'I'm happy getting the bird'

He created one of the most famous TV characters in recent years. The role won him public recognition, countless awards and the power to do whatever he wanted next. So what possessed Ricky Gervais to switch from playing The Office manager David Brent to voicing a fat, smelly pigeon named Bugsy in the animated movie Valiant?

"This ticked all the right boxes," he says about speaking pigeon English. "It was filmed down the road from my house, it was four days work, and they said I could ad lib. And a lot of it was eating quickly to burp."

You're never quite sure how serious he's being. His flippancy resulted in this week's story - since denied - that he'd turned down a £5m golden handcuffs deal with the BBC to work exclusively for them.

But, speaking in the bar of a London cinema after the world premiere of Valiant, he seems deadly serious about getting the bird. This writer has no worries mouthing someone else's lines. "I was hired as a comic actor, so they did let me come up with things. It's fun, it's their vision. I don't do it very often," he explains.

"There are so many reasons why I turn down films. Fifty per cent you can reject because they're rubbish. Another 50 per cent, it's an arbitrary part. I'm not an actor, I don't have that pressure because I create my own labour. So it's got to tick so many boxes."

The Office, the award-winning BBC series he wrote with Stephen Merchant, ticked many boxes for a lot of people to make Gervais, in his late 30s, a powerful player in the entertainment world.

Until then, his career had been a bit of this and a bit of that. Armed with a philosophy degree, he joined a pop band and ran the entertainment at a students' union. He managed Suede before they were famous, promoted a Queen tribute band and worked in radio.

C4's The 11 O'Clock Show brought him to the notice of the viewing public. He and co-writer Stephen Merchant began developing their ideas for an office-based mock documentary. The result was The Office, which first aired on BBC2 on July 9, 2001.

The rest, as they say, is history, although no-one could have predicted the bit about Bugsy the pigeon. He had no idea what Bugsy would look like as he recorded the dialogue before the animators got to work. "They filmed me doing it and came up with a fat, mouthy pigeon with scruffy hair. I've no idea why," he says.

This is one role of his that he doesn't mind watching. Just as he can't wait to see David Brent shouting in Japanese or Spanish in dubbed versions of The Office, which has been sold to about 100 countries.

"I did four hour-long recording sessions for Valiant," he recalls. "The first time I did it, I was rubbish. I'd never done it before. I'm still mildly embarrassed being an actor, which is a terrible restriction.

"At one point, they were going, 'oh, do it bigger, do it louder, more Cockney'. And I said, 'I think you should have got Bob Hoskins'. I saw them look at each other and they were thinking, 'he's right'. I made him more of a cowardly, wisecracking sort of wide boy - sort of like Bob Hope or Woody Allen, with a bit of me."

Few performers would admit embarrassment at being actors. Gervais sees the main drawback as the celebrity status that goes with being famous.

"Most celebrities I don't want to be associated with, because they're fools," he says. "You get paid too much, paid more than nurses and you don't really do anything. So all I try and do is do my best, and do a few things as well as I can.

"It's not a thing to be proud of. It's not like coming from a war or saving a life. It's mucking around for a living which I would be doing anyway, so I just try and muck around as well as I can."

Fame is a by-product of something he wanted to do. "When I say I don't want to be a celebrity, I don't want to be famous for being famous," he continues. "I want to be famous for something I've achieved, which is why I wanted to act, as opposed to turning up to premieres that I'm not in or go on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Back On Telly, or phone the papers when I buy a bagel," he says.

"Ask people what they want to be and they say famous, not I want to be a writer or a pop star. It's that just wanting to be recognised. You ask a group of the general public who's more famous, someone who was in Hollyoaks once or the bloke who's just found the cure for cancer, and they'd be going, 'oh look, it's her out of Hollyoaks'."

Writers and directors don't get recognised but, because he played David Brent, Gervais does. He saw no reason to deny himself a role that he wanted to play because he knew he could play it well. "Being recognised is the worst bit about this," he says.

"I love the work, I love the creative process, I love the freedom, I quite like the awards, and the money's good. But it's in that order. Being recognised for buying pants is bottom of the list. It's that feeling of not wanting to be trapped in a tube station, or a room full of drunks. So I find I'm back before dark."

Being famous has a certain cachet in being a "sellable face". Without that, he wouldn't be able to get some projects off the ground. The only upside of fame is discovering that some of his heroes like what he does. "That's the biggest buzz, when you find out that Ben Stiller or David Bowie's a fan. As long as you can keep it in context, it's fine.

"I'm quite a private person. I'm not saying some people deserve what comes with celebrity, but if you're the type of person who goes to the opening of an envelope, you can complain less when you don't want press attention. I like people to watch what I do and say it's good. But I don't go out and hang out being photographed."

Fame made it easier to attract big name guest stars, including Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Samuel L Jackson, to appear in his forthcoming BBC2 series Extras. Gervais stars as Andy Millman, a man who gives up his day job to be an actor but finds he can't land the parts.

"I'm much more like Andy Millman than I am David Brent. David Brent is actually quite a nice bloke who tries to please people. He's desperate at his self-image. Whereas Andy Milligan is annoyed at the world. We've shot a scene that's just like me, complaining in a restaurant. And the frustrating thing is, I can't now because I'm famous. So fame has made me a shyer and nicer person."

He'll be proud of the series whether it gets one million or ten million viewers, just as he was proud of The Office before all the awards came along. "The accolades are fun and great, and what you get offered afterwards is fun. But those are diversions. I honestly get a bigger buzz about being in a room and making Steve Merchant laugh. I can't believe my luck," he says.

Writing sounds easier than seeing himself on screen. He hasn't been able to watch his guest appearance in the US TV thriller series Alias "because it's me trying to be cool - I can watch me being a fat, smelly pigeon or a buffoon dancing like a gibbon, but I can't do me being an international terrorist".

He'll be putting his voice to good use again in an episode of The Simpsons, which he's written and in which he penned a role for himself. "I'm voicing it in May in Los Angeles," he says. "I can't do it until I finish Extras. They've been very patient. Think of that - The Simpsons waiting for me. They said, 'we'd better not start, not without Rick. We're only the greatest show in the world'."

* Valiant (U) is now showing in cinemas. Extras begins on BBC2 later this spring.