Ralph Ineson has claimed that he was “intimidated” by Ricky Gervais when he first appeared in The Office.
The 55-year-old actor, who stars in The Fantastic Four: First Steps as Marvel villain Galactus, first rose to fame in 2001 when playing the thoroughly unlikable Chris “Finchy” Finch in the BBC sitcom.
Finchy, a sales representative on the show with an incredibly offensive sense of humour, appeared in seven episodes of the comedy and is practically hero-worshipped by Gervais’s character David Brent.
Although “Finchy” was a standout on the series, Ineson has revealed that he had personal doubts as to whether he could match the early high standards that the likes of Gervais, Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis had set on the show.
“I remember being really terrified. How brilliant they were, the central four, firing off each other,” the actor told The Guardian. “I was slightly intimidated. My first thought was: ‘S***, can I do this?’”
Ineson, who was sent a VHS of The Office’s pilot episode before filming his parts, decided to play the character as a Yorkshireman and used his own accent so he didn’t have to worry about “keeping up with the rest of them”.
Although it gave Finchy a distinctive characteristic, Ineson said it was a “big mistake” as fans, for years later, assumed “that I wasn’t acting; that was just my personality”.
“So having people thinking you’re Chris Finch, looking at you with amusement, but also a bit of disgust, a bit of fear – he’s just such a s***ter. It’s not a nice skin,” he explained.
Ineson also said that it proved difficult for his career as, for a long while, he “just got offered w***ers, racists, misogynists and homophobes.”
The actor’s comments arrive after Ineson admitted that his role, as the gigantic Galactus in The Fantastic Four, got him in trouble with his wife.
Speaking to Empire about preparing for the part, Ineson admitted that, in order to get into Galactus’s headspace, he had to think large. This included driving through the tunnels of Mont Blanc in the Alps and “imagining that was his windpipe and his trachea”.
However, this type of contemplation did prove to be detrimental, at least in the eyes of his wife. “I also went to a lot of tall buildings. We went to a wedding at the top of the Gherkin building in London, and I spent most of the afternoon just staring out, ruminating. I got in trouble with my wife – she was like, ‘You’ve got to say hello to the bride and groom at some point!’”
