Gervais Ready to ‘Swap’ with Homer Simpson
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Meeting “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening was like being granted “an audience with the pope,” Ricky Gervais says.
Gervais, the creator of “The Office” and an avowed fan of “The Simpsons,” wrote and will guest star in an episode of the long-running FOX series this season. He says his appearance on the show fulfills a goal he set when he started his career.
“When I first got into comedy it was my ambition to get a joke on The Simpsons,” he tells the BBC. “Now I’ve got a whole episode. I can just imagine waking up one day and finding out it’s all been a dream.”
The episode, tentatively scheduled for early 2006, will find Gervais playing a character similar to his clueless “Office” manager, David Brent. He and Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) will trade places for a week as part of a “Wife Swap”-style show.
Speaking to reporters last month at the summer TV press tour, Gervais joked that the “Simpsons” team had initially approached him about doing a guest spot, “and then I think they got bored and said, ‘Do you want to write it as well?’
“I went, ‘All right.’ So I put a few things down, sent it to them. They made it really good, and they just gave me the credit.”
In the BBC interview, though, he allows that things were maybe a little more collegial.
“They quoted ‘The Office’ to me, and to show them I was just as good, I quoted ‘The Simpsons’ back at them,” he says. “We were slapping each other’s backs so hard we were red raw.”
Gervais’ latest live-action project, the showbiz comedy “Extras,” is currently airing on BBC2 and will premiere on HBO in this country in September.
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