David Brent is back
Ricky Gervais talks to Garry Maddox about reviving The Office’s David Brent in Life on the Road.
‘‘Ican hardly hear you,’’ says Ricky Gervais. ‘‘Where are you?’’ It’s morning in England when the comic, writer and director, creator of The Office, Extras and other successful sitcoms, calls.
In Australia, it’s Saturday night so I’ve stepped out of dinner at a Queensland holiday spot to ask about his new movie, David Brent: Life on the Road. And no sooner has Gervais started talking about how some people have always confused him with his fictional creation from The Office when a family of tourists descend from nowhere and start playing pingpong two metres away. Pock, pock, pock. Yeeee-ah! Pock, pock, pock.
‘‘Do you want to do this another time?’’ Gervais says. ‘‘I can hardly concentrate with that noise. I’m really sorry.’’ It takes a minute to get away from the clatter, roaming around the resort, finding an ideal interview spot is blocked by a locked door then heading into the darkness of a garden. ‘‘Hello?’’ says Gervais. ‘‘Hello?’’
In what is starting to feel like a comedy sketch, I realise I’ve knocked the phone onto mute and he can’t hear me. Ricky Gervais aims to put a bit of hope and humanity into all his characters, whatever their flaws. ‘‘Should we do this at a different time?’’ he says. ‘‘I don’t think this is good for you.’’
I try one more time. Distracted by the chaos, Gervais wants another take at answering the question about people confusing him with David Brent. Given I’m trying to balance on some kind of tree stump in the dark, phone in one hand, dictaphone and notepad in the other, that’s perfectly fine with me.
‘‘Some do,’’ Gervais says. ‘‘But they’re stupid. Some people send wreaths when someone dies in a soap opera because they just don’t understand it.
‘‘The confusion comes with stand-up as well. If you do anything that’s a slight persona or you’re using any sort of irony or satire, some people are going to misunderstand it. They’re going to think it’s your views.
‘‘But I don’t think you should legislate against stupidity.
‘‘I think you have to do your thing and know that most intelligent people will understand what you’re doing.
‘‘If you water it down and you make it so obvious, you’ve lost all the bite. You’ve lost all the satire.’’
Gervais is warming to the subject. ’’I do this for me and likeminded people. If people don’t get it, I can’t be bothered.’’
Twelve years on from The Office, the hit British mockumentary that won six Bafta Awards, two Golden Globes and spawned an American version, the still excruciating David Brent acts on his dream of rock stardom in the movie.
Taking unpaid leave from his job as salesman for feminine hygiene products, he sets out on a road trip with a group of hired musicians to perform self-penned songs such as Please Don’t Make Fun of the Disableds and Native American. With the documentary crew from The Office filming, humiliation piles on humiliation.
Gervais, who has written, directed and produced the movie as well as playing Brent, says he always knew he would bring the character back.
‘‘I knew I wouldn’t do The Office again,’’ he says. ‘‘That would be a bit crazy: the same people sitting in the same desks for 15 years in the same paper merchants.
‘‘But it sort of happened by chance. I brought him back for a little Comic Relief sketch on the 10-year anniversary of The Office and I got sort of rehooked. It was great leaving it that long in retrospect because the world had changed. The movie is about the world changing behind David Brent’s back.’’
Working in a dog-eat-dog sales team after a breakdown, Brent desperately wants to be famous.
‘‘People live their lives like open wounds to be famous-ish,’’ Gervais says. ‘‘It’s a much more aggressive demanding game. And documentary has changed as well. They’re more demanding. People get on Big Brother by promising they’ll be badly behaved so people are rewarded for being bad.
‘‘David can’t compete with that in the real world because he’s sort of a decent bloke and now he’s in a room full of alpha males, so it’s a harder game for him and he’s slightly out of time and place.’’
Picking up the character again was easy.
‘‘The goatee helps,’’ Gervais says. ‘‘But I fall into him very easily. I’ve lived with him so long. He existed before The Office even. So he’s quite easy to slip into.
‘‘The clothes are different. He suffers for his fashion. I don’t. I walk around in pyjamas and slippers all day, whereas he still tries to squeeze into cowboy boots and Cuban heels and tight jeans. It’s all about him trying to be something he’s not and being slightly uncomfortable with himself.
‘‘So I didn’t have to remember who David Brent was. We’re all a bit David Brent. We all get a bit nervous sometimes. We all say the wrong thing. We all want to be loved and some people think we’re a bit of a prat.
‘‘But unlike David Brent, we don’t invite the cameras in our lives 24/7 to be caught out. That’s his mistake. He just thinks it’ll be better this time.’’
While there are some bleak moments for Brent in the movie, Gervais wanted there to be some hope in the movie.
‘‘I get this reputation for being very cynical and very dark but actually everything I’ve done is a little bit existential and it’s all about humanity,’’ he says. ‘‘I always leave people with a little bit of hope. I like all my characters.
‘‘In general, I have a really optimistic look of humanity. There’s sort of good in everyone.’’
Leaving the interview there, we swap apologies for the ping-pong chaos. ’’We got there in the end, didn’t we?’’ Gervais says cheerfully. In the dark, I thank him for persevering and stumble back towards the light. Fairfax
David Brent: Life on the Road (M) opens in New Zealand cinemas on September 1.