'Talladega Nights' director Adam McKay let a concerned Sacha Baron Cohen choose which of his jokes made it in

While making the 2006 comedy “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” writer-director Adam McKay went above and beyond to make sure Sacha Baron Cohen felt comfortable creatively.

McKay and Will Ferrell were a juggernaut in the comedy space for decades, dating back to when they met on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1990s.

After making “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” in 2004, the duo gained some clout and quickly began developing their follow-up, in which Ferrell would play Ricky Bobby, an egotistical NASCAR driver.

They developed his rival as a French Formula 1 driver named Jean Girard, but didn’t know who would be right for the part.

Then they met Cohen at the annual backyard basketball party held at comedy legend Garry Shandling’s house. “He was hot at that point with Ali G., we had seen the videos of him doing it in the UK,” McKay told Business Insider for an interview to celebrate the movie’s 20th anniversary. “We had seen Sacha do accents… it felt right.” McKay praised Cohen’s improvisational instincts, noting that he was the one who came up with the idea of Bobby kissing Girard at the end of the movie.

But the director recalled an instance where Cohen got obsessive about his material. “I remember when we did a very early screening, he was not happy with the way his stuff had been cut.

And I told him, ‘Sacha, it’s an early cut, it’s only going to get better,'” McKay recalled. “But he’s very obsessive, and he kept texting me about it,” he continued. “So I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, come by the edit room, I’ll give you one of our assistant editors, you can go through every daily and find every joke you think should have been in the cut.’ But I told him the one thing is, if I really don’t like a joke, I truly think it’s bad, I won’t use it.” Cohen took McKay up on his offer. “He came in for two whole days, and he came back with 16 new jokes,” McKay said. “In the end, we ended up finding six really good, funny moments, and I put them in the movie.

He couldn’t believe I did that.” Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. “Talladega Nights” not only became a surprise box-office hit, earning over $160 million worldwide, but also elevated Cohen’s status among American audiences.

His notoriety would only skyrocket three months after “Talladega Nights” came out when “Borat” hit theaters and became a sensation.