Gervais 'was afraid of film failure'

Ricky Gervais has revealed that he avoided making a movie for more than ten years because he was afraid of failure.

Gervais said that he and co-writer Stephen Merchant waited until they had an idea like forthcoming comedy drama Cemetery Junction, which is due for release next year.

Contactmusic quotes the star as saying: "I think there'd be a prejudice if I was in it. There are prejudices out there - it's because people leap too quickly. They get one hit on TV and they try to make a film and it's dreadful. It's advertised for a week and then goes straight to DVD.

"You want to go in at a higher level. We resisted this for ten, 11 years."

He added: "When The Office first came out we went round every film company and got offered a film deal. We took the card and said, 'We'll call you when we've got an idea'. We think we've done the film proud."