B. Fisher        Yes.  So I guess, I was wondering if you think a British version of The Simpson’s could work, altering the premise just a bit or maybe having Homer being renamed as Heathcliff, and Marge—

R. Gervais      You don’t touch perfection.

B. Fisher        I see.

R. Gervais      You don’t mess with perfection.

B. Fisher        Yes, that’s my motto.  Well, great, thank you so much, Ricky.  Best of luck with everything.

R. Gervais      My pleasure.  Thank you.

Moderator      Thank you.  Our next question will come from Matt Mitovich with tvguide.com.

M. Mitovich    Hello, Ricky.  How are you?

R. Gervais      Hello.  How’s it going?       

M. Mitovich    I’m good.  Were you surprised at all, like I was, that Ricky and The Simpson’s didn’t get together sooner?  It seems like such a natural.

R. Gervais      I first met Matt and Al and the 20 writers and producers, I think a day or two after I’d won the Globes.  I’d heard that Matt was a fan.  I think he saw on a plane to or from England before it was on BBC America, and he bought a British DVD player, so he could watch them all.  And then I was called for an audience with and I went along.  We just chatted about stuff and they knew The Office.  They knew of it by heart, which was how incredible because it is my favorite comedy show of all time, I think, The Simpson’s.  It’s just stunning.

M. Mitovich    Just how big is The Simpson’s across the pond?  Does it translate well, so to speak? 

R. Gervais      Yes.  If you speak to anyone in the know, and by that I mean any connoisseur of comedy, any comedian, forget it, it’s the best.  It’s the best.  It’s the Beatles and the Stones, it’s done.  Homer is the greatest comic creation since Laurel and Hardy.  It’s got everything; it’s wickedly satirical, it’s funny, it’s got heart, it’s wonderful.

M. Mitovich    Now I take it that you didn’t drop your accent for the role.

R. Gervais      No.  What I did was it’s a bit of an homage to Brent, just for people who know the English version of The Office.  I didn’t want to do David Brent exactly because I didn’t want to do a fictional character in a fictional thing.  I thought it was, you know, and I was not famous enough to play myself.  You know they have Paul McCartney and Clinton and things like that.  So I did a bit of both, really, and this character is so much fun.  It just gets me where I needed to be in the episode.

M. Mitovich    Can you even do a pretty good American accent?

R. Gervais      I don’t think I’d try.  I doubt it.  I’ve turned down so many Hollywood blockbusters and I’ve often given the director my reasons.  I met with Ron Howard who wanted me to have a little part in DaVinci Code and I said, “I’ll ruin your film.  The number of British comedians I’ve seen pop up in a really good Hollywood film, and they’ve just ruined it for me.”  So I know what I’m good at.

M. Mitovich    I was wondering, does it feel good or does it just make you feel a little bit richer to have your Podcast now being sold on a subscription basis, rather than go for free?

R. Gervais      Well, now then the thing is we did 12 for free, but it costs money because we never thought it would be downloaded this much.  We thought we’d have a few thousand people.  But it costs us a few pence per download to host it, and we got about five million downloads, so we have to charge a dollar. 

But we’re going to do a lot for that; it’s going to be at least four because I worried about promising too much, but we’re going to do more than four.  So the more we do, the less it will work out for Podcast and I think you can just buy the whole amount.  So the reason we’re charging a little fee is because we actually lost money on this last one. 

But it’s great.  It’s my favorite thing I do at the moment and it’s nice to be there at the beginning.  It’s sort of in its infancy on this level; I think this is the first sort of commercial one, so to speak.  It was either charge for it or not do it in a way because we couldn’t actually host it.  So we have to sort of … the cost, but we’re not doing it for the money, even though Carl Polkington is unemployed and needs to get a bit of cash.

M. Mitovich    All right, I’ll let somebody else go.  Thanks, Ricky.

R. Gervais      Thanks.

Moderator      Thank you.  Representing TV Guide of Canada, we’ll go to the line of Stephanie Herb.  Please go ahead.

S. Herb         Hello, Ricky.  How are you?

R. Gervais      Hello, how’s it going?

S. Herb         Good thank you.  I don’t know if you remember, I spoke to you right after the Golden Globes.

R. Gervais      That’s right.

S. Herb         You were doing Alias.

R. Gervais      That seems such a long time ago.

S. Herb         And it’s totally my brag worthy interview where people who I interviewed and I’m like, “You know Ricky Gervais.”

