Joshua Loudermilk, one of two men apparently discredited by the new Ali G movie Ali G: Who Iz I?, has said that he was in on the joke, but that the film-makers didn't realise this.

Loudermilk, a 54-year-old aspiring actor from North Carolina, has told the Guardian he recognised star Sacha Baron Cohen early in the shoot but continued pretending to be a hard-right Maga sympathiser prepared to defend the US border at all costs.

The movie involves Loudermilk being recruited by another Cohen character, the ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, to help form a citizens' warrior force to protect US borders, making use of his top-secret new weapon: a gun disguised as buttocks.

Along with fellow recruit Michael Aboud, the chair of the El Paso county Republican party, Loudermilk joins Morad on a mission to stop the birth on US soil of the baby of a fictional South American drugs kinpin. This involves abducting a woman apparently in labour, abandoning her in a deserted medical facility, kidnapping her newborn child (a lifelike prosthetic) and driving it in a zipped bag to the border in order to deliver it by drone to Mexico.

Aboud is shown taking the decision to drop the child from a great height into Mexico rather than have it touch US soil. He has since called Cohen a "liar" and a "pervert" and expressed his intention to sue. The film repeatedly stresses that both men were "not in on it".

Loudermilk has told the Guardian he was surprised the production company did not notice social media updates he posted shortly after the shoot in which he named Cohen and expressed his excitement about the project.

But rather than being upset about his involvement, Loudermilk – who recently appeared as Squire Dap in the North Carolina Town of Hudson Fall Dinner Theatre's production of Camelot – says he welcomes the publicity boost.

"I want to use this to my benefit," he says. "I would hope Sacha would read this and laugh, like: 'Hey, you got me!' I had so much fun creating that character. I was trying to see if I was any good at acting in comedy. And I realised: 'Oh, I think I'm good at this.' And that's what I wanna do for the rest of my life."

His experience began in September 2025 when Loudermilk spotted a post on Craigslist by a body called the American Citizen Initiative (whose website is no longer active) recruiting "patriotic legal Americans" "concerned about the border crisis" who "believe that illegal immigration is out of control".

The ad, one of dozens posted across US states simultaneously, invited "real American citizens" to "attend an exclusive, hands-on event experience where you'll learn the truth about what's happening on the border and how you can make a difference". Attendees were promised $300 as well as travel expenses.

"I was like: this seems kind of weird," says Loudermilk, who describes himself as broadly apolitical. "I don't really care much about our borders. My mom's from Ireland."

Recently made redundant, his motivation for responding was primarily financial. "I know rightwing and leftwing organisations have money and will pay people to just hold a sign up. I remember thinking: I wanna get on that gravy train. I want some George Soros money. I'll pretend to be whatever. Just let me feed my family. It could have been save the whales and I would have done it."

In his application, Loudermilk fabricated hard-right views, mentioned that he had been a preacher and neglected to declare his ambitions to become a comedy actor – in part, he says, out of embarrassment. He then filled in a "silly questionnaire – very obvious, very slanted to the right".

Loudermilk was then called for a video interview, which involved the identification of left-leaning celebrities, as well as figures including Borat, Cohen's bumbling Kazakh reporter, who Loudermilk duly named.

He was also asked if he was a Trump supporter. "The funny thing is: not really. He's just a leader. But I was like: I'm going to be an improv actor so I said: 'Yeah, I support Trump!' Next thing I know they're like, 'We want you to come out to be a part of this.'

The company flew him to Ontario, California, with an initial offer of $1,000, plus food and expenses, on top of which Loudermilk received a further $700. "It was all real secretive. They frisked me down and I got in a truck to go to a karate studio."

Once he arrived, Loudermilk was greeted by security and informed an Israeli commander wanted to meet him. "That was a red flag. Why would Israeli commander be in America? I go in there and immediately I see this really tall guy with this horrible plastic surgery. My first thought was: that looks like Sacha Cohen. But I was like: nah, that can't be him."

