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.
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HW: You were caught up in a love triangle with Tea Leoni and Greg Kinnear in this film, what did Tea bring to the mix?
RG: Well it would have just been two otherwise. Then it would have been a love line [laughs]…The fun thing about it as well and the character and how she played it so brilliantly, is that she is a woman in charge who has been hurt and this unlikely little guy comes along who she thinks is a strange, little man…the comedy comes from me just being a total buffoon and not being tongue tied. At one point I call her an idiot.
HW: Do you see playing a leading man in film as a natural progression for you?
RG: No, it wasn’t. This is sort of like a parallel career, because what I see myself, I do, I write and direct comedy or drama or write or perform stand up work and that’s sort of what I do more than anything. And being a hired actor or one of the leads or anything is very nice and flattering and all those things, but its not like I am pursuing it…If I did Die Hard I’d get stuck in that little thing. [They would say] ‘Oh, we gotta go again.’ (Laughs.) ‘We gotta get a bigger air vent. No one stand under the air vent!’
Working with David Bowie was a hoot. Click to next page to read more.
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HW: If this is a huge success, don’t you plan to pursue more movies?
RG: Well, no, because I was offered 100 films before I took this one…People get offered films all the time. Terrible films. People who have been in 10 terrible films get offered films all the time. It’s not like that’s going to suddenly stop, but it’s not what I do best…nothing is more fun than me and Steve Merchant sitting in a room and laughing about what we just said. Nothing comes close.
HW: You must appreciate the opportunities though, like working with David Bowie.
RG: Of course, of course. But not as exciting as coming up with the idea to work with one of my idols and that’s the truth. It was amazing working with Bowie and all that. But the exciting thing is I wrote a song with David Bowie. Do you know what I mean? And that’s the fun for me.
HW: So, what is scarier, to do a movie like this or walk out to 5,000 people?
RG: Well, I think live because you never know how it’s going to go and with this you always get another go…what’s scary is that you don’t want it to be a flop. And I have already caught a scent of that. I thought I wouldn’t care. And I think the film is great, I really do believe that if you are proud of the project it doesn’t matter what happens, but it does because you don’t want people to lose confidence in you to do something else and I love doing this.
HW: What else are you working on at the moment?
RG: I’m just editing This Side of the Truth. A film I wrote and directed with Matt Robinson. Just finished writing the script for the film I’m doing next year called The Man From the Pru. I am the lead in This Side of the Truth, but I’m taking a very small role in the other one, because it’s a drama and yeah. It’s funny, but it’s much more dramatic. It’s a drama like Diner. It’s a dramedy…and the podcast coming out on the 16th of September. The final series of the audio books.
Ghost Town opens in theaters Sept. 19, 2008
