Sacha Baron Cohen has courted his fair share of controversy in his time, from Borat, to Bruno, even back as far as Da Ali G Show. However, this time he has had to draw the line.
On his most recent show - the fantastic Who Is America? - Cohen ridiculed politicians, made gun lovers angry, and even tried to detect paedophiles. However, it was one interview with a concierge that led him to declare 'enough is enough'.
The interview saw Cohen in character as Gio Monaldo, one of his characters from the show, but everything got altogether too real when the concierge started to help Cohen's character work out how to silence a boy that he had molested (not really, obviously).
Speaking to Deadline, Cohen recalled: "We were shooting some of this at the time of Harvey Weinstein.
"We wanted to investigate how does someone like Harvey Weinstein get away with criminality, essentially. And the network that surrounds him. During the interview, I revealed that basically Gio has molested an eight-year-old boy.
"Now, mind you, this is extreme comedy and we thought that the guy would leave the room. Instead, this concierge stays in the room and I go, listen, you've got to help me get rid of the problem. And this guy starts advising Gio how to get rid of this issue."
He continued: "We even at one point talk about murdering the boy, and the concierge is just saying, 'Well, listen, I'm really sorry. In this country, we can't just drown the boy. This is America, we don't do that'. And then, in the end, he puts me in touch with a lawyer who can silence the boy. It became really dark stuff."
That's pretty bad to begin with, but according to Cohen it got even worse after that. In fact, by the end of it he had to lose the idea of getting a decent segment for his show altogether and hand the footage over to the FBI.
Cohen continued: "At the end of the interview I say, listen, I want to go out and celebrate now. Can you get me a date for tonight?
"He says, 'What do you mean, a date?' I go, you know, like a young man. He says, 'Well, what kind of age?' I say, lower than Bar Mitzvah but older than eight.
"And he says, 'Yeah, I can put you in touch with somebody who can get you some boys like that.'
"We thought, perhaps there's a paedophile ring in Las Vegas that's operating for these very wealthy men.
"And this concierge had said that he'd worked for politicians and various billionaires. But in the end the FBI decided not to pursue it."
Jesus Christ.
Featured Image Credit: PA/Who Is America?Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, US News