Loudermilk's suspicions were further raised, he says, when he met his fellow recruits. "They were old, old, old white guys who were really out of shape. Everyone's wearing these Trump shirts. They didn't seem like warriors. I thought: they could probably get better people for this."

Morad then produced the top-secret new gun in the shape of large, strap-on bottom, out of which bullets are fired from the anus. Initially, Loudermilk was baffled by its logistics. "I kept thinking: no-one's gonna wear that thing because your butt's gonna be abnormally large. No one has a butt like that. Are you gonna put a butt on top of a butt? You can't run in that. And you'd have to wear some really big khaki pants."

He volunteered to be first to try the weapon out, whereupon Morad demonstrated the trigger system, which involves the pumping of an attached rubber penis. "And he kept calling it 'shmeckel'. I'm like: that's Sacha Cohen. At that moment I knew it.

"And I was like: oh no, I can't break character. I've got to go along with it. So what I decided [was] that whatever he did, I was going to take it another step further. He's not going to punk me; I'm going to trick him. So I decided to get into character and just have a good time because they're paying me."

As the plot became more "ridiculous", says Loudermilk, so his enjoyment increased. During a scene in which he, Morad and Aboud help deliver the (prosthetic) baby, the three men become covered with fake excrement. "This big blast of pooping pap," recalls Loudermilk – but he was reassured after inadvertently sampling some of the fluids. "I thought: 'This doesn't taste bad.' So I just kind of hung in there. It was disgusting, but I was having fun."

At the climax at the Mexican border, says Loudermilk, he handed the remote control to the drone to Aboud, "because that was boring. It was ridiculous – they're not flying a real baby". Instead, he "wanted to have fun with Sacha," so he grabbed the "butt-gun", yelling about the need to defend themselves, and eventually discharged fire, aided by Morad, who helps pump the penis trigger.

Loudermilk declines to defend Aboud's decision to then endanger the life of the baby by dropping it from the drone, but expresses some sympathy for his unwitting co-star.

"I felt sorry for the poor fella. Because I'm all-in and he's just kind of following me around like in a daze, like: what's happening? He was scared to death, and obviously very uncomfortable, bless his heart.

"I'd never met the guy before, but [at times] it felt he was totally freaking out on me. So I had to make him believe that I believed all this. So I would tell him, 'You're being a wimp, man. Our freedom is on the line.' I kept trying to keep him from quitting.

"But I'm surprised he didn't figure it out. Like, come on, Michael – why would they recruit you to defend our border? Think about it."

Loudermilk concedes his decision to maintain the pretence of being far-right once he had worked out the true nature of the project was in part because he "was a little offended. Like: really? You're picking on these Americans that aren't the brightest. You're gonna make fun of them and they're not gonna know any better. So I decided I needed to be their ally, even though I'm not that way."

At the end of filming, Loudermilk signed a non-disclosure agreement at the request of the production company, which he says he was not given a copy of, and which mostly related to the top-secret weapons. "They came up to me after I was done and said, 'Oh, you did so well!' I said, 'You get what you need? Can I talk about it?' They said, 'Oh no, not yet. Especially the butt-gun.'"

Loudermilk considers any such terms breached now the film is out and mentions him by name: "It's fair game." He adds that, after shooting, he had some qualms about not coming clean to them that he had twigged. "I felt a little bad. And that's why I thought: I should make a little post."

In December last year, Loudermilk posted three times on his public Facebook page about "eight hours of intense filming one on one with Sasha [sic] Cohen", as well as twice on his Instagram, which is also public.

"But they never saw it. And the fact they missed that makes it even better to me. So I guess it's on them."

Last week, representatives for the film confirmed again to the Guardian that Loudermilk was not in on the joke. They have not yet responded to a further followup question on this.

The film was released nationwide in the UK on Friday, as well as in a limited run in the US. Loudermilk, who has not yet watched it, says he is unconcerned about the prospect of recriminations from anyone upset by his apparent actions.

"That people would be disgusted is a compliment. Oh, I really did a good job, huh! I pulled it off and I was so proud of myself."