Culture

Sacha Baron Cohen Explains Sarah Palin Interview That Never Aired

The "Who Is America?" scene sparked conservative outrage and lawsuits.

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks during the 2016 Western Conservative Summit the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, July 01, 2016. It is the 7th annual Western Conservative Summit.

By Ariel Scotti / December 21, 2018 5:00 am

Sarah Palin gave Sacha Baron Cohen and his show, Who is America? an unintended bounty of free press when she publicly slammed him for tricking her into an “evil, exploitive” and “sick” interview.

That 2.5-hour-long interview, which featured Cohen as a character he dubbed Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., a citizen journalist who runs the website Truthbary.org, never aired — although many other embarrassing moments for several right-wing lawmakers did, Esquire reported.

Palin claimed that Cohen was posing as a wounded veteran who relied on a mobility scooter. But this was not the case, Showtime argued, as Cohen “stated that he is not and uses a mobility scooter to conserve his energy.”

Still, the actual interview never made it to TV. But Cohen and the Who is America? producers still found a way to include the former Governor of Alaska into the show, thanking her for being a “Special Publicity Consultant (Inadvertent).”