Sacha Baron Cohen has scared he was “scared” about what would happen in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, during a scene with Rudi Giuliani.

• READ MORE: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm review: how the controversial Kazakh journalist got woke

Giuliani appeared in a controversial scene with actress Maria Bakalova, who plays Baron Cohen’s daughter in the movie sequel which was released last October on Amazon Prime Video.

Bakalova poses as a 15-year-old journalist interviewing Giuliani, who was former US President’s Donald Trump’s lawyer, about the US president’s COVID-19 response. The former New York City mayor was filmed in an allegedly inappropriate position before Baron Cohen’s character barges in on them to end the interview. Giuliani has called the scene a “complete fabrication”.

Baron Cohen has opened up about the moment more. Affleck himself said he was “shocked by the Giuliani interview, and the subsequent sort of bedroom weirdness that happened,” adding: “I really wonder whether you came running in because you thought, ‘If I let this go any longer, something really horrible is going to happen.”

Baron Cohen explained:  “I never thought that he was actually going to go into the room with her.

“I mean, I was hoping for the movie they would,” Baron Cohen continued. “But also as a producer and a director, I have an actress there who I need to look after — and protect as well — because we’re putting her in a situation with a powerful man who may or may not have been in this situation beforehand.”

He added: “I got the instruction to run in there,” Baron Cohen said. “I didn’t know that he was on the bed.”

Affleck then responded saying “It was shocking! And it appeared as ‘we better go in now, before this turns into something that is so horrible that we can’t even put it in the movie — it becomes evidence in a court case,’ or something.”

Baron Cohen replied: “Yeah. We were scared that it would veer into an even more ugly situation.”

Asked to explain the scene in an interview with The Los Angeles Times earlier this month (January 21), actress Bakalova said: “I knew who [Giuliani] was. I was afraid because Rudy is a lawyer, and he is the president’s lawyer. I am not an American and don’t know about American politics.

“But I knew that as an actor, it was my duty to do this scene to save the movie. I also knew that I wasn’t alone in the room because Sacha was hiding there. I knew that if something happened, I could make my exit.

She added: “But to be honest, my heart was definitely racing because it was an intense situation. The movie has been out for a few months, and everyone can see it and decide for themselves what to accept and believe.”