'Ghost Town': Q&A with Ricky Gervais
By Emily Christianson, Hollywood.com Staff
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Friday, September 19, 2008
He’s an unlikely leading man in a romantic comedy, but somehow Ricky Gervais’ awkward style transitions well to the big screen in his new movie Ghost Town. The comedian, best known for his roles in the BBC’s The Office and Extras, stars as lonely dentist Dr. Bertram Pincus. Unfortunately for Pincus, a rather curmudgeonly character, he dies temporarily during a routine exam, leaving him with the unusual side effect of seeing dead people.
Hollywood.com caught up with Gervais to find out more about Ghost Town, his career and more.
Hollywood.com: Ricky you are a master …
Ricky Gervais: I already like it. I already like it. Now at one of the other junkets one of the journalists said, ‘Now, in this film you had these amazing, manky dentist teeth. What was that like?’ [I said] ‘They are my teeth.’ [She replied] ‘No they are not.’ ‘Yeah.’ And she went red and I went, ‘Don’t worry about it’ [laughs]. ‘You think I walk around and put these in? I’m English.’
HW: You are a master of bad communication onscreen. Do you have a technique for those jokes or does it come out of improvisation?
RG: I think one of the big things with The Office was I wanted to make it very natural because it was meant to be a fake documentary. So, we were slaves to the realism and I think the biggest crime in TV is the realism of the way people talk to each other. They stand side arm, get close and look each other into the eye and they talk and they do their line and then someone else does their line and that’s not the case. We interrupt. We digress. We fluff our lines. We do all that and I think that goes in and you realize it’s a more pleasing piece of voyeurism.
Does Gervais even WANT to be a leading man? Click to the next page to read more.