Ricky Gervais reportedly regrets making a joke at the 2011 Golden Globes so much that he wishes he could take it back.
When hosting the awards show, he introduced Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and managed to seriously insult the latter after listing off Hanks' long list of career highlights. When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter The Office star admitted that Allen ""took [the joke] the wrong way."
"What can I say about our next two presenters?" he asked back in 2011.
"The first is an actor, producer and director whose movies have grossed over $3.5bn at the box office. He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes for his powerful and varied performances, starring in such films as Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan. The other... is Tim Allen."
Check out this other awkward Golden Globes moment where Rami Malek was blanked by Nicole Kidman...
"I’m teasing Tim Allen. But anyone standing next to Tom Hanks, unless it’s Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford or Robert De Niro, that could be me. But it happened to be Tim Allen. And I have nothing against Tim Allen. He’s a good actor. He’s probably a nice bloke," Gervais continued to the publication.
"So even though there’s no malice and I can justify it comedically and everyone laughed, I didn’t want Tim Allen to think, ‘Oh, that was written for me. Why me?’ Well, because you were standing next to Tom Hanks."
The 58-year-old is returning as this year's Golden Globes' emcee, but he is going to be changing up his comedy routine by not picking on one person in particular;
"I think I’ll go after the general community. I’d go after cinema and I’d go after television and I’d go after actors and I’ll go after pretension and hypocrisy," he explained. "You know what I mean? I’d go after those big, nebulous things where they can all feel I’m not picking on any one person. I’m never going to point to someone and say, “You had a bad year, mate,” you know?"
