An Interview typed up by Annie of the wonderful Mackenzie Crook Fans Live Journal Community, thanks!

Personality: Speaking to star of BBC2's 'The Office' but also a very familiar, if slightly unusual, if you don't mind me saying so, face on Bristish TV... Mackenzie Crook! How are you?

Mackenzie: Very well, thank you... Very unusual face, heh.

P: Heh heh... New series of 'The Office' -- How did you get involved in that?

M: I went along and auditioned like everyone else. I had met Ricky before when I did a spot on the 11 O'clock Show a few years ago and I met Ricky through that. Apparently it was very close between me and another guy for the part of Gareth. But I... had... the, um... whatever it took, heh.

P: That level of nerdiness that nobody else had.

M: Yep, perhaps that's it.

P: Have you worked in an office like that?

M: I've done various little rubbish jobs. I've only ever worked in an office for a month, total. But that was enough for me.

P: Now Gareth isn't a particularly likable character at all. Do you ever get upset that maybe you could get one of the sort of more lovable roles in the series?

M:I'm resigned to the fact that I'm always going to be one of those nerdy loser roles, heh. 'Cause of what you were saying earlier: just the look of me. I'm never going to be the romantic lead. But that's alright. If I get to play villains and weirdos, I'm completely happy with that.

P: Why do you think it is that The Office is so popular?

M: Various different elements. But it has to come down to the writing, I think. It's Ricky and Stephen's writing... it's just so spot-on. I mean, as soon as I picked up the pilot script... it was a very special piece of comedy.

P: British TV doesn't seem to be anywhere near as good as American TV, that's what people say. They've got the ER, they've got Friends, they've got the Simpsons, and things like that. Why do you think it is that we struggle in producing good sitcoms and come up with things like My Hero all the time?

M: Heh heh. It's... a lot of it has to do with money, I think. In the States, they just plow so much money into writing these things with... consistently good writing. But, I mean, we've got some great comedies coming up in this country. This autumn, and it's not just The Office, it's League of Gentlemen, Alan Partridge is coming back... so, very good comedies coming up.

P: Now, you said you were on the 11 O'clock Show before, which is probably where most people became first aware of you. There's yourself, there's Ali G, there's Ricky Gervais... How did something so bad spring with three sort of comedy geniuses.

M: Heh heh... It became bad as it went on. But I think, the first couple of series, everyone was really into it. The series I was on was the one where Ali G broke and everyone was talking about him... And I think it was quite a good series, but it started to irritate people after a while, heh.

P: Now, a lot of people spend a lot of time in the pub cracking jokes witih their friends. Is that how you got into comedy in the first place?

M: Uh... no. I wanted to be an actor. That's how I got into stand-up. I couldn't be bothered to go to drama school, so I decided to go in the backdoor where you get into stand-up comedy. It's a very good way to get into the world of acting.

P: Who do you admire as a stand-up?

M: Probably my ultimate stand-up hero is Bill Hicks. Although, his style is nothing like mine. He's very much a straight stand-up and I'm very much a character stand-up. But... the ones around at the moment... Daniel Kitson has got to be my favorite.

P: Are you going on tour at any point?

M: Hopefully, I will be going out with Ricky Gervais next year. That's not been confirmed at all, but he's just done a round at the Soho theatre in London doing stand-up and it went down really well. And we were just sort of toying with the idea of putting a tour together but that'll be next year if it comes together at all.