Rudy Giuliani’s infamous “shirt tuck” scene in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm led to the former New York mayor calling the cops on the crew and claiming “extortion,” according to a film producer.
At a Producers Guild of America panel, producer Monica Levinson said that the scene created some problems for the crew when Giuliani got the authorities involved after filming it.
“He claimed we were trying to extort him at the time, which — we didn’t ask for anything,” Levinson said, according to Deadline. “He called all of his New York City cops and said extortion, which was a federal crime. Very smart to bring that up.”
The scene, of course, featured the Trump adviser entering a hotel room with Borat’s daughter Bakalova for a fake interview, later putting his hand in his pants. He claimed he was tucking his shirt. After Giuliani reportedly called the cops, the hotel locked the crew out of their suite and prevented them from getting their equipment. Luckily, they managed to keep their recording of the encounter. “We would hide tapes in our pants,” Levinson said. “There’s always ways to make sure we got out the data.”
The producer added that the crew had to rent new equipment for the following day of filming, calling it a “stressful time” when the hotel locked them out.
Despite his calls for help from the authorities, Giuliani still earned a shoutout at the Golden Globes from Sacha Baron Cohen, who called him “a fresh new talent who came from nowhere and turned out to be a comedy genius.”
