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they sympathise with David Brent this
time around, and how much pathos
there is in a middle-aged man who’s
got one last shot at fame. And by fame,
he’s really going for happiness. He just
thinks fame will sort it out for him, and
of course it won’t. It was nice to put
that together in a movie as opposed to
just a TV special.
I wanted to ask you why you
decided to make it for the big screen
as opposed to a TV or Christmas
special?
Because of the ambition, I think.
It can be seen on TV, it can be seen
on DVD and everything like that, but
I wanted to make sort of a classic
British movie and it not be just another
episode of
The Office
. That’s why it
had to be sort of 15 years later, so
enough had happened for it to be a
movie. The bigger theme of it – it’s still
a bumbling middle-aged man who’s
trying to do things he’s not equipped to
do, and that’s the comedy. He still says
excruciating things and there’s faux pas
and all that. But the bigger arc is how
the world’s changed behind his back.
It’s about contentment, really. Is the
thing you’re looking for really the thing
you want? Why don’t we just cut out
the middleman? Brent thinks that being
famous will make him happy, whereas
he should just start with being happy.
It’s probably not – fame is what has
made things go wrong in his life so far.
That’s what the film’s about. I just think
that works better with 90 minutes, so
you can really get embroiled and think
about it. The reason I left it this long is
because there had to be a reason, there
had to be a difference. As we’ve seen
today, the world is very different from
what it was 15 years ago; it’s a really
different world.
How did you feel about returning to
the role?
You know what, it was like putting
on a pair of slippers you forgot you
had, and they just fit perfectly and they
feel great. I can play him in my sleep
but I had to change him a little bit as
4 3 2 1
6 5
Brent thinks that being
famous will make him happy,
whereas he should just start
with being happy
continued