Sacha Baron Cohen Holds up LesMis Movie

Sacha Baron Cohen is playing Monsieur Thénardier in the film of Les Miserables starring Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.  It has almost finished filming in the UK with a release date scheduled for December.  Every song in the musical has to be sung live with director Tom Hooper making the actors do it again and again and only accepting perfect takes.

This has proved to be hard for some of the leads who do not have trained musical theatre voices. Hugh Jackman who does have this background appearing in Oklahoma! at the National Theatre and in his One Man Show and The Boy from Oz on Broadway has finished his scenes as Jean Valjean and is now back in New York

But Sacha Baron Cohen has strained his vocal chords and has been told to rest up. meaning some scenes are being held up until he has recovered. Today’s Sun newspaper reported: “Sacha is taking some time out. It’s a real shame because the new shooting dates have resulted in some singers becoming unavailable as they have prior engagements which have to be fulfilled first.”