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" Six years after creating David Brent, the attention-starved boss on the British version of The Office, Ricky Gervais, 45, is finally becoming familiar in America. That was him at the Emmys when the U. S. Office won Best Comedy. His underrated HBO comedy Extras kicks off its second season January 14. And after showing up in Christopher Guest&amp;#039;s For Your Consideration, he shares screen time with Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum. ESQ: How did the master of cringe comedy end up in a big Ben Stiller vehicle? RG: I read the film and thought it was good. But it&amp;#039;s not what I do. We had to tweak it to make it very me. ESQ: What&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;very you&amp;quot;? RG: Pompous. Pretentious. A putz who thinks he&amp;#039;s in charge, but people laugh at him behind his back. And when I say &amp;quot;me,&amp;quot; I hopefully mean some of my characters.  ESQ: Is it important to you to be embraced in America? RG: It&amp;#039;s far more exciting for me to be one of the very few Brits who have actually been appreciated by an American audience. I unashamedly like to be part of an exclusive club. I do that with my comedy. It sounds elitist and snobby, but when you&amp;#039;re creating art you&amp;#039;ve got to be a complete fascist.  ESQ: Why has NBC&amp;#039;s Office taken off? RG: They stuck to the mood. They didn&amp;#039;t add a laugh track. They didn&amp;#039;t gag it up too much. They didn&amp;#039;t have ridiculous plotlines. They didn&amp;#039;t panic when it got low focus groups. It takes balls in America, where things are canceled before the first commercial break.  ESQ: Do you ever watch and say, &amp;quot;Eh, I wouldn&amp;#039;t have done that.&amp;quot; RG: Personally, I wouldn&amp;#039;t have had Jim leave to work in another office, because I wantedthe claustrophobia. But that&amp;#039;s why we stopped after 12 [episodes]. ESQ: Why are you drawn to these stories about people wanting to be famous? RG:The Office came directly from watching these docusoaps where people with no talent were famous overnight. Do I want to see you shopping? Well, no. I don&amp;#039;t know who you are. I don&amp;#039;t really want to see Al Pacino shopping, and I like him. ESQ: Who are your comedy heroes? RG: Laurel and Hardy. The Marx Brothers. Christopher Guest. Garry Shandling. Larry David. Jerry Seinfeld. Woody Allen.  ESQ: All Americans.  RG: American comedy is better. It aims higher.  ESQ: Where is David Brent today? RG: He may be consulting. He may be planting trees. He might even be married. All I know is you&amp;#039;ll never see him again. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a2142/esq0107rickygervais/>