Martin Freeman Challenges Ricky Gervais’s Claim That ‘The Office’ Was Fully Scripted

Whether it’s the British version or the U.S. version, The Office remains one of the most well-loved sitcoms to come out of Hollywood. Show alum Ricky Gervais, who has appeared in both versions, has long maintained that the entire series was scripted, with very few deviations in the delivery of the dialogue.

However, that longstanding claim has now been challenged by Martin Freeman. His comments were prompted by the publishing of the show’s official scripts, which annoyed him. The published materials are actually transcripts of what aired, which Freeman believed obscures the contributions of the actors on the show.

Martin Freeman expressed his annoyance at the official, published script, claiming that it is not, in fact, the scripts the original cast worked with.

Speaking on the BBC Two special Remember... The Office, he said, “What slightly annoyed me at the time, but only slightly at the time, is that when the scripts were published, they weren’t the scripts – they were the transcriptions of what had been on telly, so that annoyed me a little bit because anyone who knows any of us knows that line came from you in that moment, that line came from me.”

He made the comments in conversation with a fellow Office alum, Mackenzie Crook, who played Gareth on the show.

Still, Freeman said he understood why Gervais felt he had to make those claims. Freeman explained that although parts of the show were improvised, the size of the fandom that the series had acquired may have led Gervais to describe it as fully scripted instead.

According to Martin Freeman, one reason Gervais may have chosen to describe the show as entirely scripted was to shield it from potential backlash. Freeman voiced similar concerns, saying, “[I] can understand why there was a little bit of protection about that because otherwise people would have gone, ‘Hey, you just rock up and just make it all up,’ which is clearly not the case.”

However, the actor also clarified that he did not mean to diminish the writing on the show, which he said was equally responsible for its comedic brilliance. He said, “The writing on it was brilliant – but you only need to know us a little bit or know the process of it, to know we’re also in there. It doesn’t mean it’s a co-credit, it doesn’t mean it’s improvised; it’s nicely loose.”