I think possibly the funniest thing Ricky has ever done
is running onto the stage in a tennis outfit
in the play A Month Of Summers.
GERVAIS: Oh, God!
We wanted the play to look like one of those 1950s
homoerotic coming-of-age type things.
And so we thought it would be hilarious that I was in that white, tight T-shirt.
Come on, Fran. You're like...
God, it's...
At one point, I'm sitting cross-legged
and I look like a cross between Buddha and a little frog.
- Are you still talking about the sea? - Of course, what else?
You're mad.
I'm going back to the beach house.
When we sat down to work on that idea for the play,
we agonised over what would be the subject matter,
but particularly the sort of acting style that you get in those very po-faced plays.
You know, people sat around being very earnest
about characters that you've never seen.
Do you remember the first time we came here?
- Yeah, with Paul. - Yeah.
Andy Millman is a little bit edgy about the idea of being thought of as gay.
Well, actually, he's sort of like a fish out of water, really,
because, um, he wants to move away from his past
and his sort of thuggish, homophobic mates
who might not have the artistic aspirations that he has.
And yet, when he tries to do something for the wrong reasons,
get a bit of credibility doing this gay story...
You're mad.
...he's not comfortable with that either.
I think that whole series is about him being, you know, caught between different worlds...
He's a little bit of a hypocrite, as I think most of us are in some way.
I think so, yeah.
If we were to draw a graph of my process, of my method,
it would be something like this. Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, action!
"Wizard, you shall not pass!" Cut. Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.
MERCHANT: Sir Ian McKellen was extraordinary.
People often talk about the great Shakespearean actors
and how they were mesmerising on stage.
And I'd never really understood what that was and it wasn't until we were sat there,
filming those sequences, where he's just talking rubbish about acting,
that I, personally, was just transfixed by him. I mean, he just...
There's just something about the way that man performs.
There's something about his charisma, about the way he just hypnotises you.
I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard
and then I pretended
and acted in that way on the day.
- Yeah. - And how did I know what to say?
(WHISPERING) The words were written down for me in a script.
How did I know where to stand? People told me.
We've also got quite a lot of business in that episode...
I mean, I love bits of comic business,
and I don't think we, perhaps, did enough of that in the past,
enough sort of pratfalling and clumsiness and stuff.
So I'm hitting chairs...
- Andy. - Oh, for fuck's sake! The fuck!
It's nice to do physical comedy, but it needs to be justified.
We don't just want a plank hanging round, or someone falling off a chair.
We almost want it to be an upshot of their own, um, I don't know,
ego or pretension.
Do you know what, er, time we finish tonight?
- I don't know. About 10:00-ish, I think. -10:00, hey...
(SPLUTTERING)
GERVAIS: I think it's the most sitcomy we've ever been as well.
Just wanted to know what time we finished.
GERVAIS: There was echoes of When The Whistle Blows.
That was unlucky.
Even down to the "Get some Vaseline" joke where I'm caught in my shorts.
I mean, if you have Sir Ian McKellen in a room
with Rick in his underwear and you don't do that joke,
you're, you know... It's a crime against comedy.
- No. He can't kiss me on the lips. - Why is that?
- Cold sore. - Where?
- Yeah, opening night. Sod's law. - What, let me see.
- You can't really... It's underneath. - No!
- Don't you worry about that. - I do worry about that.
We'll soon sort that out. Old theatre trick. Yeah.
George, can you get us some Vaseline?
I also obviously had a great time doing the sequence with the lavatory, and Ashley.
We sort of thought it would be fun to put them on a date together
because they're a very unlikely couple.
And it sort of maybe sent the audience down the wrong road,
that they'd think we were gonna end up together.
- Are you okay? - Yeah, just waiting for the cistern to refill.
Just left a bit of...
Didn't, you know, flush away completely. So... Anyway...
My parents told me they can't watch that scene. They refuse to watch it.
And I find it quite unpleasant.
Don't worry about it.
Do you know, I don't want you to have to see it.
I don't want you to have to worry about it.
MERCHANT: But it just seemed to us just a lovely piece of, again, business.
You know, what it the worst thing you could do on a date?
- That's up there. - That's up there.
I was just mashing it up.
(EXCLAIMS)
I found it a little bit difficult having more acting to do in this series
because I don't naturally take to remembering lines.
Often, I've sat down because I've got the lines hidden around the set.
I'm very dependent on Ricky guiding me in that performance.
I've got no real sense of what I'm doing as I'm saying lines.
I don't know what my face is doing...
Maybe that comedy award should be mine, then.
Well, maybe if you'd put in a little bit more work, you'd have...
You know, maybe if you'd been in the country...
They had to give it to someone who actually could be bothered to turn up.
Nice. Very well done. Well done. Good one.
I was about to compliment you, so I won't now.
No, I was gonna say that I rely on you because I trust your opinions.
- But now I'm not gonna say that. - Too late.
Caught me. Caught me, eh?
That's why he's brilliant. That's why he's got the BAFTAs and the Globes.
- The Emmy. - What?
- And the Emmy. - Right.
Come on.