“60 Minutes” will air a profile of Sacha Baron Cohen on Oct. 18.
The episode comes ahead of the Oct. 23 premiere of “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” a film in which he reprises the role he first played on Channel 4’s “The 11 O’Clock Show” and Channel 4 and HBO’s “Da Ali G Show.”
In the “60 Minutes” episode, Ariel Levy sits down with Cohen in London. As Cohen is best known for playing characters like Ali G, Borat and Brüno in the real world while interacting with unsuspecting people, the interview focuses on the craft behind his brand of undercover comedy and the objectives of his satire.
In a clip exclusively obtained by Variety, Levy asks Cohen if he brings any elements of his own personality to the characters he plays. “If I knew who I was, then I could answer that. But I don’t know,” he replies. “I mean, Ali G definitely, because in a way, at the age of 11, I was an Ali G of sorts.”
When asked about his family’s sense of humor while he was growing up, Cohen says his mother “was hilarious, but probably not intentionally so,” adding, “She had such a distinct voice that everyone in my high school could imitate it. So everyone would go, ‘Sacha, telephone.’ Because that’s what she would say when people would call me.”
“Ali G: Who Iz I?” is Cohen’s debut feature film as a director. He is best known for playing the a fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev in the 2006 mockumentary “Borat,” a character he reprised in the 2020 sequel “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”
Cohen is frequently criticized for offensive comments made in character, which he has previously defended as satire. Most recently, when asked by Variety at the premiere of “Ali G: Who Iz I?” about the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, he stoked outrage for answering, “The only merger that’s happening tonight is me and Sydney Sweeney’s babylons.”
See a clip from Baron’s “60 Minutes” profile below. The episode will air at 7:30 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT after CBS’ NFL telecast and on Paramount+ before later becoming available on YouTube.