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screenplay and I directed it. But even
when I say I wrote and directed it, it’s
still collaborative, you know what I
mean? It takes 60 people for me to do
it my way.
When you’re on set, do you make
changes to the screenplay on the fly?
How much of the film is improv?
Not much. In the cold light of day,
even though you do lots of improv,
when you get it back into the edit the
things that survive are usually the things
that were in the script, because they’re
the things that drive the narrative. So
even though the film came in at three
hours, most of that hour and a half was
probably the ad-libs you lose. Having
said that, within each scene I keep
the language loose and there’s little
surprises that we improv around, but
when it comes down to the story, the
story is 99 per cent in the screenplay.
What was it like working on set? I
can’t actually imagine much work
getting done at all.
It’s fun. Everything I’ve always done
has always been fun. Because I only
direct my own writing, I’ve lived with
it for a year, so I don’t panic, I don’t
think I just better ask the studio if I
can change the line. I whiz through it. I
shoot with two cameras. I cast people
that I know, or have worked with
already. Even if I’ve cast someone that
I don’t know, they probably had three
castings for me. We’re all confident,
we work fast, and it all goes on screen
– all that fun goes on screen. I don’t
understand these nightmares, where
people say, ‘I nearly had a heart attack’
or ‘the studio kept interfering’, or
‘someone dropped out’ or ‘we went
over budget’ or ‘we’re three days
behind’.
So no
Apocalypse Now
scenarios
then?
No, I finish at 4 o’clock on the nose
everyday. I don’t know how you’d fill
a day from 8am to 8pm. I think that’s
nervous directors going, ‘I’d better take
this shot in case that doesn’t work.
I better do that again’ or ‘let’s do 15
takes of that, just in case. The way I
think is, ‘come on people, be confident
in yourself’. I only try and please me. If I
laugh, then it’s good.
Are you a perfectionist?
I don’t know, because there’s no
paradigm in sort of art, it’s just what
I want. It’s what I like. I don’t think
there’s anything to compare it to.
There’s no right or wrong. I’m just
trying to please me. So if I like it, and I
find it funny, it’s done. Particularly with
comedy, you either find it funny or you
don’t. If you do a consensus of what’s
funny, you’re going to have every
opinion under the sun. So you’ve got
to do what you think is funny and hope
there are some like-minded people who
agree. You know what? If you do it your
way, and it’s a little peculiar and you
don’t water it down and try and please
everyone, there’s seven billion on this
planet and there’s enough of those to
make you very successful and very,
very rich and will think it’s the funniest
thing they’ve ever seen. If you water
it down and try and please everyone,
you’ll end up not pleasing many at all.
That’s what I think anyway.
Can we talk about the album? I was
surprised at the quality of the songs.
There are some cracking tunes on it.
Are you a prolific songwriter?
[Laughs] No. These are all done in
character for David Brent for a specific
reason, but I don’t sit at home with
a guitar on my lap all day twiddling. I
have the odd idea. I did these songs
over a couple of years. I wrote a couple
for
The Office
and then I wrote one
for a Comic Relief sketch on a ten
year anniversary, which was “Equality
Street”, then I did a couple of little gigs
and wrote a few more, and then I wrote
a few more specifically for the film.
So it was quite gradual and organic. I
suppose I’ve written 15 songs over 15
years, so I certainly wouldn’t say I’m
prolific. But it’s great fun doing it. And
it had to be real. The joke wasn’t they
were terrible songs or comedy songs or
badly performed, the joke was it was a
middle-aged tampon rep singing songs
that he knows nothing about.
Yeah, but he totally believes in them.
That’s right. He believes in them,
and that’s what’s funny. He believes
he’s doing the right thing. He believes
he’s helping the Native American. He
believes he’s sorting out the prejudice
to the disabled. I think that’s my
favourite on the album. You cannot
believe the thrill when we do these
gigs in real life. I do it in character and
people come along, they’re obviously in
on the joke, but honestly, ironic or not,
you cannot believe the thrill of 4,000
people singing along to [sings] ‘Head on
4 3 2 1
6 5
There’s no right or wrong.
I’m just trying to please me
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