‘This is not AI': why oiled-up abs are the least radical thing about Sacha Baron Cohen's reinvention

The Guardian

3 days ago

It is a rite of passage for almost every comic actor working today. You spend years – sometimes even decades – curating a reputation as a happy go lucky, physically anonymous everyman. Then Marvel comes knocking, and you realise that you might have to share a scene with Chris Hemsworth, and next to him you're going to look like a weedy twig-worm hybrid. The next thing you know, you're all over the internet, greased up and flexing. Which is a very long way of saying: Borat's got abs now.
Sacha Baron Cohen is this month's Men's Fitness magazine cover model. His pecs are popping. His biceps are bulging. His forearms look like a sack of live snakes. His pants are, conservatively, two and half inches lower than they really should be. His entire torso looks like it's been rolled around in margarine. He is, to use his own words, 'hard launching my mid-life crisis'.
And this is all because of Marvel. Sacha Baron Cohen stars in the Disney+ TV show Ironheart as Mephisto. Which might be news to a lot of you, since Ironheart was released right at the moment that superhero fatigue hit such terminal velocity that president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige essentially chose to promote the Fantastic Four movie by promising everyone that he wasn't going to make as many TV shows any more. But, really, that's beside the point.
Because, of all the shredded topless comic actor torso reveals, the only one to go on to any substantial screen time was Chris Pratt. It has now been 12 years since he took his top off for Instagram to show his transformation from 'the schlubby one from Parks and Recreation' to 'man with abdominal muscles', and he has since been in six MCU films, a Christmas special and several other projects that relied on him looking ripped.
Contrast that with Kumail Nanjiani, who went from a round-faced, Oscar-nominated writer in 2017 to looking like a vacuum-sealed walnut bag in 2019. And this because he had been cast in The Eternals, in which he effectively had a bit part as one of about 300 new superheroes. Aside from a voice acting gig in one episode of What If…?, that has been the sum total of his MCU output.
Which is still a ton compared to Sacha Baron Cohen, whose Mephisto appeared fully clothed in just one episode of a television show that has left no cultural footprint whatsoever. The point is that, while a Marvel gig might ostensibly be the impetus to start pumping iron, it isn't necessarily the end goal. For all anyone knows, we may never see Mephisto again. But the image of Cohen clutching a pair of dumbbells while being covered in more goose fat than a cross-channel swimmer will live for ever.
Especially since his earlier career relied upon him showing off as much of his body as he could. Go back and look at photos of him in a mankini as Borat, and you'll see what a change this is. That said, despite being leaner and better defined now, those pictures demonstrate that the most effective element in his transformation may well have been a comprehensive chest wax.
Still, let's allow him this moment. If nothing else, Cohen is being neatly self-deprecating about how he looks on Instagram, quipping: 'Some celebs use Ozempic and some use private chefs, others use personal trainers. I did all three,' and 'This is not AI. I really am egotistical enough to do this.' And if it means that he's moving away from comedy – there's no way that Borat can ever wear another mankini unless he's going to aggressively rebrand himself as a thirsty divorcee – then so be it. Between Ironheart and last year's Disclosure, it seems like that's where he was headed anyway.
Besides, this reveal puts Sacha Baron Cohen one step closer to the next chapter in the MCU playbook: complaining about how horrible it is to look like this. Chris Pratt did it, claiming that he had to drink so much water that his life became a 'nightmare'. Kumail Nanjiani did it, making a colossal show of getting to eat some cake like a normal person. And so it will inevitably be with Sacha Baron Cohen. That is, unless Mephisto becomes a central part of the MCU in the future. If that's the case, the brand sponsorship with Veet must be just around the corner.