Photo: Bryan R. Smith / AFP) (Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP via Getty Images
Like anyone who has watched Borat subsequent Moviefilm can testify, it would be disturbing enough to take an interview with an unmasked Rudy Giuliani in a hotel room during a pandemic. He even allegedly refused a COVID-19 test! However, according to the film’s producer Monica Levinson, the real scare arose after Giuliani’s segment with Maria Bakalova’s fake teenage daughter Tutar suddenly came to an end after the arrival of an underwear Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. According to Levinson’s appearance on a Producers’ Guild of America panel on Saturday, the former mayor of New York allegedly tried to get the filmmakers picked up by police.
“He claims that we were trying to blackmail him at the time, which we did not ask for anything,” she explained according to the deadline. “He called all his police in New York and said that extortion was a federal crime. Very clever to discuss it. The cast and crew were then excluded from the hotel room they used for the filming.
While wisely smuggling out the footage they needed, Levinson says she and her fellow filmmakers could not pick up their equipment in time. “We would hide straps in our pants. There are always ways to make sure we get the data, ‘she recalls. ‘We actually had to rent new equipment. It was a very stressful time that evening as the hotel did not allow us to take anything out of the rooms. ”
She spent 19 hours in jail during the filming of the first Borat Levinson and her crew decided to get out of the five districts altogether, just in case. “Finally, we talked to our lawyers,” she says. “I called the production team and said, ‘Let’s bring everyone to New Jersey tonight. It was 11 o’clock at night. I did not want a repeat of what happened to me during the first film that happened to the whole team. So while Rudy could not get the day he wanted, he will hopefully get the next best thing: an exclamation from Bakalova when she wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress next year.