Sacha Baron Cohen says the team behind Marvel’s Ironheart checked with him when they offered him the role of Mephisto, worried that casting a Jewish actor as the devil could be seen as antisemitic. Baron Cohen shared the story Wednesday night during a live Happy Sad Confused conversation with Josh Horowitz at New York’s 92nd Street Y, as Variety reported.
“It was a wonderful meeting when I was offered it,” he said. “It was primarily, I think, an almost entirely Black producing and directing team. And they said, ‘We want to offer you Mephisto, but we are aware of the negative association of Jews historically with the devil, and we want to make sure that you’re not insulted by us offering this.’ It was such an amazingly considerate, empathetic thing to say. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good.'”
“A Moment Of Being Seen”
He went on to explain what the gesture meant to him. “I think for the Jews out there, sometimes we don’t feel seen,” he said. “We don’t feel like people can empathize with us, that we are suffering too. And so to have this entirely Black producing and directing team be so empathetic, was a moment of being seen. It was an amazing experience.”
The concern the team raised is an old one. Depicting Jewish people with horns and other devilish traits is a centuries-old antisemitic stereotype, and the producers told him they were aware of that history before he ever said yes.
Mephisto In Ironheart
Mephisto, inspired by the devil figure Mephistopheles, is known in Marvel Comics for tricking heroes into deals, often for their souls. Baron Cohen played him in Ironheart, the six-episode Disney+ series that premiered in June 2025, and in the finale, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams strikes a bargain with him to bring her late best friend back from the dead.
Ironheart was created by Chinaka Hodge, with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler among its executive producers. It was released under the Marvel Television banner, the same label behind VisionQuest, which premiered on Disney+ this month.
Baron Cohen is currently on tour promoting Ali G: Who Iz I?, and he told the story as part of a live taping of Horowitz’s interview podcast. Marvel Studios did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
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