Rudy Giuliani Called The Cops On ‘Borat’ Crew, Claims Producer

After a now-infamous hotel scene involving Rudy Giuliani and Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a producer from the movie revealed that the former New York City mayor called the cops on the crew after filming.

“He claimed we were trying to extort him at the time, which – we didn’t ask for anything,” Monica Levinson said at a Producers Guild of America panel. “He called all of his New York City cops and said extortion, which was a federal crime. Very smart to bring that up.”

At the time of filming, Borat crew were locked out of Giuliani’s suite after he created a ruckus in the immediate aftermath of shooting, but the crew were able to get the footage out by then.

“That’s always out first,” Levinson said. “We would hide tapes in our pants. There’s always ways to make sure we got out the data.”

While the film equipment was still stuck in Giuliani’s suite, the production team had to find a solution to film more scenes the next day. “We actually had to rent new equipment,” Levinson revealed. “It was a really stressful time that evening because the hotel wouldn’t let us take anything out of the rooms.”

Levinson, who spent 19 hours in jail while filming the first Borat movie in 2016, didn’t want her crew to have the same experience this time around. “We needed up confabbing with our lawyers. I called the production team and said, ‘Let’s get everyone to New Jersey tonight.’ It was 11 o’clock at night. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened to me on the first movie happening to the entire crew,” she said.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was released on Amazon Prime in October, the hotel scene quickly went viral. The film won several Golden Globe awards in February and received two Oscar nominations.