That may seem rich coming from a man whose public persona is often a mix of nasty comments and arrogance, and who has almost turned "I don't care" into a catchphrase. It's most easily observed each time Gervais hosts the Golden Globes, firing personal insults faster than awards are handed out, and never even hinting that he's sorry.

That's not the Ricky Gervais sitting opposite me, however. This is Gervais the friendly, sincere, thoughtful interviewee, who occasionally lets rip his famous laugh, a cross between siren and hyena that was recently turned into a novelty dance track. On the set of Special Correspondents, a film for which he is writer, director, producer and lead actor, the 54-year-old is unassumingly dressed in the drab, baggy shorts and T-shirt of his character, Finch the hapless radio technician.

Like Gervais' other loser characters, including horrible boss David Brent from The Office, and Extras' struggling actor Andy Millman, Finch arguably draws on aspects of his creator's personality: Gervais the Everyman: the chubby Englishman with a working-class accent, who studied philosophy, failed as a popstar, had a low-paying job for years, and is still with the woman he fell in love with at age 21.

By putting different aspects of himself, and those around him, into his film and television characters, Gervais creates comedy that is, as America Ferrera says, "based in reality". The actress, taking a quick break from her final Special Correspondents scene, adds that "his characters can be hilarious or ridiculous or really over the top on paper, but he always brings such a human and grounded quality to his work".

Special Correspondents, which is loosely based on French film Envoyes Tres Speciaux, is populated with the kind of flawed characters found in everyday life. Gervais describes Finch as "a nice guy who comes second". He is sent to Ecuador with hotshot reporter Frank (Eric Bana), a "macho man who doesn't care about anyone but himself", but a farcical mistake sees them filing fake reports from the Spanish restaurant opposite their New York radio station. They are ineptly assisted in this ruse by the "sweet, honest, devoted couple" who own the restaurant (Raul Castillo and Ferrera, best known for TV's Ugly Betty).

"I do social satire, so my target is types," says Gervais. "I do politics with a small P, and I delve in philosophy ... Arrogance and stupidity and ego and all those things which is people thinking they're right when they're wrong."

This is most evident in the odd, very reluctant couple that is Finch and Frank. While the latter describes himself as "a very big, angry fish in a little pond", and considers his sound guy a loser, Finch lacks self-confidence but is generally competent, even resourceful. "It's a good dynamic," says Bana, "because when the smart guy thinks he's the dumb guy and the dumb guy thinks he's the smart guy it's a good place to be able to bounce off."

Like Gervais and Ferrera before him, Bana is wedged into a small room for a round-table interview with three journalists. It's a long way from Hollywood, and not merely because this bare, fluorescent-lit space is the antithesis of Tinseltown glamour.

It's literally a long way from Hollywood, as Special Correspondents was mostly filmed at Pinewood Toronto Studios in Canada. Apart from a few street scenes shot in the real New York, the studios and a nearby park doubled as Ecuador and the Big Apple – rather apt for a satire about media hype and trickery that turns on geographical deception.

Special Correspondents is also removed from the Hollywood movie machine in a way that was not even possible a few years ago. It's among the first flurry of original films produced by Netflix, the streaming service that has already developed a strong reputation for original episodic series such as House of Cards.

For "25 years, and particularly the last 10 years, movies have been done by committee", says Gervais. Premium cable television "started taking over the art of it all" with series such as The Wire and The Sopranos, "and now Netflix comes along ... doing real movies ... that haven't been focus grouped, that haven't been designed by committee. It's bringing back the auteur potentially".

Netflix "haven't interfered at all", says Gervais, who is directly involved in his projects from script to final edit. In the past, his "biggest chore ... was making sure no one interfered. That seemed to take up as much of my energy as writing and directing".

He admits to being a control freak, "but I think in terms of art that's not a negative thing. With art you have to be a complete fascist, because it's not a democracy, everyone knows that, and as much as I couldn't do it without all these people, direction is a matter of taste and it's answering 10,000 questions a day".

A feature of this self-described fascist's directorial style is working quickly, something that is often remarked upon on set. "Ricky likes to move," says Ferrera, clicking her fingers, eyes wide with astonishment. "I've never in my life worked so few hours on set ... It's probably what gives his work a sense of just like off the cuff, (as if) you're a fly on the wall."

"If I was to be given The Matrix 4 I'd panic," says Gervais, "but here it's mine, I wrote the script, I've lived with it for two years, I know what I want, I don't have to phone anyone to ask permission to change a line. Anything that goes wrong I ... can adapt."

