Character actor Sacha Baron Cohen has conducted a rare interview as himself with US radio DJ Howard Stern.
The funnyman is known for his outrageous onscreen personas and regularly sits for interviews as one of his many alter egos, including Ali G, Borat, Bruno and his latest creation Admiral General Aladeen, from his upcoming movie The Dictator.
But he ditched the bushy beard and military uniform he has donned for recent promotional appearances and appeared as himself, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket and a baseball cap to meet up with SiriusXM shock jock Stern on Tuesday.
Speaking in his native accent, he told the host: "I've never really done any interviews as myself. This is like the third time in my life I've done an interview out of character."
Cohen explained that he only agreed to break his routine for Stern because he's a "huge fan": "I've been following your career for 20 years. What you were doing inspired me very early on because I thought, 'Alright, this is a guy who's got balls.' The fact that you didn't mind breaking the law or upsetting people - I followed that role."
And the actor admitted he had fun being interviewed out of character.
At the end of the chat, he added: "I enjoyed it. I never do it. Maybe that'll be it. It will be an exclusive with The Howard Stern Show."