Sacha Baron Cohen talks to Michele Manelis about his role in the Netflix miniseries The Spy, playing Israel's top Mossad spy Eli Cohen.
Eli Cohen was a spy who chose patriotism for his country over
his family. As a father, could you fathom that way of thinking?
Well, I think you have to remember the context. This is 1961 and it's 16 years after the end of World War II and there's a real sense of fear and terror and jeopardy. And so yeah, this is a guy who loves his wife but he's always in this dilemma of "my family or my country" - but in a way they are united. I think he was kind of justifying that by thinking, "If I'm protecting my country, I'm actually protecting the family." They are kind of one and the same thing.
Would you be a good spy? Obviously you are great at impersonations, making people believe you are somebody you are not.
I think I wouldn't like to risk being tortured. Then again, it depends who is doing it.
The show has really dark moments, but I really enjoyed the exchange of love notes between Eli and his wife. I was wondering, is that something that you and Isla do as well?
As you know, I don't really like to talk about my personal life. But through his undercover life as a spy, he's obsessed with his wife and he still has this great love for her. You've seen all these guys - James Bond and Jason Bourne - and they get women, basically have sex with them; get rid of them the next day. They are womanisers without any empathy for anyone they meet, which allows them to shoot people and dispose of people, men, women. I think Bond and Bourne are people who've got almost no empathy for anyone else.
You have made millions of people laugh …
Not in China, apparently.