suicide bombers out there, 1:32 Mm. 1:32 if you're looking for them. Um, and he said, yeah, there, he goes, there is a terrorist who lives in my town. 1:39 And I... So I said, great, you know, can we, can we interview him? 1:44 But I'm a little bit scared about reprisal attacks from the other people in the, you know, in your city. 1:48 And he said, don't worry, you know, everybody loves you. We love the Ali G show. 1:56 So, so the next thing was I thought I needed some security to get to the 2:00 Right. 2:01 terrorist because it was in the West Bank. The guy picks this secret location. 2:05 So we called around some security firms. Everybody said, no way. 2:11 And eventually I found one guy who was an Englishman who'd done the Enrique Iglesias hero tour. 2:25 You gotta go where you gotta go. 2:28 Wow. You know, he'd his main job had been protecting Enrique from flying underwear. 2:34 You know, you know, I, I knew if it came to it, this guy would take a bra for me. 2:41 Uh, so we get there, and I said, all right, listen, I'm a little bit scared that the terrorist and his bodyguards are going to be armed. 2:50 So if they're armed, let's have a code word, you know, if they're armed, say that it's going to be hot weather. 2:55 Mm-hmm. 2:56 And if they're not armed, there's no guns, just say it's going to be cold. 2:59 Simple enough, sure. 3:00 So we end up at this secret location. Uh, the terrorist comes in with his bodyguard. 3:06 They've been checked by my bodyguard. My bodyguard comes in, and I said, so what's the weather going to be? 3:12 And he says, um, well, I think it's going to be cold weather, but there's a chance it could be quite warm. 3:22 And it might even be boiling hot. 3:27 At which point the terrorist said, no, no, no, it is not cold, it is warm. 3:33 And then I realized I was pretty sure that my terrorist either did or did not have a gun on him. 3:44 So you're certainly getting your money's worth there. 3:46 And then my bodyguard says, yeah, you're right, you know, it is quite warm out here. 3:50 It's kind of much, much warmer than North England. 3:54 At which point I realized my bodyguard had forgotten about our role play. 3:58 You're just talking about the weather. 3:59 I was discussing the weather with the terrorist. 4:02 Now, uh, will, will these guys eventually see the film? Did you invite them to the premiere, or? 4:07 I pray to God not. 
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