TORONTO -- It's an accepted fact that Hollywood likes to make movies that are nice and predictable and as universally appealing as possible.
Flying in the face of that truism: Ricky Gervais.
Gervais, 46, is big in Britain on the strength of two hit comedy series: The Office (which was Americanized into an NBC incarnation starring Steve Carell in the Gervais role of an arrogant middle manager) and Extras, a series set among the little people of the movie industry.
But he is clearly not a natural fit for leading-man status on the American screen, with his squidgy-chubby face, his crooked teeth and his sheer, anti-star quality.
And yet, here he is, assuming the leading-man duties in the supernatural comedy Ghost Town. Gervais plays Bertram Pincus, a dentist who awakens from a colonoscopy to discover he died -- briefly -- on the operating table and has emerged with the ability to see the spirits of the dead wandering the streets of New York City.
During the course of interviews during the Toronto International Film Festival, Gervais establishes his Hollywood-outsider credentials early, when asked the inevitable question: Do you believe in ghosts?
Gervais cheerfully responds that he does not. Nor does he believe in elves, or God for that matter.
"I'm an atheist," he says. (Trust me, most Hollywood stars would never make such an admission.)
"But my favourite films are It's a Wonderful Life and The Bishop's Wife," he says.
The angels in those films, he says, "are a metaphor. And they're heartwarming, and I can suspend my disbelief for an hour and a half for a fantasy film.
"Otherwise, I might as well watch a documentary."
That may seem a surprising sentiment coming from Gervais, because, let's face it, sentiment was never a strong suit in The Office and Extras, two TV series with a caustically cynical take on human nature.
"When we ended The Office and Extras, I think we surprised people who thought me and (co-creator Steve Merchant) were very bitter, twisted and cynical people, who thought there's only bad in the world and let's expose it.
"We're not," he says. "I knew the heart of The Office was Tim and Dawn, not David Brent, and I think the heart of Extras wasn't the list of A-listers we got in, it was the friendship between Andy and Maggie.
Gervais says he was ready to play a role in a project with its heart on its sleeve.
"Sooner or later, you've got to drop all the irony, because that can get wearing," he says. "You've got to stand up and unapologetically go: This is nice. This is sweet. This is what I believe in."
Evidently, Hollywood was ready for that too. Director and co-writer David Koepp says the usual comedic leading-man suspects were considered when discussing the initial casting of Ghost Town, with names such as Ben Stiller and Jim Carrey bandied about by studio execs.
"But the character is a misanthropic dentist, which not everybody fits," Koepp says. "It's not an obvious, clearly-that's-a-Ben Stiller movie. It doesn't match that.
"We threw around a lot of names, and Stacey Snyder, who's the head of Dreamworks, was the first one to throw Ricky's name in," Koepp says. "And as soon as I heard it, I couldn't think of anybody else because he so perfectly inhabited the part."
The role required a bit of script tinkering, Koepp says, to accommodate Gervais's three rules: "No wigs, no accents, and I don't kiss anybody."
Hence, he wears no wig, and his character is established as a London export early on. As for nixing any possible kissing scenes with his romantic interest (Téa Leoni), Koepp explains it succinctly. "He doesn't think anyone wants to see that."
Ghost Town opens in theatres on Friday.
randall.king@freepress.mb.ca
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Starring Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni
Opens Friday
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