‘Borat’ star Sacha Baron Cohen cast in Quentin…
To wawaweewa, or not to wawaweewa?
Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor recognized for his improv-heavy comedy personas just like the loony Kazakh journalist Borat and Ali G, has been cast in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming new play in London, The Post has discovered.
A source with information of the secretive show, set to bow in early 2027, says the actor shall be enjoying “the romantic lead,” a Douglas Fairbanks sort, in “The Popinjay Cavalier.”
Sacha Baron Cohen will star in Quentin Tarantino’s new play. Getty Images
The Post has reached out to Cohen’s rep and the manufacturing for remark.
Cohen, who has never acted onstage professionally before, is an awfully odd choose for an even odder project.
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Tarantino, the filmmaker who’s cultivated a fervent fanbase with motion pictures like “Pulp Fiction” and “eliminate Bill,” has long said he would direct 10 flicks and call it quits. His ninth was 2019’s Best Picture-nominated “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
He then announced that his ultimate movie could be called “The Movie Critic” — sounds enjoyable! — but he soon pivoted to one thing no person noticed coming: an onstage “swashbuckling comedy” in the West End.
“Django Unchained”? Quentin unhinged!
Tarantino wrote “Popinjay,” which sources said bares no resemblance to the foul-mouthed, violent movies his admirers love, and will direct it, having never staged a theatrical play before.
So, it’s a veritable first-timers membership. Risky.
Quentin Tarantino has never written or directed a play before. Getty Images
“Popinjay” is said to be a mammoth enterprise — “a movie onstage,” one source said, calling it a wannabe “Scarlet Pimpernel” — with elaborate units and myriad scenes. Another source said the show will play at the Phoenix Theatre after “Stranger Things: First Shadow” packs up its demogorgon on Dec. 26.
Cohen — who some insiders have admitted they’re not sure is up to the calls for (and traces) of a stage play — has been knee-deep in drama over the past couple years.
In 2024, actress Rebel Wilson called him an “a—hole” in her memoir “Rebel Rising” and said Cohen repeatedly tried to stress her into nude scenes on the set of “Grimsby,” which he starred in.
She then claimed Cohen was trying to thwart her press tour.
“I wrote about an a–hole in my book,” she said. “Now, said a–hole is trying to threaten me,” the “Pitch Perfect” star said on an Instagram story before figuring out him as Cohen.
A rep for Cohen denied Wilson’s claims.
And proper now in the UK, there’s a push to get the actor’s upcoming film, “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” a mockumentary in which Cohen wears dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat, barred from being shown in cinemas.
Opponents blast the satirical character as stereotypical and offensive.
I’m told Cohen was not the first selection for Tarantino’s play, and a number of big names handed.
We’ll know in a few months if the actor will once again be shouting: “Great success!”
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