Ed Sheeran was named as one of the things that went wrong during Ali G's two-decade absence from screens, and he took it as a compliment.
Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G: Who Iz I? dropped a trailer this week, resurrecting the fictional interviewer 24 years after his last film. The character narrates his own return, listing wars, the pandemic, and Sheeran by name, before pivoting to the film's premise: a documentary built from real interviews with unsuspecting public figures, in the spirit of Cohen's late-1990s TV show.
Sheeran responded on Instagram. "Tell 10-year-old me that Ali G would put him in his movie," he wrote, adding "Restecpa," the character's signature mangling of the word "respect" that first appeared in 2002's Ali G Indahouse.
According to Billboard, the film marks Cohen's first time directing a feature himself. Previous Ali G and Borat projects were helmed by other directors. Production was kept entirely under wraps. Cohen reportedly showed up in character at Wimbledon this year without revealing the film's existence.
The plot centers on Ali G discovering his girlfriend, played by Morgana Robinson, is pregnant after he resurfaces publicly.
Not every reaction has matched Sheeran's. The trailer has stirred real objections in the United Kingdom, where critics and a cinema-boycott push have called out the character's styling, which includes a dreadlocked wig and Rasta-style hat, as racial caricature that has not aged well since Ali G's original run.
Cohen built Ali G into a defining piece of British comedy before expanding into other characters and projects, including Borat, Bruno, a Madonna video cameo, and eventually straight dramatic work in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Marvel's Ironheart.
Ali G: Who Iz I? opens in theaters Oct. 23.
