WATCH: Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘deadly’ prank at BAFTAs
Jewish comic actor stuns audience when he pretends to kill elderly wheelchair-bound woman by "accidentally" pushing her off stage.
By JTASalma Hayek, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher at BAFTAs 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
Sacha Baron Cohen killed when he took the stage at the BAFTA Los Angeles Jaguar Britannia Awards Saturday night. Literally — he killed. An elderly woman.At least that’s what everyone thought for a minute there.The Jewish comic actor, this year’s recipient of the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy, was being presented with his award by Grace Cullington, an 87-year-old wheelchair-bound woman billed as Charlie Chaplin’s oldest living co-star.Cullington bestowed upon Baron Cohen a cane she said belonged to Chaplin. Baron Cohen then proceeded to use the cane as a prop in an impromptu Chaplin impersonation. All very sweet, until the cane broke, causing him to fall…into the wheelchair. Cullington was thrown off the stage, and, supposedly, to her death.“Grace Collington is the oldest, sorry, was the oldest… I dedicate my award to her,” he said of his victim, according to Deadline. “It’s obviously a tragedy, but on the bright side what a great way to go. She’ll probably make the Oscars In Memoriam section… Anyway tonight is not about her, it’s about me,”It was, of course, a prank. The lowdown on “Cullington” from the Los Angeles Times: “The senior citizen was actually a stuntwoman, and the only Cullington from the silent era was Margaret Cullington, who had a small part in Chaplin’s'A Dog’s Life.’ She died in 1925.”We’re not sure what’s more impressive, Baron Cohen’s envelope-pushing shenanigans or a senior citizen stuntwoman.
