Director David Koepp (Jurassic Park) wasn't sure how the British star and American comedian would mesh in this story about a grumpy loner dentist (Gervais) who can see ghosts. Kinnear's character tries to encourage him to break up the upcoming marriage of his late wife (Tea Leoni). Along the way, there's an inept doctor (Kristen Wiig) and a slew of weird characters from the undead.SCI FI Weekly sat down with Gervais, Kinnear, Wiig, Koepp and co-writer John Kamps while at the film festival on the night of their premiere. The film opens nationwide in the United States on Sept. 18.
Ricky Gervais, what was this rumor about you seeing a ghost and being spooked at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel? It was in the tabloids in London.Gervais: Absolutely love it. I had never heard about the hotel. I wasn't there. I wasn't there doing a production, but they totally just made up this quote and everything. It's just ridiculous. I don't believe in ghosts.
You don't believe in ghosts at all?
Gervais: No. I don't believe in the hereafter or ghosts or elves. Not the tooth fairy either.
Unicorns?
Gervais: Nooo. No gremlins. I believe in dentists. I don't go. [Laughter.] It is an English thing. I think that they're great [ghosts] as a Trojan horse to all those other emotions. It's a vehicle to get somewhere. I'm an atheist, but some of my favorite films are like It's a Wonderful Life and The Bishop's Angel—they're a metaphor, and they're heartwarming. I can suspend my disbelief for an hour and a half in a fantasy film. Otherwise I might as well watch a documentary. I don't think that it loses anything if you don't happen to believe in ghosts. I think it's just such a sweet story.
What drew you to this rather unpleasant character?
Gervais: That's what's interesting about it. When people say Ricky Gervais in a romantic comedy, I have to go, "No, it's not like that." I have to say that I know I'm not like George Clooney. What's nice about the character is that he sort of is like a wounded man, and she sees something in him and he is all right. He's this rich and successful person whose heart has been closed. There is clearly something there, and I think the film turns when I go on a date with her and I buy a shirt. I've got no idea. I know where I am in my comfort zone, and then I leave the tag in, and there's a bit where she just looks at the tag. It's so beautiful and sweet. Greg is an ass in this. I can't believe the things he says. He's sexist. Misogynistic. He's just awful, and no feelings at all. At least my feelings have been hurt [laughs].
What about buying into the romance of this story?
Gervais: Well, as I say, if this had been George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer it would've failed, because it's like they're meant [to be together], but you know that this is a very normal and sort of realistic socially awkward guy. I think what's interesting about him is very flawed, and everything is a bit wrong with him, apart from the fact that he's a successful dentist. I think people like that drew me. I think if someone starts off wonderful and brilliant and right, it's like, "OK, well done." I love redemption. I think it's a lovely theme, but you have to start off wrong to get to that, and I think people want to be a part of that. That's what I think is sweet about this. He's missing out on life, and the funny thing is that it sort of takes these dead guys to point that out.
How was your relationship with Greg Kinnear?
Gervais: The relationship with Greg is great, because it's like a buddy movie, a buddy movie like the Odd Couple. We're thrown together and we're trapped. I think that in comedy and drama the characters have to be trapped in some way, either literally or socially. They have to be incarcerated. Otherwise they'd walk away from each other. So I need something from him, and he lies to me. He said he'd sort out the dead people, and he needs something from me. He's trapped here until I can sort out this thing. We're linked, and we can't get away from each other, and that's the conflict. We're connected.
So many of your characters are of the kind that are uncomfortable and make the audience and other characters uncomfortable. What about that appeals to you?
Gervais: I think that everyone identifies with that more than any other theme. When we're in a safe environment and we're not starving and our children aren't being shot at, what's the worst thing that happens to you? It's a bit of bad service or a social faux pas. The most mortifying thing to everyone is being embarrassed socially. I think that public speaking is a bigger fear than death. I think it ranks higher than death, so I think that everyone identifies with that. I think that comedy and drama, the most important thing is empathy, and everyone knows what it's like to be embarrassed. They know that more than anything.
Do you get embarrassed?
Gervais: I don't get embarrassed. I think that's quite a British thing, though, that we like to sort of play that like "There by the grace of God go I." There's a little bit of David Brent [from The Office] in everyone—we all want to be loved. It's fun playing that. It's fun turning the knife of social embarrassment. I don't get embarrassed for me, but I do get embarrassed for other people. If someone makes a bad joke I just want to take it back. I can't deal with it. I sweat. Or if I watch a reality game show or something like Big Brother and they're flirting, I just want to leave the room. Oh, God. So I don't feel it, but I do for other people. I think that everyone is like that. People say that The Office is embarrassing, and then I saw this program called Curb Your Enthusiasm and I was going, "Oh, God, shut up, shut up, shut up." So I like that emotion, but sooner or later you've got to stop that, because that can get wearing and you've got to drop all the irony and go, "You know what, you have to stand behind it." You have to say, "This is nice and this is sweet." When we did The Office and we did Extras, I think we surprised people because they thought that me and Steve [Merchant] were very twisted and cynical people who thought there was only bad in the world and thus expose it. But we're not. I knew the heart of The Office was Tim and Dawn, not David Brent. I think the heart of Extras wasn't all the A-listers that we got in. It was the friendship between Andy and Maggie. I think that sooner or later you've got to stand up and go, "This is nice. This is sweet. This is what I believe in." That's the joy. The scene you did with the doctor, played by Kristen Wiig, was like a great fencing match, wasn't it?
