Simon Pegg

Somewhat appropriately, Britain’s latest Hollywood star is now appearing in How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, the big screen adaptation of Toby Young’s memoirs of trying to make it in America. We caught up with Simon recently for a chat. Simon, like Toby Young himself, you’re currently becoming a big thing in the US. Was it the ‘small fish/big pond’ parallels that maybe attracted you to the role? I suppose so. I don’t really have a game plan though, I’m not trying to make it in America particularly, I’m just trying to work! You want to keep doing good stuff and work with good people and there’s an amazing film industry there so inevitably you’re going to gravitate towards that part of town. And when I say “town” I mean “the world”… There were obviously parallels about being British in America, you are a foreigner. It’s tempting to believe that we’re all part of the same continent, because we talk the same language, but it is a different country. And also they’re really loud and obnoxious people… No. Not at all. Although your character is called Sidney Young, his life and experience is of course Toby Young’s. Is there more of a challenge playing someone ‘real’? How did you prepare for the role? I hung out with Toby Young…! I did actually meet Toby a couple of times early on, but I made a decision not to play him: seeing as the script fictionalises Toby’s memoirs and created a fictional version of Toby, I figured I had free range to play the part from the page rather than the man. But it was all there in the script which does a great job of adapting a book which is a very funny series of anecdotes and musings, but doesn’t lend itself to a movie straightaway. That journey that Sidney makes from being objectionable to someone with, perhaps, some humility, was very much there so I have to thank Peter [Straughan, the screenwriter] for that. He does indeed become more likeable which seems to be the sort of characters you play. Are you tempted to play against that type sometime? I don’t know. Like I say, I don’t really have a game plan, I don’t pick them because of that. You read a script or write a script and do it. I’ve only done Shaun, Hot Fuzz, Run Fat Boy Run and this so I don’t know, if patterns are emerging, then they might be deceptive. It depends what comes up next. What matters to me is that I enjoy my job, that I enjoy going to work in the morning. It’s so much fun. Everything that follows is a necessary evil! I’m not thinking I now have to play a villain or a serial killer because I’ve played two nice guys in a row. There were all sorts of stories that Toby was banned from the set or sacked from the production. While we understand these are untrue, we were surprised not to see Toby in a minor role somewhere. Or did we miss him? Toby does have a little cameo when we’re in New York. He was in the background, and there’s a shot of him. Actually, We were rehearsing in the Groucho Club, before we started shooting, and we asked the management if Toby could come along and perhaps sit in and they said “which part of banned for life don’t you understand?” ! We were very taken with the Pg Dance but it looks like the whole thing was a lot of fun to make. Was that the case? I had a great time on set, it was a great atmosphere. Myself and Kirsten [Dunst] had a really good time. I think she’s a wonderful actress and a remarkable person in terms of the experience she has. She’s been working since she was three so she has all the wisdom that will bring, but she’s still only 26. She’s that odd mixture of wisdom and youth but we had a great time, we spent a lot of time making each other laugh. When she wasn’t on set it was a completely different experience. Having said that, working with Jeff was incredible, he’s a legend. I mean, I remember seeing him in Tron when I was seven! To be there acting alongside him was amazing. And similarly working with Megan Fox, who’s just coming through, suddenly wowing the world. When they first called cut on her first big scene everyone was surprised. There was a palpable sense of ‘oh, she can act as well’. Your character has a drunken ramble justifying Con Air as the greatest film ever made. Assuming you don’t agree with that assessment, what is the best film ever made? I was going to say Monkey Trouble with Thora Birch and Harvey Keitel but the ‘say a bad film instead’ joke’s been done. It’s a tough one, I don’t really think in absolutes like that. I suppose that one of the films that convinced me that film making could be funny not just in terms of the script but also the direction and the camera work was Raising Arizona, which I think is one of the best comic movies of all time. Finally, a lot of the film revolves around protecting celebrity image and avoiding character assassination. As someone now in the public eye, what’s the worst thing that’s ever been written about you? There was a profile once in the Independent on Sunday which had clearly just come from my Wikipedia page which is full of apocryphal nonsense. It said something about me having a black ponytail once. I never did. Fortunately for me I can honestly say that was the worst thing ever written about me. Which is pretty bad. And apologies to anyone with a black pony tail, by the way… How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is released on October 3rd