TORONTO -- Ricky Gervais doesn't need to make people laugh. "I'd rather be the bloke in the room laughing at other people," although he was both during the making of "The Invention of Lying."

"I surround myself with funny people, I laugh all the time," a mirthful Gervais told a press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival. "The actors will confirm that I ruin the takes, no one else ruins the takes. ... If someone says something funny, I laugh, even if it's the 15th time they've said it."

Jennifer Garner, who plays Gervais' potential love interest in "Lying," attested to that during a session that had more than its share of giggles and guffaws but also talk about the existence of God.

"Ricky's the ultimate fan, so if you say something that makes him laugh, the sun shines because there's no more beautiful benediction of your line reading than for Ricky to blow your take," Garner said.

Gervais plays a loser in an alternative reality where lying or even the concept of a lie doesn't exist. He somehow tells one lie and then cannot stop himself from tinkering, twisting and toying with the truth.

Gervais and co-writer Matthew Robinson, who got the idea after a weekend marathon of watching "The Twilight Zone" episodes, suggest some lying is good for society. Without it there would be no art, no fictional TV programs or films, no socially acceptable white lies, no flattery, no hope for a character such as Gervais' Mark Bellison.

"It wouldn't be a very nice world at all, particularly for someone like Mark who's at the bottom of the pile," Gervais said. "He knows he's a loser, but he doesn't have to be told it every day."

In some ways, "Lying" is like other Gervais projects.

"It is a farce and it's loosely a high-concept comedy, but I've always used comedy and genre as a Trojan horse to deliver bigger ideas. I mean, 'The Office' was a sitcom, but we explored things like midlife crisis and making a difference and wasting your life. 'Extras' started off as a knockabout satire about the entertainment industry, but it turned out to be a thing about friendship."

"Lying," then, is a philosophical film with the spark of a lovely lie Mark tells his dying mother to comfort her.

"She doesn't want to enter a world of nothingness and I am an atheist, but this isn't an atheist propaganda movie by any means, and I love films that assume the opposite of me -- they assume there is a God and I love things like 'The Bishop's Wife' and 'It's a Wonderful Life.' I don't leave the theater going, 'Oh, my faith has been challenged,' " Gervais said.

Like a superhero, Mark learns that with great power comes great responsibility, especially when he learns a neighbor plans to commit suicide. "We find out he's a nice guy, there's things he could do and doesn't," as with three key instances where he could lie to Garner's character but doesn't.

A movie about lying naturally raises questions about what the cast and producers think about the notion.

Garner, for instance, says it's OK to bend the truth to save somebody's feelings, to say, "Nice to see you" or "I'm fine" as social shorthand and "to let little kids feel more important than they are, like letting them win at a game occasionally to help build their self-confidence."

Rob Lowe, who plays a genetically blessed rival for Garner's affection ("Look at the jaw line, it's ridiculous" Gervais said of Lowe's perfect profile), uses this guideline: "The sort of umbrella that I live under is that you try to be, you must be, truthful with everyone except when to do so would injure them or others."

Producer Lynda Obst, noting she wrote a nonfiction book titled "Hello, He Lied & Other Truths From the Hollywood Trenches," called lying the "fluid that producers tragically function on, it's their gasoline, it's 'Did I read the script? Yes, it's fabulous.' ... It would be a fascinating day in Hollywood if everyone had to tell the truth."

And probably a short one.

Gervais, however, is honest about the role writing plays in his life. Safeguarding the writing was why he started acting, directing and producing.

"I see the writing as the DNA and all the rest is bringing up the kid, and it's always to protect that. I saw that television in the last 10 years has beaten films in terms of it being an art factory -- things like 'The Sopranos' and 'The Wire,' audacious pieces of drama. ... Writing, it's the last thing I would give up of everything I do."

And that appears to be no lie.

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