Iwon.com Interview With Ricky Gervais

Office Star's New Alias
by David Hochman


TV Guide Online: Aside from The Office, you haven't really acted before. What was it like starring in a big TV action-drama?
Ricky Gervais: The hardest part was keeping straight-faced. Everybody around me was in black and cool and wearing Gucci and Armani and guns, and there I was in a jumper looking like a country fisherman. I couldn't take myself seriously. I just pretended to be Jack Bauer from 24.

TVGO: Who do you play?
<!--spoilerbs--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>SPOILER </td></tr><tr><td id='SPOILER'><!--spoilerbe-->Gervais: All I can tell you is he's a very, very bad man indeed. An international terrorist. Let's just say he's somebody I most certainly wouldn't like to sit next to on an airplane.<!--spoileres--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--spoileree-->

TVGO: Still, it sounds like a pretty cushy gig compared to the BBC.
Gervais: I admit, it was hard not to become a diva. The first day, I was intimidated. The next day, it was old hat. The third day, I was blasé and by the fourth, they were lucky I showed up.

TVGO: Is Jennifer Garner as beautiful as she appears on TV?
Gervais: Not compared to me, actually. People will realize why they had to get me on the show. They needed my body.

TVGO: What was your most surreal Hollywood moment of the week?
Gervais: Aside from Jennifer Aniston saying the name "Ricky Gervais" [when she announced the Golden Globe winner], it was looking out in the audience and seeing Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Jude Law staring silently at me. All I could tell myself was, "Say something, you idiot!"

TVGO: What did you learn about Hollywood?
Gervais: Contrary to popular belief, people in Hollywood aren't hung up on agents and helpers and how they look. At least not all the time. But more to the point, I realized I am a writer and not an actor.

TVGO: Does this mean you're not staying stateside?
Gervais: I don't want to pop up as a Mr. Brit on every other television program. I've done it once. Now I need to go home to where it rains and where I can walk everywhere.

TVGO: If NBC's upcoming version of The Office goes badly, will you care?
Gervais: Nope, because it doesn't matter to me. I've done my bit. I wish them all the luck in the world. Two hundred and fifty million Americans don't know me or The Office. It's like somebody doing a cover of your song. You don't hang about the studio going, "No wait, don't sing it like that. Softer. Softer!" So my life's not going to change
 
I'm so so SO annoyed that they're doing an American version of The Office. Why do we have to ruin everything?!?! The British version is perfect, why can't they just air that? Don't they remember what happened with Coupling!?!? :madfire:
 
Back
Top