Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has responded to the criticism of his box office hit 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'.
In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone as himself, Baron Cohen discussed his reaction to the news that the Kazakh government was thinking of suing him.
"I was surprised," said Baron Cohen, "because I always had faith in the audience that they would realise that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices. And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater."
He continued: "I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews."
"Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudices, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism."
Read the review of 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' here.
