Do I pander to 200 egos in the room or 200m people watching me? No contest
Ricky Gervais on his Golden Globes speech & a new series of After Life
IT was a speech seen by up to 200 million people where some of Hollywood’s biggest stars got a roasting.
Ricky Gervais targeted Joe Pesci, Leo DiCaprio, Cats, and “paedophile movie” The Two Popes in his opening monologue at the Golden Globes.
Opening up about the ceremony, Ricky, 58, said: “Do I pander to the 200 egos in the room or the 200 million people watching around the world? And there’s no contest.
“I know what I’m going to say. I’m not there to ruin their night, I’m there to make the people at home laugh.
“You’ve got to write seven minutes of your best jokes, you can’t really use them again. It’s a lot of work for seven minutes, but the payoff is amazing. I mean, there’s no audience like that.”
Responding to criticism about January’s speech, he added: “People know David Brent and Tony are characters.
“They don’t know that me doing standup and me at the Golden Globes is a bit of a persona as well. There I play this brash character who’s come to ruin the liberal elites’ night.
“I’ve honed those jokes. I’ve made those jokes bulletproof.”
Gervais, who has been in a relationship with author Jane Fallon, 59, since the 1980s, is back this month with the second series of his hit sitcom After Life on Netflix.
The first series, based on his depressed character Tony struggling to recover from the death of his wife, drew acclaim.
And unusually the funnyman is already thinking about a third series. The Office, Extras and Derek all ended after two series, but Ricky told the Series Linked podcast: “This one, I want to do a third, I think. Because I’ve never set up such a world before. This is a real place.
“Every path leads to the rest of the world. Like real life. Every path leads to a new world, and how often do you know a character?
“You’ve seen those characters for five-and-a-half hours. You don’t know anyone after five-and-a-half hours, and you don’t know their friends.”
He adds: “I love the crew, I love the cast, I love the characters and I love the dog.”
Ricky also said he was overwhelmed by the positive reaction to After Life from fans as it seemed to strike a chord with people’s emotions as it openly discussed death and dealing with losing loved ones.
He said: “I’ve never had a reaction like it for anything I’ve ever done. Mainly the emotional reaction. This has got to be really good because you don’t want to disappoint the people who loved it. What’s great about two is you can explore it more.” ■ After Life Series 2 will launch on Netflix on April 24.
I play this brash character who has come to ruin the night of the liberal Hollywood elite
RICKY GERVAIS ON HIS GOLDEN GLOBES MONOLOGUE