Gervais's On a Role: This Time, Leading Man

Ricky Gervais, romantic leading man?

Don't laugh. That is, do laugh -- just don't be surprised if you shed a tear or two in "Ghost Town," opening tomorrow, in which Gervais plays a misanthropic dentist who develops the ability to see ghosts, then falls in love with a young widow whose late husband he meets on the other side. (The film co-stars Greg Kinnear and Téa Leoni.)

"Ghost Town" finds Gervais -- best known for his shallow, appallingly un-self-aware characters on such hit series as BBC's "The Office" and HBO's "Extras" -- playing to his strengths as a contemporary Scrooge in a smock. But his first big Hollywood leading role also proves what Gervais's fans have known all along: that even at his most cluelessly caustic, his bumbling, stumbling Everyman has always had a heart in there somewhere.

We caught up with a genial and relaxed Gervais last week at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Ghost Town" was earning enthusiastic word of mouth from critics and the public, for a conversation frequently punctuated by Gervais's cackling laugh.

You're famous for turning down movie roles --

What a thing to be famous for! Who's Ricky Gervais? The man who does nothing! Oh, bravo! [Claps] Oh, that's amazing!

There's only 12 months in a year. I'd rather spend that 12 months on something I'm totally in charge of and proud of than seven films [playing] the quirky IT guy or the butler. Of the 100 I turned down, 70 of them shouldn't have been a film. They should have been, I don't know, a T-shirt. It's not why I do it, anyway. I've never done anything to up my profile. What is that, 'Up your profile'? To me, that's the voice of an agent saying, 'We have to get you noticed.' No, we don't have to get me noticed. We have to get me some pasta. That's all we have to get me. We have to get me home with my cat and my girlfriend watching telly. That's what we have to do for me now.

So, why "Ghost Town" and why now?

I'd basically turned down everything for the last five years. A few got through the net for different reasons -- like Christopher Guest, a hero ["For Your Consideration"]; Ben Stiller, returning a favor ["Night at the Museum"]. Some things you have to say yes to. "Do you want to work with De Niro for a day ['Stardust']?" Yes. "Do you want to write an episode of 'The Simpsons?' " Yes.

But everything else was: No, rubbish, awful, wouldn't work, no, no, busy, busy, no. This one came through, and for some reason I read it, and it was the best script I'd read in five years. It reminded me of something Jimmy Stewart would do, like 'It's a Wonderful Life' or something. I thought: Right, this is me. [My character] starts out as a grump and goes on an emotional journey, just what I love doing.

Your character, Bertram Pincus, seems like a natural, warmer progression from your most famous roles, the shallow David Brent of "The Office" and the sort of prickly Andy Millman on "Extras."

The minutia is magnified in everything I've done. That's what I've always done, the ordinary being made extraordinary. I've always been much more interested by the awkwardness of social faux pas. Because I don't know what it's like to be chased by the Mafia, but I do know what it's like to embarrass myself in front of a waiter. That's epic enough, isn't it? No one's calling their friends up saying, "Have you heard what's happened in Bolivia?" They're saying, "I had to take the cat to the vet. Damn, it ruined my day."