Sacha Baron Cohen Sore Throat Shut Down ‘Les Mis’ Filming

Sacha Baron Cohen lost his voice during the filming of Les Miserables it is now being reported, and his inability to sing forced the production to shut down for a week while he recuperated from a sore throat.

Director Tom Hooper, who also helmed the Oscar winning The King’s Speech, insisted that all the actors sing live when the the cameras were rolling, so he was unwilling to let the Borat star (or anyone else for that matter) lipsync.

Cohen, who plays Thenardier in the film, told Deadline Hollywood that after a month of long takes under Hooper’s shooting schedule, he started to lose his voice.

” ‘And I said to Hooper, and this is actually a testament to him, ‘Fine, I’ll just mime it. I’ve got the track of me singing and I’ll just mime it.’ And he said ‘Absolutely not. It has to be sung live.’ And so they shut down the movie. They shut it down for a week during which time I was forbidden from speaking. I was on voice rest. And they brought in Chris Martin’s vocal teacher; who’s the head of voice at the Royal Academy of Music to train me up again in three days for the ‘Master Of The House.’ But when you see the first take of ‘Master Of The House’ it sounds like I’m a drunk guy who’s got a croaky voice but that actually was me with a very croaky voice. Tom Hooper found himself with Helena Bonham Carter and a soft-voiced, stumbling English actor; it was like The King’s Speech all over again.”

The film adaption of the Les Miserables musical officially hit the movie screens on Christmas Day. As The Inquisitrpreviously reported, the film got a standing ovation when it was screened for the first time in New York City in late November and has generally been receiving good notices around the country.

Cohen also revealed that at the beginning of his career, he auditioned — along with about 300 other actors — for a part in the chorus of the stage play but didn’t get the part.

Are you looking forward to seeing Les Miserables?