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Paul Jones spoke with Ricky Gervais about the return of his

iconic comedy creation in

David Brent

:

Life on the Road

.

D

onald T

rump has literally just been

announced as president-elect.

Could there have been a better –

or worse – time to talk to Ricky Gervais?

“Mad, innit!” he says, before launching

into a humorous analysis of the people that

voted for Trump, the shock result, and what

it means for the world. Yet, before I have to

intervene and steer the conversation away

from American politics, Gervais himself is

done with the subject: “Anyway, enough

of that.”

Tonight we’re talking

David Brent: Life

on the Road

, Gervais’s full-length film that

resurrects the eponymous character he

co-created with Stephen Merchant for the BBC

mockumentary series

The Office

. 15 years

on, Brent is now a sales rep for Lavichem, a

company that specialises in sanitary products.

In 2016, Brent is a disconsolate character,

immersed in a mid-life crisis and clutching at

the futile dream of taking his band, Foregone

Conclusion, out on a self-funded tour.

“I think people are going to be surprised

how 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,” says Gervais, who speaks as if he’s

sporting a perpetual smile. “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."

That was a question I'd wanted to ask

Gervais when I finished watching the film.

Given the subject matter, did he not consider an

extended TV or Christmas special? Why did he

opt to bring Brent to the big screen?

“Ambition, I think more than anything else. I

wanted to make a sort of classic British movie

and it not be just another episode of

The Office.

And that’s why it had to be 15 years later, so

enough had happened for it to be a movie."

The final episode of

The Office

, the show that

introduced Gervais and his brand of cringe-

inducing humour to a global audience,

aired in 2003. Since then he has written

and starred in several other television

series, directed films, performed stand-up

comedy, authored a series of children’s

books, and even voiced a video game

character. While he returned briefly to the

role in 2013 for a Comic Relief special, it

has been a long time since Gervais has

played David Brent.

“I can play him in my sleep but I had

to change him a little bit as well because I

had to acknowledge that a man would’ve

changed in 15 years," he explains. "What

I decided to do was make him just a little bit

more broken. I wanted fame to have broken him

a little bit over the 15 years, and I gave him a

nervous laugh.

“So although he’s the same guy, I made him

slightly more honest because that reflects how

documentaries change as well. A documentary

is much more intrusive these days. 15 years

ago, you wouldn’t have talked about a man’s

breakdown on one, but now documentaries

start with it. Things on TV like

Big Brother,

for

example, tend to start with people at their

lowest ebb.”

He pauses momentarily: “People live their

lives like an opened wound to be famous these

days. What’s nice about Brent is we realise

he was never that sort of person. He’s not

the modern person who would do anything to

be famous. He wants to do something to be

famous; he wants to be a rockstar, bless him.”

Gervais also wrote 15 songs for an

visit

stack.net.au

32

jbhifi.com.au

DECEMBER

2016

DVD&BD

FEATURE

I think people are

going to be surprised

how they sympathise

with David Brent this

time around