Stephen Merchant: ‘I’m the Tom cruise of comedy’
The writer talks omelettes, Banksy, and doing his own stunts with Boyd Hilton
As Stephen Merchant’s face appears on the Zoom call live from his home in LA (“Yes,” he says, “I have a place here – like a player!”), he reminds heat that we’ve been having these chats for about two decades.
It’s true. We first met 20 years ago on the set of The Office, which of course Stephen co-created with Ricky Gervais and, in the years since then, he’s done pretty well for himself. He made two more BBC sitcoms Extras and Life’s Too Short with Mr Gervais, then his own La-set comedy Hello Ladies for HBO, as well as writing and directing his feature film Fighting With My Family.
That’s on top of acting jobs in movies such as Logan and The Girl In The Spider’s Web. Most recently, he played serial killer Stephen Port earlier this year in the superb BBC true-crime drama Four Lives.
Now he’s here to tell us about series two of his BBC1 comedy-thriller The Outlaws, which follows the escapades of seven very different characters brought together when they’re all sentenced to community service in Bristol. And one of them is played by a genuine Hollywood legend, Oscar-winner Christopher Walken, who famously cooked Stephen an omelette when he was visiting Chris’ home to convince him to take the role.
More about this iconic dish later, as well as stories of Hollywood injuries, Bristol calamities and whether he’s secretly Banksy. But first, the new run of The Outlaws…
Is it true you filmed this second series of The Outlaws back-to-back with the first?
Yes, what happened was that we got ten days into shooting the first series and then COVID struck. So – like on so many other productions – we had to shut down. Then, I was quite prescient, thinking this COVID thing is not going to last until Christmas. But it did. So, I said to the BBC, “If this is going to drag on for a bit, can I write another series while we’re in lockdown? And then, we can film two series back-to-back.” And they thought about it for a bit and said yes. So, I did like a virtual Zoom writers’ room during lockdown and, when we came back, finally, we did two series back-to back. Which was a f**king nightmare!
Why was it such a nightmare?
Well, it’s hard enough to make six hours of TV, so then to try to make 12 hours of TV – much of it still during lockdown, with all the restrictions and the extra preparation – it was just brutal. Absolutely brutal. We were just overly ambitious. But, at the same time, I was sort of pleased that we did it, because at least we didn’t have to try to get everyone back and have to pick up where we left off. And, also, it meant that we could plan ahead a bit more with the storylines.
Is it harder to create a series with complicated hour-long episodes full of action and comedy rather than a 30-minute sitcom?
I actually found it easier, in the sense that you can approach each episode a bit more like a little film. So, you’ve got a bit more breathing space. I think I’m quite proud of the fact that I think the series are quite elegantly plotted, particularly in this new one, where it builds towards something quite complicated, with some sort of Ocean’s 11-style heist-y stuff, which is quite intricate to plot. I found that quite enjoyable for whatever reason.
You mix slapstick moments, like when you end up with a chandelier on your head in a nightclub, with quite intense gangster stuff – are those things difficult to combine?
Whether that mix of comedy and drama works for you is quite personal, I think. I hope there are enough believable elements to carry it through. And life can be like that. For example, I did walk through a glass window at [comedian] Sarah Silverman’s party once, and yet, at the same time, I’ve done other, quite sensible things! But I imagine, if I put something like that into a show, everyone would say, “No one would walk through a f**king window like that.” So, walking into a chandelier is small fry.
Other than walking through the glass window, have you sustained many other injuries?
I have, actually. I hurt my back very hard when we were filming Hello Ladies. There’s a bit where I’m doing a headstand and I missed the mat and landed on my back. That was quite brutal. And, in Extras once, there was a scene where [his co-star] Shaun Williamson was pulling my cagoule over my head, and the joke was I’d fall back and land on the desk. We didn’t get a stunt person – I just improvised and we didn’t clear a space on the desk, so I just took a number of staplers and pens in my back. So, I like to think of myself as the Tom Cruise of comedy!
You’ve talked about how you got Christopher Walken for The Outlaws by visiting his home and eating one of his omelettes – can you give us more details?
