Ricky Gervais says that the characters in After Life ‘aren’t freaks’

Virgin Radio

28 Jan 2022, 08:15

With the final season of After Life having been out for a couple of weeks now, fans are still coming to terms with the fact that we won’t be seeing any of the ragbag residents of Tambury again, and Ricky Gervais has spoken about what the characters mean to him.

“The people in After Life, that’s how real people look.” he said in a recent interview with NME. “The people in After Life aren’t freaks. Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney – they’re freaks! No one looks like that! But you walk around an average British town it’s full of people who look like me. They’re screwed up.”

Across three seasons of the massively popular Netflix show, we followed Tony Johnson, a grieving widower (played by Gervais) who suffers from depression after the death of his wife. Along the way, a group of friends and colleagues help Tony gradually find small shards of light in the darkness, while each dealing with their own issues.

“I like humanity,” Gervais told NME, “warts and all. That’s the people I want to represent.” 

The show’s creator, writer and star continued: “I write about them because winners aren’t funny. There’s nothing remotely amusing about being perfect and winning. Being flawed is funny. Having a bad day is funny.”

He added: “Clowns, comedians, characters, they fall over for our amusement, but they get up again. And that’s what we want. They’ve got to get up again. That’s the rules. Real life Laurel and Hardy. They keep trying. They keep losing. That’s funny.

"That’s the message of After Life. You’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to keep trying.”

Since season three aired on January 14th to conclude the emotional comedy-drama, Gervais has admitted to being “overwhelmed” by viewers’ response to the show. He said in a tweet: “I will never get over the reaction to #AfterLife and I'll probably never better it.”

In another tweet, he wrote: “Thank you so much for all your beautiful tweets. I've honestly never had a reaction like this.”

Seasons 1-3 of After Life are streaming on Netflix now.