'Borat 2' director reveals Rudy Giuliani was the film's target from the start of production

• "Borat 2" director Jason Woliner told Insider from the very start of production, it was filmmaker Sascha Baron Cohen's main goal to get Rudy Giuliani on film.
• "Giuliani was the name from day one," he said. "Rudy was the name in the first version [of the script] I read."
• Woliner said what none of them planned was that Giuliani would have such a high profile when the movie was about to come out.
• He believes the footage of Giuliani in the movie helped to tarnish his credibility when he was trying to push out the claim that Hunter Biden was talking to Ukraine officials back when his father, president-elect Joe Biden, was vice president.
• "From my vantage point, it discredited anything he was trying to do," Woliner said.

Sacha Baron Cohen always seems to wow audiences when it comes to how successful he is in duping high-level politicians and celebrities for his comedy. But he might have hit his zenith with "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," streaming now on Amazon.

In the "Borat" sequel, in which Baron Cohen returns to play the misguided Kazakhstani journalist, the movie concludes with him racing to save his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), who is planning to give herself to president Donald Trump's personal lawyer and former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani.

Borat gets there in time, but not before Giuliani seemingly inappropriately touches Tutar and at one point lays down on a bed and puts his hands in his pants while she stands next to him (Giuliani claims he was just tucking his shirt into his pants).

Giuliani, who was not aware he was being filmed, thought he was showing up to be interviewed about the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in reality, it was the culmination of months of planning to get Giuliani in the movie, which went all the way back to the start of production.

"Here's the craziest thing: Giuliani was the name from day one," "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" director Jason Woliner told Insider with a big laugh. "Rudy was the name in the first version [of the script] I read."

But what no one had anticipated was that Giuliani would be as prominent in the public eye as he was when the movie was about to premiere.

"For the year and a half we were making this, he wasn't at the level of prominence he is now," Woliner said. "But suddenly just before this came out, he was trying to make a big splash."

Woliner is referring to Giuliani pushing a story that then-presidential nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was communicating with Ukraine officials back when his dad was vice president. The story turned out to be riddled with disinformation and questioned by many publications, including Insider, and Woliner believes the Giuliani footage in the movie also helped discredit the politician.

"A few days later The Guardian came out with the piece on his scene in the movie and that just blew up," he said. "And from my vantage point, it discredited anything he was trying to do."

Baron Cohen has said that his intention with releasing "Borat 2" around the presidential election was to show Americans what four years of Trump as president has done to the country.

So, if Woliner's theory is correct: mission accomplished.

"Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" is available now on Amazon Prime Video.