Ricky Gervais calls rom-com debut 'perfect'

Last Updated: Saturday, September 6, 2008 | 7:06 PM ET

CBC News

Ricky Gervais, left, and Greg Kinnear discuss their new film Ghost Town on Saturday during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

He may be an award-winning TV star, hit comedian and record-setting podcaster, but Britain's Ricky Gervais says he pored through hundreds of scripts before finding the right fit for his first star turn on film.

After making cameos and playing supporting roles in movies such as For Your Consideration and Night at the Museum, Gervais graduates to leading-man status in the upcoming romantic comedy Ghost Town, featured in a gala screening at Toronto's film fest on Friday night.

"I actually never thought that my first film wouldn't be written by me and [frequent collaborator] Stephen Merchant," the comedian and co-creator of The Office and Extras told reporters in Toronto on Saturday.

After turning down countless scripts over the past few years though, Gervais came across Ghost Town, co-written by John Kamps and David Koepp, who also directs.

In the film, Gervais portrays a cranky ex-pat British dentist who is suddenly able to see ghosts. They, naturally, want to use him to liaise with the world of the living, especially Kinnear, who seeks to disrupt the romantic life of his widow.

"I just thought 'I can do this. This is me … I don't need to be George Clooney or Brad Pitt,'" Gervais said, also dubbing the film funny, sweet and perfect.

Admitting to being generally intimidated by the experience of co-stars like Greg Kinnear, one thing that did concern Gervais was avoiding the trappings of a typical romance.

"My fear was people thinking I was taking myself too seriously," he said. "I didn't [want] that thing where the music swells up and I get the girl and that's just the way because it'd be nauseating."

Koepp, whose credits include writing or co-writing blockbusters such as the latest Indiana Jones sequel, the War of the Worlds remake, Spider-Man, Mission: Impossible and Jurassic Park, hailed the British comedian as perfect for Ghost Town.

"When it came time to start talking about actors, being a studio comedy ...," Koepp began.

"Oh no, I wasn't first choice," Gervais interrupted to a roomful of laughter. "It was Bill Murray, wasn't it? Steve Carrell?"

Koepp acknowledged that "names got kicked around," but that "as soon as someone said Ricky Gervais, it was impossible to think of anyone else because it did so perfectly suit the fact that he is sort of the master of the comedy of the uncomfortable, and that's what we were going for."

Whether he is writing his own work or taking on more acting, Gervais said he doesn't plan to veer tremendously off course from the brand of comedy that made him famous.

"I suppose that you've got to play with what you've got, so I do like being like that: socially awkward," he said.

"If I'm writing it, it will have my stamp on it … I'm not really an actor for hire. I'm a comedian."

Ghost Town, starring Gervais, Kinnear and Tea Leoni, opens across North America Sept. 19.