April 13, 2007 - Ken Davitian has the distinction of having his private parts immortalized in the most memorable acceptance speech delivered at the 2007 Golden Globes. Accepting the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan star Sacha Baron Cohen made a point of thanking his co-star. "When I was in that scene and I stared down and saw your two wrinkled Golden Globes on my chin, I thought to myself, 'I better win a bloody award for this.' And then when my 300-pound co-star decided to sit on my face and squeeze the oxygen from my lungs, I was faced with a choice - death or to breathe in the air that had been trapped in a small pocket between his buttocks for 30 years,” said Baron Cohen. “Kenneth, if it was not for that rancid bubble, I would not be here today."
Davitian was only supposed to have had a minor role in Borat, but it just kept expanding. And the actor says he knew during the third week of filming that they were onto something special. “I walked into a room. Sacha walked in first – Borat walked in first – and then I walked in,” explained Davitian. “In Armenian I said, ‘This is a palace of the king and that is the throne of a king,’ in Armenian. He didn’t understand me. He turned around and said the same thing in English and I thought, ‘Whoa, there’s a charisma here. There’s chemistry. There’s something that they saw that I’m too naïve to know.’ And it worked.”
Every single bit of the film is improvised and working with Sacha Baron Cohen was at times tough to keep up with. But Davitian revealed it wasn’t the most difficult aspect of playing Borat’s producer. “The toughest thing was not only keeping up, it’s I understood what he was doing because he would speak English and I understood. The character didn’t understand very well, but I understood so the hardest part was keeping a straight face and not laughing. Not breaking up where people are going, ‘Man, what are you doing to me?’ And he’s talking a different thing to them and they’re freaking out, and I’m just [not saying a word and smiling].”
Although he’ll probably always be known to Borat fans as the guy who wrestled naked all over a hotel, Davitian’s moved on to his next project. Davitian landed a role in the big screen adaptation of the 1960s TV series, Get Smart. He’ll be playing Shtarker, a bad guys who's a member of KAOS.
A fan of the old TV series, Davitian campaigned for the role. “I really pushed to get into this movie,” admitted Davitian. “I really wanted to be in it because I figured the best guy in the world is actually playing Maxwell Smart. The best guy of all of them that we could think of would be Steve Carell and Steve Carell’s playing Maxwell Smart. I said, ‘I’ve got to be in this picture! How do I get in this picture?’”
Specific plot details are being kept close to the vest but Davitian did offer a few tidbits about the film. “It’s set forward, yes. But he ends up…you go back in time. You see it where he ends up having to get the clothes and finally become what he needed to become. It’s great.”
One detail Davitian refused – good-naturedly – to divulge was whether or not Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone would be seen in the movie. Laughing, Davitian said, “I’m not supposed to tell you anything!”
Filming is currently underway in Los Angeles.
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