It was a good omelette – it was fluffy and it was well cooked, and he clearly knew what he was doing. I did ask for seconds.
What was it like directing a Hollywood legend and Oscar winner?
Well, first of all, however well you get on over an omelette, you never know what an actor is going to be like to actually work with on set. And I think my concern with iconic actors who are very well established is that you hear horror stories about them showing up and only doing one take or two takes before they want to go back to the hotel. But that was not my experience with Chris. He was always happy to do another take, always happy to do a funnier version or a darker version, or whatever.
And you’ve also got the brilliant Julia Davis in this series...
Yes, she’s an absolute joy. She just loves improvising and going off script and she’s an absolute pleasure to work with. She jokes about how I like to get in touch with her and ask her to do something every two years. She was in Cemetery Junction and Fighting With My Family, and you may recall that, in The Office Christmas Special, she’s on the phone as one of David Brent’s prospective dates.
Of course! Did you do anything to celebrate The Office’s 20th anniversary last year?
No, I didn’t really, although I did notice it was back on TV. I did end up watching the first of the Christmas specials, and I remember thinking that I could have edited it a bit tighter. It’s a bit slow, right? So, I’d get the scissors in there now, if I could.
Hello Ladies was partly about how awkward it can be for a Brit in LA. Do you feel at home there now?
It is a bit odd. Especially
‘I don’t know who Banksy is’
now, because this is the first time I’ve been here for over two years, because of the pandemic. I was quite nervous, in a way, about coming back. It was starting to feel more and more alien, and I was starting to feel more at home in the UK. And then, once I came back here, I saw some old friends and things and I drove around for a bit, and I just remembered what I liked about it, really. I love the
weather, obviously, but I also like the creativity of the place. I like the “get up and go” dynamism. But it’s still surreal. It’s still very strange to be here and to think it’s in any way normal. I mean, for a place that’s so unlike anywhere else in the world, it’s odd – when you realise that so many films and TV shows are made here, which are trying to replicate real life and human beings in real situations, and yet no one here lives in the real world.
Are people still shocked by how tall you are?
Yeah, the height thing still persists in fascinating people [he’s 6ft 7in]. Because I think there aren’t as many tall people in Hollywood and showbusiness as you’d think. I’m constantly surprised, when I see actors in real life, by how small they are. I did actually go to a bar one time and asked for a drink and one of the customers there said, “Oh, that’s a tall order.” I couldn’t believe it.
In this series of The Outlaws, you describe yourself as a “googlyeyed plank”…
Yes, and I’m also called “a haunted pencil”, “ET’S albino cousin”, “Paedo Harry Potter”… So, one of the frustrations I have with this show is I’ve sort of written my character into a stereotype of myself again, as a sort of gangly, awkward, you know, loser, whereas I could have written my character as a James Bond-style leading man.
One day. Are you constantly surprised by the ongoing success of The US Office? It’s like the most watched thing on Netflix…
Someone told me that Billie Eilish has watched the whole American series twice. So, um, for whatever reason, it’s found its groove. When it started on BBC2, we talked about it being our fantasy that it would be a million people’s favourite show. And we had the lowest test scores, except for women’s bowls. So it’s a testament to the brilliance of the American version how popular it is – particularly with younger people.
One of the trucks from The Outlaws ended up in Bristol harbour – is that right?
I don’t know how that happened, but yes our 20ft-long costume truck somehow wound up in Bristol Harbour. And it wasn’t just for my shoes. But, seriously, thank God we’d finished filming, because all the costumes were in there. And thank God no one was injured.
Finally, how did you get Banksy to paint an artwork specifically for the show?
We found some kind of go-between. He agreed to do it, and then one night he secretly did the painting. Only me and him and a handful of others knew about it. And, even after we filmed painting over it, we swore everyone to secrecy and everyone kept quiet, which was just amazing. But I don’t know what he looks like – I’ve never met Banksy. I don’t know who Banksy is. But I could be Banksy. So, if you want to speculate about whether I’m Banksy, that’s fine! ■
The Outlaws series two starts on BBC1, Sunday 5 June, 9pm