Isla Fisher is doubled over with laughter as she describes the time she took her father and stepmother to visit Sacha Baron Cohen on set in Cape Town, where he was shooting a movie. “We walked on set and my husband’s head popped out of an elephant’s vagina and he said, ‘Hi, honey’.” She shakes her head as she wipes away the tears. “I just thought, ‘Why didn’t I read the call sheet or text to say we were on our way?’ ”
The scene is typical of his brand of humour — a level of almost unthinkable provocation and absurdity that has underscored his performances as multiple fictional characters — most notably Ali G, Borat and Brüno. In the 2016 movie in question, Grimsby,