Sacha Baron Cohen Says Ironheart Team Checked His Devil Role Would Not Insult Him

Sacha Baron Cohen has described how the team behind Marvel's Ironheart offered him the part of Mephisto, the devil, and first made sure the role would not offend him as a Jewish actor. He spoke on Wednesday 21 October at New York's 92nd Street Y, according to Variety.

The event was a live conversation titled "The Power of Satire," hosted by Josh Horowitz for his interview series Happy Sad Confused. The 92nd Street Y listing said the event ran both in person and by live stream, starting at 8 PM Eastern. It also said Baron Cohen would talk about Ali G: Who Iz I?. The evening was his first appearance on the Happy Sad Confused show.

Baron Cohen said the Ironheart producing and directing team that pitched him the role was almost entirely Black. He added that the team told him they knew about the long, negative history linking Jews with the devil. They wanted to be sure he would not be insulted by the offer, he said.

Ironheart was created by Chinaka Hodge, and Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler are among its executive producers. In the series finale, Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams makes a deal with Baron Cohen's Mephisto to bring her dead best friend back to life. The finale is the only point in the series where the devil's bargain comes into focus.

Marvel Studios had not responded to Variety's request for comment on Baron Cohen's remarks at the time of publication. Variety's report, written by Antonio Ferme, carries the headline that Marvel was worried that casting a Jewish actor as the devil would be antisemitic. That phrasing is Variety's, and the account of Marvel's concern comes from Baron Cohen's own telling on stage.

Baron Cohen's comments give a rare look at how a studio weighs the history behind a character before the cameras roll. A character's old associations can shape who gets the job, and who gets asked first. Marvel's response, if it comes, will add the studio's side of that story.