R. Gervais      And I still haven’t watched the finish.

S. Herb         Oh, it came out great.  It was awesome.  You were terrifying.

R. Gervais      I can’t watch me being serious.  I can watch me being a putz, but I can’t watch me being serious.

S. Herb         Well, I thought you did a great job.

R. Gervais      Thank you very much.

S. Herb         And actually my question is kind of about that, is that what’s been really neat about watching your career is that you’ve kind of gone all over the place and kind of dabbled in here and done a little producing over there and the Podcasts and everything.  And I know that Matt Greening has said that he’d love to have you back on The Simpson’s, but it seems like that would be kind of too staid for you now.  Are you interested in exploring more of these kinds of alternative forms of entertainment, or do you think you’ll ever go back to doing just a regular show?

R. Gervais      I don’t know, really.  I seem to obviously turn down a lot more than I do.  I think out of a hundred offers, I do one that’s interesting.  And sometimes I just don’t take offers really; I want to come up with an idea myself and really put it out there.  So nearly everything I do, apart from maybe half a dozen things in my life, has been my idea and my creation, because that’s what excites me.  So I dipped my toe in the water of serious acting with Alias.  I’ve taken on two projects that aren’t my own creation this year, which is The Simpson’s and Christopher Guests’ new movie.  There are some things you don’t turn down. 

And at the moment, I’ve gone to a place, remarkably where I’m cherry picking jobs and I’m cherry picking jobs that are my heroes.  They’re my heroes; Christopher Guest and The Simpson’s, it’s ridiculous.  I don’t let ego take over.  If someone tells me I can be the romantic lead, I explain why I can’t.  It’s always very flattering.  I think this is where a lot of actors make their mistake, because they fall victim of vanity, and I know exactly what I’m good at and what I’m not.  I also don’t want to be just an actor per se.  It doesn’t excite me to see my fat face on the screen.  What excites me is the creative process and bringing something into the world that maybe only I could have done.  That’s what excites me, the creative process, and so that’s why my favorite thing at the moment is the Podcast.

S. Herb         Cool.  Thanks.

R. Gervais      Cheers.

S. Herb         Wonderful.

Moderator      Thank you.  Representing the New York Daily News I’ll go to the line of Marissa Gerthe.  Please go ahead.

M. Guthrie      That would be Guthrie.  Hello, Ricky.  How are you?

R. Gervais      Hello.  How’s it going?

M. Guthrie      Good.  How are you?

R. Gervais      Good thanks.

M. Guthrie      I’m curious about the story line, the trading spouses, wife swap reality show story line.  The Simpson’s has always been very good at making fun of its own network.  I’m just wondering where that came from and what you found in that creatively that you liked.

R. Gervais      I’ve been fascinated with the early game shows, docusoaps, fame, Andy Warhol’s prophetic statement, “In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame.”  The Office was borne of me watching those reality game shows, those docusoaps.  I’m fascinated with fame and what makes people desperate to be recognized; it’s extraordinary. 

I think it was my girlfriend said, “Have they done a wife swap?”  I checked with Al Jean and he said, “No, we haven’t done that yet.”  So I flung some ideas down and my character, Charles, married to a woman who is married beneath herself.  And Marge comes to swap, stay with me.  My wife goes to the Simpson’s.  She thinks she’s landed in caveman times; she can’t believe how uncouth—

M. Guthrie      And she has.

R Gervais       Yes.  Marge is nice to me, the first woman that’s been nice to me in years.  And I instantly fall in love and write I think the most excruciating love song ever.  If I could get in the Guinness Book of Records for that, that would please me.  It’s just a dreadful, dreadful drunken attempt to woo a woman.

M. Guthrie      Does it work?  Does Marge--?

R. Gervais      Well, that would spoil it.  That would be—

M. Guthrie      Oh, come on.  It seems like Marge might be sick of Homer by now.

R. Gervais      Oh, no.  That’s the beauty of The Simpson’s, they love each other.  I think that, along with the fact that it’s the funniest comedy on television, the most wickedly satirical show on television, it’s heart warming and they’re a rock.  The family unit as dysfunctional as it is is just a rock.  It can bring a tear to your eye.