Martin Scorsese asked Sacha Baron Cohen for directing advice on the set of 'Hugo'.

Baron Cohen asked the legendary director if he could shadow him on the set of the 2011 movie and was shocked when Scorsese consulted him on how to shoot a funny scene.

Speaking during the 36th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), where he received the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award, Sacha said: "At the time, Marty would direct from a tent because he didn’t want anyone to distract him. It was a six-month shoot and I knew that I wanted to know more about movie-making. I was going to make a movie called 'The Dictator', so I asked if I could sit in the tent. Amazingly, he allowed me to sit silently in the tent and would sometimes even ask my opinion on certain shots, which amazed me."

Sacha, 49, went on to praise Scorsese and fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Tom Hooper for their lack of ego.

He said: "Something that I’ve noticed with the greatest directors in the world is that there is no ego. The movie has the ego and they just wanna get the best movie. So, I remember being amazed, at one point, when Marty turned to me in front of the crew and said, 'How do you think we shoot this joke?' I was like, 'Me?! Well, I can tell you the cheesy version of shooting it.' And he went, 'Yeah, tell me.' That’s the amazing thing about him or Spielberg or even Hooper. They want the best result and they don’t care where the idea comes from."