Comedian Cohen says he is killing off Borat
LONDON (AFP) — The actor behind controversial spoof reporter Borat has killed him off, he said in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper published on its website Friday.
Sacha Baron Cohen said that Borat, the outrageous, blundering character from Kazakhstan who earned him a Golden Globe award last year, had made his last screen appearance.
He is also killing off his second most famous character, youth presenter Ali G, who like Borat often excels at eliciting indiscreet comments from interviewees thanks to his apparently guileless interviewing style.
"When I was being Ali G and Borat, I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," he told the paper.
"It is like saying goodbye to a loved one.
"It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I "get" with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really."
The 2006 smash hit film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" offended some in the central Asian nation by portraying it as full of backward racists who drink horse urine.
The country's government was initially angered by the film, which saw the character travel through the United States in search of cultural enlightenment, but its response seemed to soften amid the publicity it brought Kazakhstan.
The makers of the movie are also facing threats of legal action from several people who say they were tricked into appearing in the mock documentary.
"Since last year I've been sued by about 3,000 people," Baron Cohen told the Telegraph.
"Some of the letters I get are quite unusual, like the one where the lawyer informed me I'm about to be sued for 100,000 dollars and at the end says, "P.S. Loved the movie. Can you sign a poster for my son Jeremy?'"
Baron Cohen's next project features Bruno, an effeminate Austrian fashion reporter.
Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat.
Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor and comedian known for his characters Borat Sagdiyev and Ali G, told Britain's ''Daily Telegraph'' on Friday that he was officially retiring both aforementioned characters. The reason for this, he said, is because of the public becoming too knowledgeable of him and his alter egos.

"It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really," Cohen stated.

Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional character who is a Kazakhstani journalist with anti-Semitic and misogynist viewpoints, and Ali G is a "gangsta" from the "Staines ghetto".

When posing as Borat or Ali G, Cohen would conduct interviews with unsuspecting people who believed that the interviews and the character were genuine. He would ask questions designed to make the interviewee look foolish or ignorant. He has showcased this method in the television program ''Da Ali G Show'' and the faux-documentary ''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Cohen generated much controversy from the nation of Kazakhstan, who claimed that Borat portrayed a negative image of the country's people. He also garnered lawsuits from the unknowing participants of his act. 

Cohen's third persona, a gay Austrian reporter named Bruno, is slated to appear in a 2008 film.