“Honestly, for a comedian or an upcoming actor, there’s no better role than to play a man without a sense of humor,” Gervais says. “It’s intrinsically funny. I did it with David Brent [from The Office] and a little bit with Ghost Town. I missed it with Andy Millman in Extras, because he’s a bit wiser, and a bit cooler, and he knows his lot. Whereas I love playing that blind spot — a man who thinks the world sees him differently than the way it does. That’s the fun bit.

“They’re not bad people. They’re just twerps. They’re quite sweet, really.”

Gervais, as in the first Night at the Museum movie, plays the somewhat oblivious director of New York City’s Museum of Natural History. Turns out his entire involvement in the franchise is thanks to some very gentle coercion.

“The first time, Ben [Stiller] e-mailed me, he said, ‘I’ve got this part, in a film, do you want to return the favor for me doing Extras? No pressure.’ That was the actual e-mail. So I went, yeah, I came over, I did a couple of days.”

Battle of the Smithsonian proved surprisingly trickier. Gervais has written and was about to direct his first movie, This Side of the Truth (which has since been re-titled The Invention of Lying). Shooting for the two movies ended up being scheduled in the same month.

“[My role] was about a ten-day shoot, but I was filming my own movie, The Invention of Lying, so I had to go and shoot everything in a weekend,” he says. “And they had to change around the schedule — for me! I was thinking, I’m not worth it. But I’m so glad I did.”

He’s already making plans for a third Night at the Museum. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. If they do a third one, I’m going to block out at least two weeks, and be on the screen for at least five minutes.”

In addition to his own projects and popping up in random movies like Stardust and For Your Consideration, Gervais is also known for his brief appearances on various awards shows (watch him kill at the Emmys). Since he always seems to bring the house down, we ask him if he’d ever consider actually hosting one of them.

“I think I’m best in small doses. I could present one award [for every awards show] around the world. That’d be a great job. ‘Award number two…’” Someone suggests he could do it, but then leave halfway through. “Yeah! I’d just start crying. I’d go out there, do a fun little song, and then stop and go ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and have a little breakdown. That’d be great. I’m going to do it.”

I was lucky enough to attend, and even though I live close by, being in the museum is still an exciting experience.  Walk a few feet to the right, and you’re at the Capitol building.  A few feet to the left, and you’re at the Washington Monument.

The red carpet for the event?  A walkway above the main floor of the museum, leading into a gigantic Imax theater.  It’s the one environment where the stars walking the carpet are actually overshadowed by something else — in this case, all the awesome vintage airplanes suspended from the ceiling.

And yet the stars were there — nearly all of them.  I was able to talk to Ben Stiller, returning to the role of museum night guard Larry Daley, Ricky Gervais, as the director of the Museum of Natural History, Hank Azaria, from The Simpsons, who plays an ancient Egyptian troublemaker named Kah Mun Rah (he also voices Abraham Lincoln and The Thinker), Amy Adams, who plays Amelia Earhart as a plucky love interest, and Thomas Lennon, from Reno 911!, who co-wrote the screenplay and appears in a cameo.

Thomas Lennon

Ricky Gervais

Other famous co-stars Robin Williams and Owen Wilson were also perilously close by, but I wasn’t able to grab any quotes from either of them.  Well, kind of — I overheard Wilson telling another reporter it was O.K. to cry at the end of Marley & Me.  Which came as a relief.

Check out my full interview with Ben Stiller and my full interview with Ricky Gervais, and below, you can read quotes from everybody that I figured were worth highlighting:

Ben Stiller on Twitter:

“I don’t think I could do it.  Updating like every ten minutes? It’s a lot of responsibility. I’m not that interesting.”

Hank Azaria

Mizuo Peck (Sacajawea)

Hank Azaria on working with CGI:

“Shooting action scenes with CGI is easy, because they just animate to whatever you do. If you duck, they’ll draw something in that would make you duck. You can do whatever you want. But comedy, when you have to deal with timing, is really hard.”

Thomas Lennon, on making out with Paul Rudd in I Love You Man and co-starring with Zac Efron in 17 Again:

“[I was] terrified on both counts. And, I’ll tell you right now, both were more fun than I expected them to be. If you get the opportunity to do either one, do it. And if you get the opportunity to make out with Zac Efron, do that too. Boy, that boy’s a looker. I mean, I’m here with my wife, but you can’t argue, that’s a good-looking kid.”

Amy Adams, on Hilary Swank also playing Amelia Earhart later this year:

“Oh, we’re completely different. She’ll be fantastic, actually.”

Ricky Gervais, on Ben Stiller coercing him into doing the first movie:

“Ben e-mailed me, he said, ‘I’ve got this part, in a film, do you want to return the favor for me doing Extras? No pressure.’ That was the actual e-mail.”

Hank Azaria, in the voice of Moe from The Simpsons, after a reporter asked him if he’d be an a-hole for asking him to do the voice:

“You would be an a-hole, but I’ll do it anyway. Because Moe’s an a-hole, and it’s very difficult for him to say no to another a-hole. If you weren’t an a-hole, I wouldn’t have done it.”