Ricky Gervais Compares The American And British "The Office" | Letterman

our next created guest star is on the very funny

british

comedy series the

office

its second season premiere is october 12 on the bbc america cable network ladies and gentlemen say hello to

ricky

gervais

thank you very much for being on the show oh a pleasure It is a pleasure that you are enjoying your stay in New York. You come here often? uh no, but I really love it, I love New York and uh, strange place, really in what sense, well, I got here yesterday and the big two. news on television and radio newspapers there were two separate unrelated incidents um people whose pet tigers had tied them up that's right, one is in the freedom of the sea, roy one and then another here is uh, a tiger lo he bit, look in England, we don't know.

We keep tigers as pets, we keep cats, but they're much smaller, you know, are they domesticated? Look at the clue, house cats, tiger, ah, house cat, yeah, okay, they're tired, so it's, it's the damage. Look, the goal is so big that he can do it. a lot of damage true well it's a domestic cat for hugo it's that I'm going to lose my arm the doctor is going forget it yes tiger that's gone the thing is with the domestic cat um it's that it treats you like a mom or a dad the tiger treats you more It's lunch, that's right, so you always have to be on your guard, that's my advice as an outsider.

Well, thank you very much, but sometimes it takes an outsider's point of view to know exactly where you're going wrong, other than that I think. It's brilliant, but it's the favorite thing, it's crazy, it's really crazy, now do me a favor, tell us a little bit about your background and what you've done with yourself here up to four and how you came up with the idea. for the character and the show and so on wow um uh my background uh I guess I had a normal working class upbringing in a town on the outskirts of London my dad was a factory worker and my mom was a housewife and uh I have what you would call a scholarship to go to university, so actually, it's funny because I went to university to study biology and I changed after a couple of weeks because they were nine o'clock classes, yeah, so I did philosophy seven hours a week, like that that my mom was very proud that I made it to college and when I was there my junior year, I got into music and got a record deal and publishing content as a singer.

The composer and I went home one day and I told my mom I wasn't going to go the academic route and she was disappointed and said why did I say because I want to be a pop star, she said pop star is another word for drug addict and I actually said that, well it's a really good deal, the record deal is worth about a hundred thousand pounds and she didn't slow down, she said mick jagger bought her mother a house in wales, he did the musical part It didn't work for you, of course it didn't, yeah, no, that ended as quickly as it started.

So I got a normal job, a loud musician got a normal job and that's where the

office

comes from. I was actually, um, I worked. On my way up I thought I started as a receptionist and I got a job as an assistant manager and I did some training and I became a middle manager and I was a middle manager in an office for seven years, which is what the office is, you know? that's how you say, that's how that plays out absolutely absolutely, I mean, and then even the office was based on the old office here, we even built it to look a little bit like it and, um, and I tell the people who maybe haven't seen the show about your character, how he describes him, I described him, you heard how I described him, but yeah, I mean it's a before, uh, some people, um, when England said he's the head of the Hell and I don't think it's that bad.

I think he's just kind of a shadow, you know he wants to be loved like we all do and he's kind of the life and soul of the party and um, he just confuses popularity with respect and he's free. falling and he's like grasping at straws and you know, and he thinks he's going to get a game show because despite these reality games and he just thinks he's, you know, he's the office clown and he wants, he wants. appear on TV like us, yeah, the interesting thing you notice from the beginning when watching the show is that there is absolutely no work done in the office, there is no productive activity in the office and that's fine with everyone, I remember learning . when I did what happens with um uh brits because we try to avoid work and let's see in the United States no, no, they tell you that you can become president of the United States and they tell us that you don't want to do that, so you know, I remember, I remember, I spent all my time trying to avoid work, it's a lot harder now, I really work hard, now I want to do it because you know I'm doing something I enjoy, but then I remember.

I realized that if you walked with a couple of pieces of paper you could be on the way to the copier or on the way back, but I walked about nine miles a day, it's ridiculous, let me talk about the uh, you made the sixth one, first. season you're going to do six uh   you've already produced for the second one, so yeah, and that's pretty much it, that's right, yeah, I think it's a fantastic idea because each one of them is very good and I think if we were going to do year after year maybe the product so you think it's integrity it's laziness I have to go to bed after six yeah well 12 I really struggled a lot in fact I'm people want me to date more live but the term stand up scares me you know ?, it's nice that he's resting, yes, you know, uh, now 12 is enough.

Will there be an American version of this show, yes we hope so, yes that is happening and you will be involved. that you won't appear in that, no, yeah, um, I guess they're giving me some kind of executive producer credit, right, what does that mean, yeah, um, now you're worried about the American version being as good as your version um, do I want to? to be that good it would be different, you know, it's not my baby, it's not like you know the office, I'm glad it's in America, that you know the English because you know, I did that and it's exactly how I wanted the American will be good but different has to be different and that's not just a case of changing the tap to force it and stuff like that you know, I'm sure I want there to be relevant observations I want the People in America say the same thing about this, Brit said about ours, like: I know a guy like David Brent or that's like my office and I imagine it's going to be hard to cast someone as good for that role as you are in general.

I know, oh thank you, I think the problem will be choosing someone as attractive. They've said, they've said Brad Pitt, I said he's 40. Yeah, um, Johnny Depp, I don't know, someone said a journalist asked me, um, I said what. Do you think the main difference will be between the English and American version and I said better teeth, well maybe and um, are you surprised by the huge reaction to the show in this country? Uh, yeah, well, it hasn't sunk in. I don't really know that I have some kind of reports here and there, but you know, it's what people have sent me and stuff, but I don't know, I don't know how big it is, it's a big success.

In Britain, of course, right? Uh, yeah, well, yeah, it's happening, it's that big, though, isn't it, if you came there, you could be the owner, you could, you could be mayor of Britain in a week, the mayor, yeah , uh And how did that change your life? Suddenly you go from being a guy that no one knows to a guy that everyone knows and everyone um yeah, well they were strange people because I come from nothing because I've done a normal job so I guess First, the strangest things were that the journalists the first time asked me questions and I did everything because I was flattered and I didn't want to seem distant and some of them were just banal questions, what kind of things well there was one that I did um and it was like those pieces of fluff and they asked you if it's like my London and what you like and then and it was things like uh I remember a journalist said um uh if your house was on fire and you could only say three things, what would they be and this was towards the end of the night, I was, just, it was like that, and I said, um, my cat, I have a cat, uh, I said, my salamander, I have a pet. in her mouth and I was thinking that and I said three, she said yes, I said one of the twins, yes and she said okay and then a couple of months later I had an interview with another journalist and she said what are your twin names and I said why do you say that?

Well, you said, I said what do you think would save a cat, I said Amanda, then one of the twins, so you have to be very careful, I learned, you have, you know. just take your word for it uh the second season here in the states premieres on october 12th on bbc america and uh everything is available on dvd the first season is available on dvd i think now on this yeah I think it's already available. today so if you haven't seen any of them you can catch up and watch them and watch them in any order it doesn't really make any difference they are all just great and on their own are very entertaining works my pleasure See you Thank you very much, good luck and I hope you come back.