At a press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival for his upcoming film Ghost Town, British comedian Ricky Gervais allowed a glimpse into his unique method of acting.
“There was a scene in the script that had me get up to answer a knock at the door,” he said Saturday. “Unacceptable. I’d be up and down all day doing takes. Instead, I had it changed so that I would be sitting down and say ‘Come in,’ when the knock happened. Perfect.”
Accusing a man who has helped churn out two of television’s greatest comedies in less than seven years of being lazy seems a bit harsh, but Gervais is the first to admit that the less he does on set, the better he likes it.
“I’d love to do a remake of [TV drama] Ironside. That’s me completely in a wheelchair. Maybe even have it with built-in commode,” Gervais quipped with a large dose of self-deprecation. “Or playing someone in a coma. Eight hours a day in bed, saying nothing. Perfect.”
Ghost Town director/co-writer David Koep sees Gervais’ approach in a different, more flattering light. “[Ricky] is good at choosing roles that suit him and what he does,” Koep said. “And I think this movie suited him.”
In the film, Gervais plays Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic New York City dentist who gains the ability to speak with ghosts after he has a near death experience. Thanks to his new skill, ghosts seek Pincus out and hope to get his help in completing unfinished business in the living world. It also stars Greg Kinnear as Frank Herlihy, a ghost who helps Pincus with his new gift but also looks to get his aid in stopping his widow’s (played by Tea Leoni) impending marriage.
As you can imagine, the prospect of appearing in a romantic comedy, and the possible effort it might result in, had Gervais cautious at first. “Nobody is going to believe me kissing anyone,” he joked. “I’m not an actor, I’m a comedian, so I don’t feel that I need to go stretch into drama or romance or whatever. But when I read the script and saw the sort of awkwardness of my character and the unique take on the romance, I thought, ‘I can do this.’”
Still, as much as Gervais could put himself in the script, certain concessions to his laziness had to be made. “I wasn’t going to do it unless the character was English,” he said.
Koep adds: “We put in a line of dialogue to accommodate. It said, ‘I’m from London.’”
“I don’t do accents,” Gervais laughed. “Or wigs.”
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