“She was going around the talk shows and talking about how outrageous it was that we put her in the show and saying, this is disgusting and it’s on Showtime at 10 o’clock Sunday nights,” Baron Cohen told me. “She was literally promoting a show that she was not in. And I had this dilemma, which was I didn’t want to reveal that she wasn’t in the show and yet part of me wanted to correct her, because she was spreading some misinformation, which I know is quite a popular thing to do now.”

“And I was particularly worried, because obviously Ms. Palin is known for her factual accuracy,” he joked. “I mean, she was saying that I was a disgusting person, she mistakenly accused me of imitating a veteran, but the problem was the interview wasn’t very good.”

For the type of interview he conducts in character to work, he explained, “you need someone to fully engage and answer the questions,” but Palin “sort of gave these rote answers as if she was on a presidential campaign.”