Gervais: Yeah, particularly the one at the desk when I come back. She'd say something different every time. I'd walk back and she'd say, "I'm pregnant—" or "I've got a rash." At one point when she was talking over me and I heard her say, "I think I heard a raccoon." I said, "Stop."
Did some of the irritations with the doctors and the restaurants come from ad-libbing in your own personal observations, or was it all scripted?
Gervais: No. That was written, the thing with the questions. But I do feel like that, that sometimes you want to point out people's errors. In a restaurant I order something and I look and I go, "That took a half hour. They haven't even got to cook." I'll go, "Is it going to be much longer?" The guy said, "We're very busy." I go, "Well, you brought all the tables out. Isn't being busy a good thing?"
What is going on with your co-directing SF project, This Side of the Truth?
Gervais: Of course. That's where I'm most comfortable, being in charge, because you're grounded. ... There are two directors. I directed that with Matthew Robinson. ... You see eye to eye and you do the script together. There's an advantage to being the writer and the director. You live with that script for a year. I couldn't take a script to someone else's film and hope to be anywhere near on the ball. That would scare me. But I know when you write something, you see it. It's done. The directing is really mixed with the writing and the directing, particularly if I'm in it as well. I see it. I don't need to know about dolly shots and lenses. I know what I want to see on the screen.
David Koepp, as director and co-writer you did some interesting things, like changing the mythology of ghosts. For example, those unexplainable times that you sneeze even if you're not getting a cold are caused by walking through a ghost that's standing in front of you. Why do that?
Koepp: I decided early on I didn't want our ghosts to be about effects, but about comedy and humanity. I wanted to keep them fairly simple, and then we threw in our own bits of lore. So, if you sneeze inexplicably on the street, you've probably just passed through a ghost. They follow the laws of physics, but they can't affect the environment around them. They can walk through things.
You also turn a common mythology about ghosts on its head, too—
Koepp: Yeah, we had an epiphany about the ghost legends. It just came to us one day that maybe everything people think about ghosts is wrong. Ghosts don't stick around because they have unfinished business, they stick around because the living are not done with them yet, because they aren't ready to let go. Perhaps they died and left someone mystified or confused, and until the living come to terms with whatever that thing is, they are stuck here.
Do you have any ghost story?
Koepp: Sadly, no I don't have a ghost story. I know people believe in ghosts, but I believe in ghost stories. There is a value in any number of ghost stories, and they can be told through horror, comedy, drama, romance, because they are about death, and that happens to everyone, and about universal love and loss.
John Kamps, as co-screenwriter, do you have any thoughts about ghosts?
John Kamps: I live in the Ravenswood Apartments in the heart of Hollywood, [and] I knew Mae West lived there, and I was in my apartment in the Ravenswood and felt something. To me, it's all connected to architecture. I saw something there, and wow, it was like a momentary flash. It makes your imagination go wild. It's not like I had that experience anywhere else. It was a moment, out of the corner of my eye, and I knew if I looked there would be nothing there. I don't know, it was a really strong feeling. I don't know how to explain it. Even to this day I don't discount it.
Why do you think that most people surveyed say they believe in ghosts?
Kamps: I consider myself a cynical person. I know that people say they believe, and some have had experiences, but I thought that these are people who look for something to believe. They are looking for something more out there. This helps me give them an hour and a half of wish fulfillment.
Greg Kinnear, what was it like playing a ghost to Ricky Gervais?
Kinnear: It was the perfect marriage, in a way. The first time I met him we hit it off, and I can't think of anyone who would fit the part better. We kind of met on the set during a one-hour rehearsal period. ... He's a good chap, a good bloke.
What did you think of Gervais' past work and comedy?
Kinnear: I went to see him play Madison Square Garden, and I saw him walk out with a beer in his hand, and I thought that this wasn't going to go well, but it did, and that's inherently natural to him.
Kristen Wiig, what was it like verbally sparring with Ricky Gervais in this movie?Wiig: I was very nervous, but it was nice to be able to crack him up, at least once. I'm such a fan of his. I was just free-associating when I was with him, and I got him a few times.
You don't like to watch your work from Saturday Night Live, but you did go to the premiere for this one. Did it make you uncomfortable?
Wiig: Yeah, no, I don't like to watch myself at all, but movies are different. It's more of a character that I carry throughout, and, well, I don't do as many of them.
