Cohen (who's rather handsome when not in character!) spoke with BBC reporter Will Gompertz in Cannes, citing a few of his favorite dictators, so to speak:
"I had always found Colonel Gaddafi hilarious, and I wanted to do a character that was inspired by him. I had all these other ludicrous characters like Türkmenbaşy, who was the president and dictator of Turkmenistan, who renamed the day Thursday and the word for bread after his mother. When the doctor told him to give up smoking, he banned smoking from the whole country because he didn’t want to be reminded of cigarettes. And then you had someone like Kim Jong-il who claimed to have hit nine holes in one in his first ever game of golf. And obviously Colonel Gaddafi who had these 30 virgin guards, dressed unintentionally like a 60-year-old woman and would often break wind when being interviewed for the BBC..."
To read Movieline's review of The Dictator, head here.
[via BBC]