The scene in the infamous “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” hotel room almost got the crew in legal trouble, said Monica Levinson.
Probably the wildest movie scene of 2020 and certainly the most talked about, the climax of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” finds Rudy Giuliani in a compromising position in front of Maria Bakalova, who plays the daughter of Kazakh journalist Borat, Tutar. According to one of the film’s producers, Monica Levinson, during a Producers Guild of America virtual panel held on Saturday, filming that same scene almost entangled the team in some legal trouble. Giuliani, who denied any bad behavior captured by the film, tried to arrest the crew, according to Levinson. (The deadline got quotes from the panel.)
“He claimed that we were trying to extort him at the time,” said Levinson. “He called all the New York cops and said, ‘Extortion’, which was a federal crime. Too smart to bring that up. Levinson also said that the hotel locked the crew out of the room where the footage was captured, although they had already moved it out of the suite.
“It always comes out first,” said Levinson. “We would hide the tapes in our pants. There are always ways to ensure that data is collected. “Still, once blocked, they could not have access to the equipment they used to film the scene, according to Levinson.
“We actually had to rent new equipment,” said Levinson. “It was a very stressful period that night because the hotel wouldn’t let us take anything out of the rooms.”
Levinson also remembered being arrested and spending 19 days in prison during the production of the original 2006 film “Borat: Cultural Learning from America to Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, an experience that led her to anticipate the situation with Giuliani.
“We ended up talking to our lawyers,” she said. “I called the production team and said, ‘We’re going to take everyone to New Jersey tonight.’ It was 11 o’clock at night. I didn’t want what happened to me in the first film to happen to the whole team ”.
“Borat” is now running for two Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, for newcomer Maria Bakalova, who was 23 at the time of filming the interview with Giuliani, although her character must have been 15 years old. Read IndieWire’s oral story about the scene here.
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