Revisiting David Bowie’s final interview
During the last years of David Bowie’s life, the only insight fans recieved into his psyche was through his songs. Bowie didn’t need the publicity and, instead, let his music do the talking on his behalf. His final interview, one now etched into the history of popular culture, arrived a decade before his death.
Bowie’s final interview wasn’t a glossy magazine cover nor a cosy rehearsed chat on a sofa with Jonathan Ross or Jimmy Kimmel. Instead, it was an interview from behind the scenes of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom, Extras, for the DVD, which was the final time the Starman spoke on the record. If it’s an in-depth look back at his career you’re expecting, then you’ll be wildly disappointed. However, it offers a priceless insight into his humourous personality and the truth about the man behind the mask.
Bowie and Gervais stoked up a friendship when The Office was on television, thanks to a meeting at the BBC. “The first series of The Office had just aired and I was invited to a special performance at TV Centre,” the comedian said in 2010. “Afterwards, in the green room, the then director-general, Greg Dyke bounced over to me and Jane and said, ‘Do you wanna meet him?’ I said, ‘Oh, I don’t want to pester him’. He said, ‘No, come on’. He then shouted ‘Salman! We’re gonna say hello to David.”
He added: “So there we were, with the head honcho at the Beeb and Salman Rushdie, chatting to Bowie in his dressing room. The next day I was in the pub with a mate and he said, ‘What did you do yesterday?’ and I said, ‘Uh… Nothing. Just stayed in’. It seemed too weird to tell the truth.”
After becoming close, and Gervais became familiar with David Jones rather than just David Bowie, he persuaded the musician to appear in his sitcom as a demented version of himself. Other stars who also poked fun at themselves across the series include Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom, but nobody outshone Bowie.
Bowie somehow stays in character during the interview and delivers his lines with a straight face: “What made me want to do a British sitcom? As you probably know, my background was in serious acting before I started doing the writing, and singing thing, so something like Extras is a piece of cake for me. It was fun working with Rick, showing him pointers, maybe new ways of approaching comedy that he hadn’t really thought about before.”
He then, somewhat cringe-inducingly, acts out some of the ‘jokes’ he’s given to Gervais for future episodes, which he believes to be hilarious and leans fully into the delusional superstar stereotype. As a thank you for appearing in Extras, the comedian agreed to perform at the Highline Festival in New York, which Bowie had curated. The singer-songwriter also introduced him at Madison Square Garden, which was his final public appearance.
