This time last month, British comedian and creator of The Office and Extras, Ricky Gervais, stated that the British film industry was pants. I’m paraphrasing of course, but then that is the sort of thing Gervais would say. He actually said that America do the movie business better than we do, and that the UK hasn’t made a good film since about 1950. Nice.
As a Brit, I was a bit offended by this, and I have nothing to do with the film industry, barring what I do here at Snarkerati: talk about films and get paid for it. But there are a lot of people who do work in the British film industry, and none bigger than Simon Pegg, who made two absolute classics in Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz.
So it’s hardly a shock to learn that he wasn’t happy with Gervais’ comments, and according to Digital Spy, he didn’t hold back with his views on the funnyman. During an interview with the Heart FM radio station, he said:
“He says a lot of things, that man. He said there had been no good British films since 1950. What an idiot.”
“If you go to Los Angeles, you can get sucked into [losing weight]. I’ve seen people go there and suddenly become rake thin because there is a slight pressure to be thin. I’ve also seen a lot of fat people there. He’s one of the fat people in LA, yes.”
You go Mr. Pegg! I like Gervais, have watched all of his various television shows, listened to his record-breaking podcasts, and evn looked forward to his bit parts in One Night At The Museum and Stardust, but he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut rather than dissing the country that essentially made him.
Luckily for us we have more than one comic genius in the UK, and Simon Pegg seems to know which side his bread is buttered.
If you read the quote, he didnt say the British film industry is pants, or that we havent made a good film since the 1950s. He said in general the Americans make better films than us (which is undeniable, if only in terms of volume) and that aside from the odd exception, the British film industry hasn’t produced a decent film in a long time. He discounts the Working Title films because they’re not British, they’re financed almost entirely by American money.