With Gervais in front of the camera for most scenes, adaptation usually happens on the spot. It's a refreshing change for Bana, who is accustomed to the "director being behind the monitor, or in a tent somewhere, or not, so you have to Chinese whisper through the crew to get messages backwards and forwards". Gervais, on the other hand, is "right there, he knows when something isn't working, he can stop and start ... [without] the machine grinding to a halt".

Another feature of Gervais' directorial approach is having fun. "You hear all the time that comedians are these tortured souls or that often they're the most serious person on set," says Ferrera, but "Ricky's enjoying himself thoroughly".

Concerns about keeping a straight face while working with the comedian also evaporated, because "he is the first one to crack ... and laughs for seven minutes". Anxiety about being sufficiently funny herself faded because "he's always looking for a reason to laugh".

According to Bana, "it's certainly not a case of I have to straight bat every possible thing and he's there to get the laughs. He's palming off stuff all day, every day ... He's very generous with the humour. He's happy for it to come from everywhere".

Gervais seemed to be everywhere for several years after The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Stephen Merchant, made him a household name (remarkably with just 14 genre-defining episodes). But since his Netflix original series Derek concluded in 2014, he has mostly been occupied behind the scenes. "My family think I've given up," he quips. "They say: 'I haven't seen you on telly much'. No, well I'm writing. If you don't go on Dancing with the Stars they think you're finished."

This year he is back in the spotlight. In January, Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the first time since his controversial run between 2010 and 2012, next month he returns to stand-up comedy after a six-year hiatus, and David Brent: Life on the Road, another film with Ricky Gervais all over the credits, follows the traditional route into cinemas later in the year.

This month, he heads to the Tribeca Film Festival for Special Correspondents' premiere shortly before it bows on Netflix. "It's not a typical knock-about comedy," he says. "It's more in the vein of Tootsie or Groundhog Day or one of those old-fashioned things like It's a Wonderful Life. It's a little bit more grown-up and slightly more thought provoking."

It's not giving anything away to say that the heroes are rewarded and the villains get their comeuppance, or redeem themselves. Being a Ricky Gervais project, however, there's pleasure in discovering which characters are the heroes and villains, and who, like ordinary people, are somewhere in between.

Special Correspondents is on Netflix from April 29.

Eric Bana with guest Bruce Ruxton on his show The Eric Bana Show Live. Photo: Channel 7

Eric Bana's return to fun

When America Ferrera met Eric Bana on the Special Correspondents set, she asked if it was his first comedy. His response, about having had "a whole career in Australia where I was just known as a comedian", surprised the actress. "I had no idea," she says.

For Australians who laughed at his antics on television during the 1990s, most notably on popular sketch-comedy series Full Frontal, it may be surprising that most people outside his homeland, and under a certain age, know Bana as a dramatic actor. The fact is, this century he has almost always played guys who are brooding or tough or both.

His AFI Award-winning title-role performance in 2000's dark comedy-drama Chopper led to a small part as a hardened soldier in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. Before the decade was done, Bana had starring roles as a troubled scientist (The Hulk), a doomed warrior (Troy), psychotic villain (the Star Trek movie reboot), Mossad agent (Munich), Henry VIII (The Other Boleyn Girl) and, back in Australia, Romulus, My Father's heartbroken immigrant.

Funny People – in which his character's explanation of Aussie Rules is arguably this 2009 film's comic highlight – has long been the humorous exception for 1997's Most Popular Comedy Personality Logie winner. Has Bana been avoiding comedy?

"Early in my career I was, because I was so burnt out by it, then when I started working in America nothing but dramatic stuff was coming my way," he says. Opportunities to consider comic scripts became rare, but Bana did not seek them out "because I didn't feel like I had a point to prove ... I just felt like if something came along that suited me I would do it, so Funny People was the first one."

The second was Ricky Gervais' Special Correspondents. "I got a call saying Ricky wants to talk to you about this project and I was slightly in shock," says Bana, who was surprised Gervais "even knew who I was". False modesty perhaps, but while the Australian has a solid reputation internationally, it's not, after all, as a comedian.

That soon changed on set. "He's hilarious," says Ferrera. "He and Ricky are constantly joking around."

Bana describes the shoot as "a hell of a lot of fun, which is both nice and slightly depressing at the same time when you realise ... that coming to work and pissing yourself laughing every day is not what you always do on a drama".

Is Special Correspondents the start of a comedy comeback for Bana? While he has no interest in doing "big broad American comedies", he's open to opportunities in the clever, satirical style of Gervais, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean.

"It might be three to five years from now before I find something else that's of this vein, or I might not. It's just material and person based. Expectations are always a recipe for sadness, so just roll with it."