Simon Astier and “The Office”

Every day this summer, a celebrity tells us about their favorite series, or the latest big series they devoured. Actor and director Simon Astier chose “The Office” (English version).

Simon Astier is the little brother of Alexandre Astier and himself, creator and director of series, including Market, broadcast in 2024 on TF1. His favorite series is The Office created by and starring Ricky Gervais, as a down-and-out manager of a small SME in the industrial suburbs of London. “I think it’s my favorite series because of the tone and the dull side, which enhances the writing and humor”he explains.

Even though the series describes the normal daily life of an English company, Simon Astier likes to be told stories without exoticism. “‘The Office’ is about hierarchy and the pettiness of power struggles, he said. It tells our daily life. I need to be taken somewhere else, to see dragons and magic, but it’s true that Ricky Gervais manages to create exoticism through his tone and his perception of human relationships and the stories that it can generate.”

The Office is a series in the form of a mockumentary, with the protagonists looking towards the camera, which gave rise to one of Simon Astier’s favourite moments. “The episode where he sings with his guitar in the meeting room is quite extraordinary because everyone comments on his song and it annoys him, he says. It’s one of the greatest comedy moments in the series.”

The series was later adapted in the United States with Steve Carell, although Simon Astier prefers the original with Ricky Gervais. “He is a man who has an extremely strong universe and he manages to speak on all subjects, he explains. He manages to tell the story of both the smallness of the world and its greatness. For me, he understood the spectrum of humanity and often, the English have this ability to transcribe what humans are in a very credible way, without concession.”

The two seasons of The Office, English version, are available on DVD.