 Ricky Gervais is the greatest
actor in the world. He says so Himself on
His website. It's not
always easy to know quite when RG means what he says, so it was with
enormous trepidation that I joined him at Pinewood Studios for two
days filming an episode of the second series of Extras, the hit
show for BBC TV and
HBO. It wasn't made any easier that the character I was
playing was called "Ian McKellen". In Extras RG plays
another actor Andy Millman, star of a dodgy BBC sitcom When the
Whistle Blows, who is eager for a change and comes to audition for
a part in a new stage play which Ian McKellen is to direct. With
me so far?
 There are many jokes in this episode of
Extras, one of them being that Ian McKellen is gay and also that
he is unsufferably pompous. That makes for tricky territory,
particularly when the script has been written by two experts in irony,
masters of the put-down, the snigger and the snub, RG and his partner
(in, I'm pretty sure, the non-sexual sense) Stephen Merchant, now
graduated from co-writing The Office to be an actor as Andy
Millman's agent.
I don't want to spoil the fun but this is how
my first scene began:
INT.CASTING ROOM.DAY
An ASSISTANT is walking ANDY in. Assorted
theatre-types are sat around talking. The ASSISTANT and ANDY approach
SIR IAN MCKELLEN.
ASSISTANT
Excuse me. This is Andy Millman.
IAN McKELLEN
Ahh, hello.
They shake hands
ANDY
It's a pleasure to meet you Mr McKellen.
IAN McKELLEN
Oh no, it's not Mr McKellen...
ANDY
Sorry, Ian...
IAN McKELLEN
No, Sir Ian.
ANDY laughs, taking this for a joke. IAN
McKELLEN looks completely dead-pan. ANDY realises he's not joking.
ANDY
Sir Ian... etc
As I'd been invited to comment on the script
to suit my personality, I called RG to suggest the script had got me
wrong, a little. I am one of those knights who prefers not to
use the title professionally. Perhaps RG and SM had confused me
with another acting "Sir". I suggested a substitute joke more in
keeping with my attitude to such formalities:
ASSISTANT
Excuse me. This is Andy Millman
IAN McKELLEN
Of course it is. Welcome Andy.
They shake hands
ANDY
It's an honour to meet you Sir Ian.
IAN McKELLEN
Oh no, please, it's not Sir Ian.
ANDY
Sorry, Mr McKellen.
IAN McKELLEN
No, not him either. No titles please. Please don't separate me out
from the rest of you. Please. We are all workers at the coal-face. If
you're going to call me Sir Ian then I'm going to have to call you Mr.
Milkman and that would never do would it?
On his mobile, RG was non-committal. You
can judge the compromise we made when the episode is aired later this
year.
It was a thrill to be so close to a comic
actor in his prime but nerve-making too. So I was relieved somewhat
when after one of my lines (which he had co-penned) RG guffawed so
loudly that we had to start the scene again -- and then again, as he
laughed some more. This was reassuring and alarming
simultaneously. I mean, if he ever stopped laughing would it
mean I was no longer being funny? I said I wished he could
control the open expression of his glee as I wasn't sure I could be
much good if he kept interrupting. "But that's it you see," RG
confided straight-faced, "My job is make you look crap so I can win
the BAFTA". Then the greatest actor in the world roared with
laughter. So did I. One of us, at least, was acting. --
Ian McKellen, August 2006
On DVD in UK, 26 March 2007
TRAILER LINKS:
Windows
Low:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_30k.asx
Mid:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_330k.asx
High:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_850k.asx
Real
Low:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_30k.ram
Mid:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_330k.ram
High:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_850k.ram
Quicktime
Low:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_30k_meta.mov
Mid:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_330k_meta.mov
High:http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/media/video/extras_2_trailer_850k_meta.mov
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