The other comic genius behind Extras and The Office

As the star and co-creator of The Office, Britain's most popular comedy export since Monty Python, Ricky Gervais enjoys the type of celebrity treatment normally reserved for royals and brit-pop stars. The best tables at London's best restaurants are made available at a moment's notice, backstage passes to the biggest concerts are commonplace, and if he should be pulled over for speeding, chances are Gervais will be let off with a warning in exchange for an autograph. For Stephen Merchant, Gervais's co-creator, co-writer, and co-director ... not so much. "I couldn't get backstage to Yazoo," jokes Merchant from his home in London, on the eve of the stateside premiere of the second season of Extras (January 14 on HBO), Gervais's and Merchant's follow-up to The Office. Merchant is stepping out from behind his long-time partner's shadow this time around, taking on a bigger role as Darren Lamb, the hapless agent to Gervais's Andy Millman, a TV show creator who fears he's sold out. In fact, last month, Merchant upstaged Ricky at the British Comedy Awards, by nabbing the best actor prize for the role. Radar caught up with Merchant to see how he's dealing with his rising star, and to ask what it's like to have written a song with David Bowie.

"To be honest with you, when we go to these award events, we sit there like a couple of schoolboys in church giggling. We feel like we're imposters who have snuck in"RADAR: The David Bowie cameo in the new season of Extras is brilliant. How did the musical collaboration come about?
STEPHEN MERCHANT: Well, Ricky just asked Bowie if he would mind singing in the show, and he said yes. So Ricky and I wrote these lyrics, roughly, and he came in with music and we put the two together. He was just twiddling around on the piano, playing this song that he'd written ... with our words. It was breathtaking.

Have you added that to your résumé?
Well, I don't know what the rules are. Am I allowed to say that I've written a song with David Bowie? I'd like to think so, but it's not entirely right. But I'm fairly close. My dream is that he'd maybe put it out as a B-side and it would have our names on it: Bowie/Gervais/Merchant.

The song is quite damning of Ricky's physical attributes— "See his pug-nose face." Did you have fun ripping on him?
Of course. But Ricky's not a vain man. He understands what's funny. And part of what's funny is his physical appearance. In fact, he told me once that he was working out a lot and I was terrified that he was gonna lose too much weight, because fat is funny. He's not a hugely overweight man. But there's just a sort of chubbiness about him that's amusing. You can't deny that.

Extras is based on the premise of an outsider becoming an insider in the entertainment industry, and never quite feeling comfortable on the inside. Is there any autobiography in that? Did you and Ricky find it difficult navigating fame and the entertainment world when The Office first aired?
I think actually that it's probably like any other job, in some respects that, once you peek behind the curtain of, I don't know, NASA, the government, or even in a hospital, the same things appear. The same ego clashes, the same gossip, the same anxieties ... all the same things that we tried to explore in The Office really. Though what's really interesting about the celebrity world is the fact that people on the inside start to mutate and change and start to think that it's somehow more significant than it is. That somehow there's a sort of worth to them that's perhaps slightly more worthy than other people. There's an amazing quote, by I think Philip Roth, who says, "Fame is a mask that eats into the face."

Has fame eaten into your face, Stephen? Do you think you've been mutated?
I try to think that I haven't. But there's something appealing about a stranger shaking your hand in the street saying you're a genius. Who doesn't take a strange pleasure in that, however absurd it is, and however much you tell yourself that's kind of crazy?

"Am I allowed to say that I've written a song with David Bowie? I'd like to think so"The Office and Extras have been based on real everyman experiences. Even in Extras, the character is an ordinary person, albeit in an extraordinary world. If you and Ricky, ten years down the line, get fully entrenched in showbiz, do you fear you might run out of material?
I think there's a very real danger to that. But to be honest with you, when we go to these award events or anything, which might be very showbiz, we sit there like a couple of schoolboys in church giggling. We're sort of laughing at the pomposity of certain people. We feel like we're imposters who have snuck in.

Anyone in particular who's pomposity you've marveled at?
I couldn't name them. I'm in the inner circle now, you know, and it's a circle of trust.

