Historically speaking, The Oscars have been the most important awards show in Hollywood. For that reason, most of the people who appear at the annual show treat the event with a great deal of seriousness.
Throughout Sacha Baron Cohen’s career, he has proven that he is perfectly willing to do things that other people would consider shocking. For example, part of the reason why Cohen is so rich and famous is that he has a long history of making his fellow celebrities, who are used to being treated with kid gloves, look like fools.
Given Sacha Baron Cohen’s style of humor and the serious nature of The Oscars, he always seemed like a bad fit for the awards show. Even still, there are reasons to question past reports that Cohen was “banned” from The Oscars.
The Original Claim
Even though Sacha Baron Cohen is internationally known as a comedy figure, the fact of the matter is that people need to take him seriously. After all, he believes in artistic integrity so much that he has been known to pull out of projects if things aren’t going the way he thinks they should. For that reason, the people at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had to know that any attempt to control Cohen was foolhardy. That likely is the reason that the Academy reportedly tried to ban Cohen from the 2012 Oscars.
In February of 2012, Deadline reported that Sacha Baron Cohen’s tickets to that year's Oscars had been pulled. Deadline went on to elaborate on what pulling Cohen’s tickets meant and the reasons for the Academy’s decision.
“(Cohen) is banned from attending the Oscars even though he is an Academy member and one of the stars from Hugo, Paramount’s 11-nominated movie and Best Picture contender. ‘Unless they’re assured that nothing entertaining is going to happen on the Red Carpet, the Academy is not admitting Sacha Baron Cohen to the show,’” “The reason is that a proposal reached the Academy for Baron Cohen to strut the Red Carpet in full costume as his title character in the upcoming Paramount comedy The Dictator.”
The Academy’s Response And Results
After reports of The Academy banning Sacha Baron Cohen from the 2012 Oscars went public, a lot of observers were pretty surprised by their actions. After all, The Academy is set up to celebrate the movie industry which means that it should value artistic expression. However, The Academy quickly came out to say that all of the controversy was much ado about nothing as they hadn’t actually banned Cohen at all.
While speaking to a reporter from The Holywood Reporter, an Academy spokesperson unequivocally stated that “we haven’t banned him” in reference to Sacha Baron Cohen. Still, that spokesperson was perfectly happy to admit that The Academy had informed Cohen that any plans for him to show up as his character from The Dictator were “inappropriate”.
Ultimately, Sacha Baron Cohen would get his way as he would show up and walk the 2012 Oscars red carpet dressed as his character from The Dictator. In fact, Cohen was even trailed by two women dressed up as his characters’ bodyguards and he carried an urn he claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong-il. Evidently not content that he was already standing out among the sea of stars, Cohen purposely spilled the supposed ashes on Ryan Seacrest.
An Oscars Return
When Sacha Baron Cohen spilled “ashes” on Ryan Seacrest at the 2012 Oscars, a lot of people thought he’d gone too far. As a result, if The Academy never welcomed Cohen back to their annual event, a lot of observers would have completely understood. Despite that, in 2016 Cohen was allowed to attend the event and be part of the show.
When Sacha Baron Cohen was asked to appear onstage at the Oscars, it was made clear to him that producers wanted him to appear as himself. Of course, it was pretty naïve of them to think they could tell Cohen what to do as he would shock them by appearing as his character Ali G instead. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, Cohen’s wife Isla Fisher explained how she helped him to pull off the memorable stunt.
“He said ‘I want to sneak in and do Ali G but I can’t find any of the costume on my body because they’re gonna put me through metal detectors and be ultra suspicious. ’Sweetie, will you fit giant yellow glasses, a hat, a glove, and a beard inside your spanx?’” After smuggling in Cohen’s outfit and makeup, Fisher met her husband in the bathroom and helped him get ready which made her feel bad. “I had to lie to everyone, which made me feel really guilty, and then they gave me all these Tums, so I had to eat them so it wouldn’t look suspicious. Then he popped out with full Ali G gear and bolted on stage with Olivia Wilde. I saw her face and she was like, ‘oy vey.’”
Now that Sacha Baron Cohen has used the Oscars as a backdrop for his stunts twice, it seems entirely likely that he may be banned as he once claimed.