Manchester politician Sacha Lord has been forced to deny he is Borat.
In the unlikeliest case of mistaken identity ever, the northern city’s night-time economy adviser said he had been bombarded with messages following the release of Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film last week.
The sequel to the 2006 movie sees Baron Cohen reprising his role as the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev as he interacts with real people.
Responding to those who’d mistakenly thought Lord was behind the character, he tweeted: “A few weird comments on my timeline, mainly from Americans. Please note: I am not the actor playing Borat.”
Sacha Baron Cohen originated the character of Borat on his series Da Ali G Show.
The first Borat film, directed by Larry Charles, grossed $262 million worldwide and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars.
Baron Cohen filmed the sequel during the lockdown, even spending five days in character living with “two conspiracy theorists”, which he admitted was the hardest part of making the new film.
In an interview with The New York Times, he said: “The hardest thing I had to do was, I lived in character for five days in this lockdown house. I was waking up, having breakfast, lunch, dinner, going to sleep as Borat when I lived in a house with these two conspiracy theorists.
“You can’t have a moment out of character.”
The critical response to Borat 2 has so far been positive, with the film holding an 84% rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.