The first season of Extras seemed a bit more drama-based than The Office. Was there a conscious effort to make the second season of Extras more comedy-based? There seem to be more laughs.
Yes. The first season was sort of a transition from the strict realism that we were trying to impose on The Office. We found it very restrictive because we were obsessed with it feeling real, and feeling like it was believable, and that these things could really be unfolding in front of a camera. And so that became restrictive in the end because it just meant there were whole avenues of comedy that you really couldn't go down—it would have felt phony. So we were sort of trying to go down some of those roads with the first season of Extras. In the second season, we just wanted to push it a bit further and have scenes that just play for laughs and that's all they're there for really.

When it comes to the celebrity guest stars on Extras, each plays a twisted version of themselves—Orlando Bloom plays an extreme narcissist, Harry Potter plays a sex-obsessed teen. How open are these stars to parodying themselves in such unflattering lights? Does it take much prodding?
Generally no. If they're interested and available, then normally they're pretty receptive to the ideas. We haven't had to change much. Very occasionally people won't want specific references to their private lives but, they're normally pretty happy to mock their images. I've never quite analyzed why people want to do it. Maybe they think it'll just be a fun day out. Something to do. It's like, when you become very successful I guess you get tired of the usual things that entertain people, theme parks, and things like that, so maybe you need something like this.

Is there a dream celebrity guest star you'd like to have on the show?
Prince would be my dream guest star.

How would you parody Prince?
I've no idea, because what's so extraordinary about him is that I've got no concept of what he's like at home. So my image of him is that, as we speak, he's in some purple hammock strumming a guitar, being fed grapes by concubines. So I guess we'd have to go in the complete opposite direction and reveal that he's sort of in bed by 9 with some slippers and a cup of coco.

Aside from the A-list stars who make cameos, this season has more of Barry from EastEnders playing a tragic version of himself—of an actor who once had some fame and success, but is now having trouble finding work. It seems this role is resurrecting him. You and Ricky are pulling a British version of Tarantino, plucking has-beens from the scrap heap. Is Barry grateful?

Well, I don't think he was on the scrap heap. That would be a bit harsh. It's really just nice to find someone who's talented and a bit overlooked. If there's any justice he'd be given a sitcom of his own and he'd be the star. But he's a good example of the weird, fickle nature of the business. It's like you say, he's considered a has-been, where actually, he's great, and he's just waiting there to be given something to do really.

Do you plan on lifting up other has-beens in the future?
Again, I'm reluctant to use the word has-been. It's so harsh, it's like saying that once you've stopped being on tele, life stops.

I can't think of a more polite word.
Maybe sort of, Missing in Action. Well, who is there? I remain a big Chevy Chase fan. He's deeply underrated. I read recently that he'd done an appearance on Law and Order.

Let's say you had Chevy Chase on in the next season, how might you craft his character?
The thing is, I think it would be more interesting to do what Tarantino did and not have them play themselves, and just give them a great role that shows why they were good in the first place. Like Pam Grier in Jackie Brown. I'd like to have Chevy Chase play a wiseass boss. I think he's at his best when he's a cynical wiseass. Like the newspaperman character in Fletch.

Is Ricky as annoying in real life as people say he is?
Actually, he's not as irritating as he used to be. But he will do things like follow a mate around London for blocks, like a stalker. Or, if he finds out a friend is having a haircut, he'll go to the barber and just sit there watching, making suggestions and such. Stuff like that. It's like Peter Cook as the devil in Bedazzled, when he's picking up LP's in the record shop and just scratching them up. Dudley Moore says, "What are you doing?" And Cook says, "Eh, just routine mischief." And I think that's how Ricky sees it. And friends like it. I think there's something quite enjoyable about having the undivided attention of someone as well known and much loved as Ricky.

Last month (mid-December) you upstaged Ricky at the British Comedy Awards and won the best actor prize for your role in Extras. Was Ricky jealous? He seems much more thirsty for the limelight than you.
No, he wasn't jealous. He was happy I won it, and I was pleased to be acknowledged as a performer because I'd always had one eye on doing some performing.

Could it be the beginning of a more high-profile career?
I do enjoy performing, but I don't think I would ever chase the high-profile gigs at the expense of what I really enjoy: creating and crafting the whole show, particularly with Ricky. I'd like to think of it as a nice sideline.