Sacha Baron Cohens new Showtime program, Who Is America?, has already duped a lot of victims—some deserving, and some less so. It was not until this week, though, that the show claimed its first real casualty: Jason Spencer, a Georgia lawmaker who was depicted yelling racial slurs and exposing his bare behind during a fake anti-terrorism training session, and has resigned as a result of the backlash generated by his appearance.
Spencer lost his primary in May, but had planned to serve his full term through November—despite calls for him to step down. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he may have been taken out of office regardless: Georgia Republican leaders were “researching ways to reprimand him, short of calling a special session to oust him from office.”
In the show, Spencer was seen yelling the n-word, exposing his bottom, and impersonating a Chinese tourist while using a selfie stick to take an up-skirt photo of a dummy in a burqa. Spencer indicated he was considering legal action against the show, and released a statement that said Cohen and his producers “took advantage of my fears that I would be attacked by someone” to convince him to appear and perform those acts.
“My fears were so heightened at that time, I was not thinking clearly nor could I appreciate what I was agreeing to when I participated in his class,” Spencer wrote, adding later, “I deeply regret the language I used at his request as well as my participation in the class in general. If I had not been so distracted by my fears, I never would have agreed to participate in the first place. I apologize to my family, friends, and the people of my district for this ridiculously ugly episode.”
Cohens show has only aired two episodes so far, but the list of people we know he tricked—on these and upcoming episodes—is already quite long. Still, until now, the program had not yielded such concrete consequences for those involved.
Cohens marks have offered a range of responses to the show once they realized they were tricked. Some, like Sarah Palin, have been unambiguously angry. Others have expressed excitement to be involved, while some, like Ted Koppel, have been more ambivalent. Although the veteran journalist said he can appreciate a good prank when its done well, he added, “I think theres a larger issue here, and that is if theres one thing we dont need any more of in this particular era, its people posing as documentarians. I think theres enough skepticism to go around about people who actually are reporters, who actually are documentarians. And to undermine whatever tiny little bit of confidence might be left by pulling a stunt like this . . . maybe it will make for a good comedy show. I dont know. But I dont think it helps the overall atmosphere."
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
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