NBC unleashes Ricky Gervais
On Sunday, Ricky Gervais will be the first person to host the Golden Globes telecast in 15 years. But he’s not exactly feeling the pressure.
“I can’t flop,” the 48-year-old British comic said in a recent phone interview. “ ‘Cause I don’t care!
“I don’t care about ratings or opening weekends or anything like that. I care about whether I enjoyed doing it and whether I’m happy with the result.”
Gervais co-created (with longtime writing partner Stephen Merchant) and starred in the BBC comedy “The Office,” which has made him a wealthy man. NBC runs a hit adaptation -- with Steve Carell playing the role of a blundering middle manager pioneered by Gervais -- and there are successful versions in other countries as well. He also starred in the comedy series “Extras,” about a struggling actor, which ran on HBO.
But there are still more than a few American viewers who might peer at the chubby, sarcastic man emceeing NBC’s three-hour Globes extravaganza and wonder: Who’s that? Which, Gervais said, suits him fine.
When he won a Globe for the BBC’s “The Office” in 2004, “Clint Eastwood was overheard to say to someone next to him, ‘Who the . . . is he?,’ ” Gervais recalled. “Which is my favorite quote of any A-lister, ever.”
To his fans, though, the Globes ceremony is exactly the sort of gig they’ve wanted him to get. That’s especially true since the 2008 Emmys, when he did a warmly received comedy bit in which he demanded that Carell give him the Emmy that Carell had accepted the previous year because Gervais wasn’t present.
Even so, there are a few risks in having Gervais host the show. The Globes haven’t had a host since 1995, when John Larroquette and Janine Turner co-hosted the ceremony. Officials at the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which hands out the awards, felt that an emcee only impeded what was supposed to be an impromptu, freewheeling event.
But NBC believed bringing in a host would help raise the Globes’ profile -- the telecast is still struggling to recover from a severely truncated version that aired during the writers strike that ended in early 2008 -- and also provide continuity during the show. Globes officials immediately offered Gervais’ name.
“Ricky had created some exceptional moments at award ceremonies, not just on this side of the Atlantic,” said NBC executive vice president Paul Telegdy, a former BBC executive, who praised the actor’s “incredible real-time sense of humor. He’s good in the moment and he’s very funny.”
Yet Gervais isn’t necessarily the safest choice: His humor can cause discomfort.
At last year’s Globes, he applauded Kate Winslet’s win for “The Reader” and then mused: “Trouble is, with Holocaust films, there’s never any gag reel on the DVD.”
The audience squirmed and critics widely panned the joke as tasteless, but Gervais seemed completely unfazed. Backstage, he offered more edgy quips on the same topic.
The comic promised that there will be no Holocaust humor this time around.
“No, I’ve done that,” he said. “I like to push boundaries. I don’t want to cover old ground. The Holocaust is so passe.”
Gervais said that Globe officials have given him no guidelines, which gives him plenty of room for ad-libs.
“They said all the magic things,” he said. “I don’t have to rehearse, I can say what I want, I can drink. It’s just the perfect job. I think it’s the similar job description for a hobo.
“It’s gonna be very loose. I’m not gonna go out there with 15 well-rehearsed puns and one-liners. It’s gonna be me going out there and ribbing a few people and having a laugh. I’m not using this as platform for anything. I doubt I’ll do it again. I doubt I’ll be asked again.”
Above all, he doesn’t want to overload viewers with his brand of bracing, ironic humor. So expect him to deliver his monologue at the opening and then only occasionally drift back in to keep the proceedings humming along.
“I’m gonna be a host. It’s not gonna be ‘The Ricky Gervais Show,’ ” he said.
“I think I’m brilliant, and I’m sick of me.”
