Two stars of the hit sitcom The Office have opened up about their true feelings towards creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, as well as the American remake of the show. Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook shared their reflections during a new BBC special titled Remember... The Office, which airs on Wednesday night to mark the show's 25th anniversary.
Frustration Over Improvisation Claims
Freeman, who played the exasperated sales rep Tim, said the cast was left frustrated by constant claims that everything from the show came directly from Gervais and Merchant's scripts. “It was all there on the page. However, my true feeling about it is that when it became the monster that it did and people would say it sounded improvised, then understandably, Ricky and Stephen went, 'No, none of it's improvised.' Which is not true,” he explained.
Freeman added that he was annoyed when the published scripts were actually transcriptions of what aired on television, not the original scripts. “What slightly annoyed me at the time is when the scripts were published, they weren't the scripts. They were the transcriptions of what had been on television. So that annoyed me a little bit because, well, anyone who knows any of us knows that that line came from you in that moment, that line came from me.”
Praise for Writing, But Acknowledging Cast Input
Despite his frustrations, Freeman insisted the scripts were “absolutely brilliant” and understood why Gervais and Merchant were protective. “I can understand why there was a little bit of protection about that, because otherwise people would've gone, 'Hey, you just rock up and you just make it all up', which clearly was not the case. The writing on it that they did was brilliant. But you only need to know us a little bit or know the process of it. We're also in there, you know? It doesn't mean it's a co-credit. Doesn't mean it's improvised, but it's nicely loose.”
Dislike for the US Remake
The show was later remade in the United States, with Steve Carell playing the counterpart of David Brent, Michael Scott. The US version became the most successful of all international remakes, but it did not sit well with Freeman and Crook. Crook, who played jobsworth Gareth, recalled: “I remember hearing about it and thinking, 'Why? Why do they need to do that? We've done it, haven't we?' I remember thinking or joking at the time that one day somebody would say something about The Office and I'll say I was in the original, and they'll say, 'I didn't realise there was an original.'”
Crook added that this has happened “countless times” and admitted he never watched the American version beyond the first episode. “I've never seen the American Office. I watched the first episode, which was the same script as our first episode, pretty much. Then I never went back to watching it.”
Freeman also expressed his frustration that “millions of people don't know ours exists.”
