Sacha Baron Cohen apologized to the people of Kazakhstan for his Borat character after years

British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen apologized to the people of Kazakhstan for the first time for the controversial "Borat" character he played in 2006. The apology comes just weeks after Cohen used the character again to promote another movie.

" FOR THE FIRST TIME I WANT TO APOLOGIZE TO THE PEOPLE OF KAZAKHSTAN"

Cohen, who first played the role of rude and racist Kazakh television reporter Borat Sagdiyev in the 2006 mockumentary 'Borat', revived this character in 2020 with 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm'. Following the release of the sequel, a group of Americans of Kazakh origin published an open letter, stating that the character had damaged the national image of Kazakhstan.

Addressing the issue in a podcast he attended, Cohen said, "I want to apologize to the people of Kazakhstan for the first time," and said that Kazakhstan's initial objections were justified. The actor admitted that Borat's appearance and accent bear no resemblance to the people of Kazakhstan.

"THE TARGET WAS THE IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE HE MEETED"

Explaining that the character was first thought to be Albanian or Moldavian, but Kazakhstan was chosen because the audience knew very little about it, Cohen argued that his main purpose was to reveal the ignorance of the people he interviewed. Reminding that foreign reporters were searching the country to find the real Borat when the movie was released, the actor stated that he also received justified complaints from the Kazakhstan Embassy. Cohen summarized the situation by saying, "The truth is that this had nothing to do with Kazakhstan. The issue was that the people I spoke to ignorantly believed that such crazy things could happen in a country they had never even heard of before."