The story of how Business Insider got director Adam McKay talking about Sacha Baron Cohen’s Talladega Nights edit-room stint reveals an unusual arrangement: McKay handed Cohen an assistant editor and two full days to comb through every daily looking for jokes that had been left on the cutting-room floor.
McKay told Business Insider the arrangement came after an early screening left Cohen unhappy with how his footage had been assembled. ‘I told him, “Sacha, it’s an early cut, it’s only going to get better,”‘ McKay recalled. Cohen kept texting regardless. ‘He’s very obsessive,’ McKay said, before describing his offer: Cohen could review every take and flag anything he thought deserved to be in the film, with one caveat. ‘If I really don’t like a joke, I truly think it’s bad, I won’t use it.’
Cohen spent two whole days in the edit room and returned with 16 new jokes. McKay put six of them into the final cut. ‘He couldn’t believe I did that,’ McKay said.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Talladega Nights Edit Room Marathon
The casting itself had been an instinctive call. McKay and Will Ferrell found Cohen at the annual backyard basketball party hosted by comedy legend Garry Shandling. Cohen was already gaining traction in the UK with the Ali G character, and McKay said the team had seen enough of his accent work to feel confident. ‘It felt right,’ McKay said.
The role Cohen took on was Jean Girard, an openly gay French Formula One driver who serves as the principal rival to Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby, according to a character profile on the Sony wiki. McKay credited Cohen with one of the film’s most-discussed moments: it was Cohen who suggested the kiss between Bobby and Girard at the end of the picture.
The film, released on 4 August 2006 by Columbia Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing, was built around a wide ensemble. The AFI Catalog lists the supporting cast as including John C. Reilly, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams, alongside NASCAR cameos from Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and broadcast teams from NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC.
McKay and Ferrell had been building towards the film for years, having met on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. After Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in 2004, the pair began developing the NASCAR comedy quickly, with Ferrell as the egotistical driver at its centre.
From Box-Office Hit to Borat Phenomenon
Talladega Nights earned more than $160 million worldwide, exceeding expectations for an original comedy. The film also generated an estimated $88,508,640 in domestic DVD sales and approximately $677,232 in Blu-ray sales, according to The Numbers.
Cohen’s profile among American audiences rose sharply off the back of the film. Three months after its release, Borat arrived in cinemas and became a cultural sensation. Made on an $18 million production budget, the film earned $262 million worldwide, with an opening weekend of $26,455,463, according to The Numbers. Cohen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) for the role, with the film also nominated for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).
McKay noted that the collaborative edit-room approach paid off precisely because it came with a clear limit. He retained final say on every joke. Of the 16 Cohen flagged, six earned a place in the picture; the rest did not. The 20th anniversary interview marks the first time McKay has described the arrangement in detail.
Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Whether he and McKay revisit the dynamic on any future project will be the question to watch.