Sacha Baron Cohen Hid in a Toilet to Evade Oscar Bosses

Back in 2012, Sacha Baron Cohen showed up to the Oscars as his Dictator character and dumped an urn—which he claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong Il—all over Ryan Seacrest. Not only did Seacrest refuse to interview Baron Cohen on the red carpet this year as a result, reports Us Weekly, but Oscar producers "sat me down beforehand and said they didn't want me to do anything out of order," Baron Cohen tells Good Morning Britain, per Entertainment Weekly. That's just not his style. So before he was to present an award, Baron Cohen hid in a bathroom for 40 minutes and transformed into Ali G.

"Luckily my wife put on the Ali G beard in the disabled toilets, and we managed to get away with it," he says, adding wife Isla Fisher told everyone he had food poisoning. He was worried about how the stunt would go, but "I actually bumped into Chris Rock on the way on and pitched him the gag," he says. "He gave me the thumbs-up, so I went for it." It was a smart move, whether or not producers agree. The Guardian reports Baron Cohen was praised for highlighting the diversity debate. He joked that he was "just another token black presenter" and called the film Room "a movie about a roomful of white people." (Are these the 5 sneakiest pranksters in Hollywood?)