There's a very good, long interview with Ricky Gervais in the current Radio Times, loosely promoting his cartoon series and Cemetery Junction film.
Gervais is on fine form, managing to get both his feet into his mouth well before the end. As ever what he says is fascinating for all the wrong reasons. The autobiography can't be far away and it's hard to shake the feeling that it's destined to become a set book for trainee psychotherapists.
Ricky was the same as always. The woman clearly hated his guts though.
If the aim of the article was to demonstrate that, then it was a success!
You really think the interviewer hated him before she met him? Some of the things Gervais says are breathtaking.
Yeah I do. It seemed to me that she'd decided not to like him from the very beginning. Maybe trying to think of a way to make her article stand out from the many that kiss his bottom.
She was making sly little digs all the way through.
I found it quite unpleasant to read.
(And not because of Ricky.)
I flagged it because it's an interesting read - not arse-kissing, but the RT interviews never are. I would say she was combative, but I don't think she went to the interview hating Gervais. Of course we'll never know.
Are you not astounded by some of the things he says though, Zoo? He's so crass.
I dunno. I think he has a confusing personality for some. To me, he is confident in his work, and knows it's exactly as brilliant as he wanted it to be, but when he says silly things he's most likely joking/being ironic.
The people who hate him and think he means everything he says literally tend not to be people who've seen that many interviews with him, or footage of him being himself. After a while you tend to be able to tell when he's being genuine and self effacing, and when he's taking the piss, and saying overblown things about himself.
Of course, I can't remember now any of the specific things he said in that interview. But nothing struck me as unusual when I read it.
So basically, anyone who isn't obsessed with him and watches every last interview he conducts, won't understand his "persona"!
You're saying he can't create a good, instantly recognisable character for himself. 
Yep! Sucks to be you.
Quote: Aaron @ April 27 2010, 4:10 AM BSTYou're saying he can't create a good, instantly recognisable character for himself.
How's that then?
How? Exactly as you agreed with me: you have to have seen every one of his interviews in order to get the character.
Nope. I'm saying if you're not used to him you can't easily tell when he's being sincere and when he's putting on the persona. 
Of course if he was just sincere all the time then he wouldn't have all these people hating him for being 'smug'. But he says he doesn't care so I suppose it doesn't matter.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ April 27 2010, 1:23 AM BSTYou really think the interviewer hated him before she met him?
Maybe not hate, but she clearly didn't care for him and his work. I'm not saying she should have kissed his arse, but the tone she has throughout is just weird; snide put down after snide put down; and you can bet she never acted that way to his face.
And her being 'astonished' that he would wear pyjama bottoms to the White House and 'having to pull him up' on it; I mean, who gives a f**k? Why should she?
I'm not saying this as a massive Gervais fan; I very much like The Office, but have only seen Extras through once, and have yet to see either of the films he's written, but it seemed quite a sly, snide piece.
Is there a link to this interview online anywhere?
You only have to see Gervais's work to see that he profoundly understands embarrassment. I've always presumed that the persona he uses is a combination of a cover-up of this and confidence and total self-belief in what he finds funny. I don't think he would have such good friends and the same partner for so long if he was the smug c**t lots of people think he is.
I tend to avoid interviews like the plague. I judge Gervais by his work. The Office - a stone cold classic. And Extras - very, very good. The rest of his work is middling to fair, and I suspect his best days are behind him. Certainly none of his films have been any great shakes.
Well this one out now is his first proper film, really. The only one completely done by him and Stephen, like his TV work.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ April 27 2010, 8:57 AM BSTMaybe not hate, but she clearly didn't care for him and his work. I'm not saying she should have kissed his arse, but the tone she has throughout is just weird; snide put down after snide put down; and you can bet she never acted that way to his face.
She's quite robust with him, but I think you have to read between the lines. Gervais brought sandwiches to the interview ("I know you can get food here, but you might have to wait for it once you've ordered it"). This probably precluded the interviewer getting any lunch.
Gervais' main problem is that he is a boaster. In the last interview I read with him he was correcting a press report that his basement swimming pool actually cost £3m and not the £1m reported.
He will then say something like: "Doesn't matter if it cost ten million - or a hundred pounds - or if it didn't exist - I'd still be happy. When I was offered £4m for xxxx film I turned it down because money's not important. John Cleese and David Bowie agree with me."
The Radio Times interview opens with a similar anecdote where Gervais contrives to tell us that he's not motivated by money but then going into detail about an amount offered by a Japanese bank for a 40 minute slot that he turned down. He actually sounds just like Brent: "A million Pounds... Obscene."
In fact Gervais appears to be acting out a non-stop scene from the Office in every interview he gives. The one where he tries to show the issue of 'Inside Paper' magazine to the employees of Wernham Hogg that has him on the cover. It's a great scene. He affects to throw the magazine away and instead gently lays it on top of the bin to be reclaimed later.
At the end of the Radio Times interview Rachel Cooke says:
"It's as if he's a teenager and I'm his mother. He thinks he can do anything. He thinks he can get away with anything."
I was reminded of an interview some years ago where he dismissed 'Sex Lives of the Potato Men' (then on general release) before telling the interviewer he had been offered and turned down the Johnny Vegas role. Aside from breaking the convention that you don't mention parts that you have turned down and other actors have taken up, Gervais seems to want to make sure you know that he could have done it if he wanted to - he just didn't want to. It's a curiously childlike trait.