New York — RICKY GERVAIS was hanging out with some friends here recently when he experienced another brush with the uncomfortable byproduct of fame.
A group of Australian tourists approached the British comedian and asked casually, "Hey, you want to come have a beer with us?"
Gervais adopted a look of befuddlement as he recalled the exchange. "I'm with friends," he told them with disbelief. "No, I don't want to go have a beer with you."
The Australians seemed surprised.
Such awkward moments simultaneously amuse and appall Gervais, who harbors a deep dislike for celebrity and the superficial sense of intimacy it creates. They occur frequently when he's back home in London, where the pudgy actor-writer is well-recognized as the creator and star of the original BBC version of the television comedy "The Office."
"Everyone knows who you are, so you're always on," he said in a recent interview at HBO's Midtown offices, sporting a white T-shirt and stubble as he sipped from a coffee mug. "You're always thinking, 'How am I behaving?' "
Yet such discomfort also provides great fodder for his latest comedy, "Extras," which has aired in England and returns for its second season in the U.S. on Sunday on HBO. Conceived as a sardonic look at unsuccessful actors trying to make it in the movie business, the series takes a new turn this season when a sitcom script written by the long-struggling Andy Millman, played by Gervais, is picked up by the BBC.
Andy's exuberance is quickly diminished when network executives proceed to dumb down the workplace comedy, titled "When the Whistle Blows." They make him don a curly black wig and outsized glasses for his part as a dim factory boss. They insist his character utter an annoying catchphrase whenever someone appears to have cracked a joke: "Are you having a laugh?"
Critics pan "When the Whistle Blows," which is nevertheless a popular hit, a fact that only further depresses Andy. In one scene, he is accosted at a pub by fans of the sitcom who urge him to deliver his character's catchphrase, which he does with no small amount of self-loathing.
"The big theme of it, I suppose, is 'Don't compromise,' " Gervais said. "Be careful what you wish for. Success without respect is nothing."
Some of the incidents that befall Andy on "Extras" -- like getting recognized by the homeless -- were drawn from Gervais' own experiences.
