Extras

SCENE: Kate Winslet is on a movie set, schooling extra Andy Millman in the art of seduction. ”I’m aching for your big, purple womb ferret,” she says. Winslet is a nun. Millman is a Nazi. Welcome to Extras, the new British comedy from Ricky Gervais, creator of the much-loved mockumentary series The Office. Gervais plays Millman, an actor who can only land work as an extra. At first it’s hard to distinguish between Millman and ‘The Office’s seedy boss, David Brent. But Gervais, 44, says the characters couldn’t be more different. “Millman is much more misanthropic,” he says over drinks in New York. “He thinks the world owes him a living. I’m much more like Millman than Brent.”

Thanks to the Office’s popularity, Gervais had no trouble recruiting stars like Winslet, Ben Stiller and Samuel L. Jackson. “I would hear that it was David Letterman’s favorite show, or Ben Stiller’s,” he says. “When the time came, I just rang them up and said, ‘OK, put your money where your mouth is.’” Recently, Madonna approached him, claiming to be his biggest fan. “She said she’d do anything I wanted,” he notes. ”But then, she’s forty grand an hour, and she doesn’t make the beds.”

As with ‘The Office, Gervais is planning just two six-episode seasons, though he knows the fans want more. ”Yes, but I know what’s best for them,” he says. “And I don’t want people to get sick of me.”