Sacha Baron Cohen stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for the kind of interview that quickly turns from standard celebrity chat into controlled late-night nonsense.
The segment begins with Cohen telling the story of being mistaken for Jacob Elordi at a Gracie Abrams concert, which is already absurd enough to carry a whole interview by itself. Cohen plays the moment perfectly, leaning into the ridiculousness of being confused with one of Hollywood’s current heartthrobs while clearly enjoying how strange the comparison is.
The conversation also touches on Borat being recognised as one of the best movies of the century, a reminder of just how strange Cohen’s career really is. Few performers have built such a distinctive body of work out of character comedy, social discomfort and public chaos, and yet the cultural staying power of Borat remains enormous.
Cohen is also promoting Ladies First, his new Netflix comedy with Rosamund Pike. The film follows a chauvinistic man who wakes up in an alternate reality where women hold the social power, forcing him to experience the kind of world he once helped create from the other side. It is a broad, high-concept comedy setup, and exactly the kind of role that gives Cohen room to be both ridiculous and uncomfortable.
The interview takes its most physical turn when Cohen teaches Fallon how to weight train like he did for the film. Naturally, this ends with Fallon accidentally dropping a dumbbell on Cohen’s foot — because sometimes late-night television really does know how to write itself. It is the kind of tiny disaster that feels almost too perfectly timed to be accidental, but the awkwardness is half the fun.
For fans of Cohen’s particular brand of comic mayhem, this interview is an easy watch. It has celebrity confusion, career nostalgia, a new comedy to discuss and just enough slapstick pain to make the whole thing feel wonderfully stupid in the best possible way.
Ladies First is now streaming on Netflix.
Video source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
