Sacha Baron Cohen steps forward at last as himself

Sacha Baron Cohen received Oscar nominations for the screenplay of ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and as supporting actor in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Hello! Amy Kaufman talked to Steven Yeun and Yuh-Jung Youn about the nominations for “Minari.” I spoke to Riz Ahmed about his lead actor nomination for “Sound of Metal.” Sonaiya Kelley talked to Andra Day about her lead actress nomination for “The United States vs. Billie Holliday.” There were many notable firsts in the nominations — including Yeun as the first Asian American nominated for lead actor, Ahmed the first Muslim nominated for lead actor, the first best picture nominee with an all-Black producing team in “Judas and the Black Messiah and the first time two women were nominated for best director in the same year, with Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” and Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland.” Nevertheless, Laura Zornosa wrote about the relative lack of representation for Latinx talent in the nominations. Mary McNamara wrote about why she has reservations about celebrating even when it seems progress is being made by the Academy, saying, “It’s just that every historic ‘first’ reminds us of the long history of ‘none.’” This week’s interview is with Sacha Baron Cohen, who earned two Oscar nominations, one as supporting actor in “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and another as co-writer of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Cohen was long notorious for giving interviews only in character, never as himself. As Baron Cohen said during our conversation, “I suppose to me it’s all connected — ‘Chicago 7,’ ‘Borat’ and my advocacy — there is this common message across all three, which is the importance of truth and the danger of lies.” Thanks for reading/listening/subscribing.