Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is known for going to outlandish lengths to produce what he has referred to as “extreme comedy.”
But one segment he taped in 2018 went so far that he contacted the FBI about an alleged pedophile he met, and he cut the segment and turned it over to the bureau.
Given recent headlines about child sex trafficking — largely driven by the success of the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom” — it is important to remember that the exploitation of children is nothing new.
Baron Cohen encountered a story that shook him to such a degree that he stepped out of method acting momentarily and got the police involved.
Five years ago, the “Borat” actor was filming the liberal-slanted comedy series “Who Is America?” for Showtime.
During production of the satire, he posed as an Italian billionaire named Gio Monaldo – among other characters – to interview public figures.
But while he was in the role of Monaldo, he said during an interview with Deadline then that he stumbled across what he perceived to be a pedophile ring operating in Las Vegas.
The interview never made it into the show, and Baron Cohen explained why.
“We were shooting some of this at the time of Harvey Weinstein,” he said. “We wanted to investigate how does someone like Harvey Weinstein gets away with doing what … get away with criminality, essentially. And the network that surrounds him.”
Should the FBI have investigated this?
The actor continued:
“We decided that Gio would interview a concierge in Las Vegas. During the interview, I revealed that basically Gio has molested an 8-year-old boy.
“Now, mind you, this is extreme comedy, and we thought that the guy would leave the room. Instead, this concierge stays in the room and I go, ‘Listen, you’ve got to help me get rid of the problem.’ And this guy starts advising Gio how to get rid of this issue.”
The actor then said he and the concierge had a legitimate conversation about killing a fictional victim of sexual abuse in order to keep him quiet.
“We even at one point talk about murdering the boy, and the concierge is just saying, ‘Well, listen, I’m really sorry. In this country, we can’t just drown the boy. This is America; we don’t do that.’ And then, in the end, he puts me in touch with a lawyer who can silence the boy,” Baron Cohen explained.
Calling the subject matter “dark stuff,” Baron Cohen said he told the concierge he needed a date for the evening.
The two then discussed the kind of date Monaldo wanted, Baron Cohen said.
“I go, ‘You know, like a young man,’” Baron Cohen recalled. “He says, ‘Well, what kind of age?’ I say, ‘Lower than Bar Mitzvah but older than 8. And he says, ‘Yeah, I can put you in touch with somebody who can get you some boys like that.’”
Baron Cohen said he didn’t include the interview in “Who Is America?” and decided to call the FBI.
“We immediately turned over the footage to the FBI because we thought perhaps there’s a pedophile ring in Las Vegas that’s operating for these very wealthy men,” the actor said.
“And this concierge had said that he’d worked for politicians and various billionaires. But in the end the FBI decided not to pursue it.”
About why he cut the interview from his show, Baron Cohen said, “It was too dark and wrong. In a journalistic way it was fascinating, but it was so extreme and so dark that it was too unsettling for the audience.”
