STACK December 2016 Issue No. 146

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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.
Donald Trump 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
32 DECEMBER 2016
DVD&BD
FEATURE
I think people are
going to be surprised
how they sympathise
with David Brent this
time around