Stephen Merchant on ‘The Outlaws,’ ‘The Office,’ and Rumors of ‘Falling Out’ With Ricky Gervais
It has now been more than 20 years since Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais changed TV comedy forever with the original British version of The Office. Now, after co-starring with Gervais in Extras and creating his own HBO comedy series Hello Ladies, Merchant is back with The Outlaws, a surprisingly intense crime thriller—with plenty of laughs throughout—that co-stars Christopher Walken and just landed on Amazon Prime Video.
In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Merchant talks about creating that series with an ex-convict and how they got Walken to paint over an original Banksy in the finale. He also tells stories about the early days of The Office, what he thought about the even more successful American version, his complicated relationship with Gervais, and a lot more.
Merchant explains that surprising viewers with the dramatic tone of The Outlaws was always “part of the intention.” Going all the way back to his very first TV project, with what even he now refers to as “the British version of The Office,” the comedian says, “There was always a whiff of drama. We weren’t always just chasing the laugh, and if a scene needed to end with a beat of emotion or with an awkwardness, we were happy to go there.