Thu, Aug 25, 2005
megastar
Jools Long
Ricky Gervais is nothing like John Wayne, so says Ricky Gervais. Glad he cleared that one up.
The Office and Extras frontman has been explaining his lack of hunkage status as he get busy doing some American press for the launch of Extras over there.
Are those Americans dimmer that we thought or is our Rick just stating the bleeding obvious?
"I've always been fascinated with actors who have to be heroes, whereas I shy away from that," he tells The New York Times, starting to sound like one of them luvvie types.
"I'm a flawed character. I'm good at that. If you want a complete loser, I'm your man. If you want John Wayne, forget it."
You'll be concerned to hear, he's also got that American angst patter down to a tee, too.
When asked why he turned down a role in Al Pacino's The Merchant Of Venice film he garbled back.
"It was the part of Lancelot Gobbo, who if I remember is the fool. I went and read and they said it was perfect. And walking home, I thought I don't know why I'm doing this.
"It's a fine film and Al Pacino is one of my five favourite actors, but I didn't know why it sounded perfect, and if I don't know why, it's like getting the right answer by a guess, it doesn't count. I wouldn't have been fulfilled because I didn't know why it was right."
Come back David Brent, all is forgiven!
