Ali G Stooge Joshua Loudermilk Says He Fooled Sacha Baron Cohen

Joshua Loudermilk, the 54-year-old aspiring actor named in the new Ali G film Ali G: Who Iz I?, has told the Guardian he recognised Sacha Baron Cohen during filming and pretended to be a hard-right Maga sympathiser anyway. "He's not going to punk me; I'm going to trick him," Loudermilk said.

The film repeatedly states that Loudermilk and fellow recruit Michael Aboud, chair of the El Paso county Republican party, were "not in on it". Last week, representatives for the film confirmed to the Guardian that Loudermilk was not in on the joke. They have not responded to a follow-up question.

Loudermilk tells a different story.

How did the recruitment work?

In September 2025, Loudermilk answered a Craigslist ad placed by a body called the American Citizen Initiative, whose website is no longer active. The ad sought "patriotic legal Americans" "concerned about the border crisis" and promised attendees $300 plus travel expenses. It was one of dozens posted simultaneously across US states.

"I was like: this seems kind of weird," said Loudermilk, who describes himself as broadly apolitical. "I don't really care much about our borders. My mom's from Ireland."

Recently made redundant, he needed money. "I know rightwing and leftwing organisations have money and will pay people to just hold a sign up," he said. "It could have been save the whales and I would have done it."

He fabricated hard-right views in his application, mentioned a past as a preacher, and concealed his comedy-acting ambitions. A video interview followed, requiring him to identify left-leaning celebrities and figures including Borat, Cohen's Kazakh reporter, whom he duly named. Asked if he supported Trump, he improvised: "Yeah, I support Trump!"

The production flew him to Ontario, California, offering $1,000 plus food and expenses, on top of which he received a further $700. "It was all real secretive. They frisked me down and I got in a truck to go to a karate studio."

When did he realise it was Cohen?

Loudermilk was told an Israeli commander wanted to meet him. He walked in and saw "this really tall guy with this horrible plastic surgery". His first thought was that it looked like Sacha Cohen, but he dismissed it.

Then Col Erran Morad, Cohen's ex-Mossad character, produced the film's central prop: a top-secret gun disguised as strap-on buttocks, fired from the anus via a pumping rubber penis Morad called a "shmeckel". "At that moment I knew it," Loudermilk said.

Rather than break character, he escalated. "Whatever he did, I was going to take it another step further," he said. "I decided to get into character and just have a good time because they're paying me."

The plot sent Loudermilk, Aboud and Morad on a mission to stop a fictional South American drug kingpin's baby being born on US soil. This involved abducting a woman apparently in labour, abandoning her at a deserted medical facility, kidnapping the prosthetic newborn and flying it by drone into Mexico. Aboud is shown choosing to drop the child from height rather than let it touch US soil. He has since called Cohen a "liar" and a "pervert" and expressed his intention to sue.

Loudermilk declines to defend that decision but sympathises with Aboud. "He was scared to death, and obviously very uncomfortable, bless his heart," he said, adding that he kept Aboud from quitting with lines like: "You're being a wimp, man. Our freedom is on the line."

What does this change for the film?

At the end of filming, Loudermilk signed a non-disclosure agreement he says he was never given a copy of, largely concerning the weapons. In December, he posted three times on public Facebook about "eight hours of intense filming one on one with Sasha [sic] Cohen", and twice on Instagram. The production, he says, never noticed.

He considers the terms breached now the film names him: "It's fair game."

Loudermilk, who appeared as Squire Dap in the North Carolina Town of Hudson Fall Dinner Theatre's production of Camelot, has not yet watched the film. He welcomes the publicity and is unconcerned about recriminations. "That people would be disgusted is a compliment," he said. "I pulled it off and I was so proud of myself."

His closing pitch is aimed at the star himself: "I would hope Sacha would read this and laugh, like: 'Hey, you got me!'"

The film was released nationwide in the UK on Friday, with a limited US run, and its central claim about Loudermilk now rests on the word of its producers against his.