Sacha Baron Cohen says he was attacked by a shark – ‘started hyperventilating’

Sacha Baron Cohen was once involved in a “shark attack” that left him hyperventilating.

Welcoming the Borat Actors on the latest edition of SmartLess On the podcast, hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett asked Cohen about his travels around the globe, but they got more than they bargained for when their guest blessed them with an encounter straight from the world Jaw.

He was vacationing on the French Polynesian island of Moorea at the time and decided to go shark diving, but his instructor had to swim away.

Cohen, who split from Isla Fisher in April after nearly 14 years of marriage, told the podcast trio: “I was a victim of a shark attack.” [in French Polynesia] once a kind of feeding frenzy. Back then – I think it’s illegal now – where I fed my sharks there was something called shark feeding [scuba diving license].”

Before the trip, his diving instructor donned a chain glove before breaking open a sardine to attract the sea predators. He had asked Cohen to stay with him the entire time they were underwater.

“I remember seeing drops of blood and within literally two minutes there were 12 sharks around us,” the star continued. “Then [the instructor] get that tuna head out of that bag and they start eating that thing! Then they get carried away and there’s a feeding frenzy and you can’t see anything anymore.

What really traumatized Cohen was the fact that his instructor fled the scene after losing not only his protective glove but also his regulator in the whirlpool.

“I basically started hyperventilating. I mean, that was the second time I dived,” he said. Fortunately, after navigating the surface, the commercial diver returned to depth and performed an emergency procedure to provide Cohen with supplemental oxygen.

Bateman, who was brutally attacked by a monkey in his first appearance Saturday Night Live Back in 2005, he commented on the general fear factor of sharks.

“You can see in their eyes that they’re not interested in you,” he said from diving experience. “Sharks are always scary when you have your head just above the water and don’t know what’s going on below.

“As soon as you are underwater and look a shark in the eyes and then swim away, the fear of sharks immediately disappears. I highly recommend it.”

And yet, when Cohen asked his instructor if anyone had ever been injured during a dive, he revealed that two people had actually died.