Post by BIGFANBOY on Oct 3, 2008 4:03:53 GMT -5
SIMON SAYS - THE SIMON PEGG INTERVIEW
Interview by Gary Dean Murray
Simon Pegg is a very unassuming man. With his slight build and hip T-shirt, he could easily be a tourist roaming the downtown of Dallas and not one of the most sought after comic actors on the silver screen. His first film with co-star Nick Frost was the brilliant Shaun of the Dead, a zombie film with a tremendous element of comedy. Along with his writing partner director Edgar Wright, they made Hot Fuzz, a loving British tribute to Bad Boys II. Both films were number one at the UK box office and scored a huge audience in the USA. Striking out on his own, Simon was in the romantic comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run - another UK smash. He is now promoting the new film How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.
This comedy takes place in the world of publishing and is based on the book by Toby Young. Simon plays Toby, an English writer and publisher of a scathing magazine who is offered a job in NYC at Sharps Magazine. He thinks that he is going to take the city by storm but soon finds out that shaking up the publishing industry is a bit harder than previously thought. As he tries to butt heads with the power structure of the magazine, he comes into direct opposition to the publisher (Jeff Bridges) who was once the maverick that Toby is now. According to Simon, this is a fictionalization of the true story.
He called Toby Young’s book a ‘cracking good read’. “It was pretty much intact when I came to it,” was how he described the screenplay as compared to the book. Since he is playing a fictional Toby and not the journalist, he found it easier than playing the real man. Though Simon sees it as a fair account of the principal players, it is enough away from a true story.
But he didn’t want to hang with his subject. “I was torn between doing that and ignoring him completely, starting from scratch. But, I did want to get to know him to get a bit under his skin, to see how he ticked. We went out to dinner a few times and hung out at the pub. I found him to be great company.”
Simon found a degree of humanity in the role as written. “I think it is in the script” he said, “and you have to play him as a human being. He is an idiot and a buffoon. It is great fun to play it on screen but there is a softness to him.” But he did see the broad humor in his role in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. “It’s fun to physical comedy,” he said.
This is Simon’s third time in Dallas for a stop in a worldwide press tour, so he has been around the media. But in this film he plays a journalist and he has sympathy for them. “I feel that I have met enough but of them I have never been in that situation that Simon was in. To be a journalist you have to be a little bit more cleaver than his subject.”
Most of Simon’s work has been self-generated, but on his last two projects he has just been an actor and not in charge in any large capacity. On how he got involved with How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, he was very matter of fact. “They called me to audition and heard that Bob (Robert Weide) was attached. I’m a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm and my interests were peaked. I read the script and I liked it. I met with them and got along well with them. Bob has a great comic sensibility. It seemed like a good project and this seemed to be a good choice.”
“It is important with a comedy to have someone with comic sensibilities behind the lens,” Simon said. “It is often assumed that you can point a camera at funny people and that’s all you need to do. There is an enormous amount of humor and nuance that can be expressed by the direction and make the comedy even funnier. It was good to have somebody behind the camera with comic ability.”
Simon Pegg said that not being the person in charge is ‘refreshing’ “As long as you trust the persons in charge, it’s not terrible,” he said.
With his last film Run, Fat Boy, Run and this one, it would seem that being in two romantic comedies in a row is some kind of ploy to change his image. But, it wasn’t any part of a plan on Simon’s part. “I don’t want to be a male lead. I don’t have a game plan. I don’t want to be Hugh Grant or Mr. English.”
Since most people have affection for Shaun of the Dead, his first major film in the States, it is often broached on what kind of film his UK friends are going to make next. Most in the media see Simon Pegg’s working group as some kind of parody mill but Simon himself doesn’t see it that way at all. “I think that Shaun of the Dead wasn’t a take-off of anything. I don’t think we ‘take on’ any genre, we just make another film. If it a ‘take on’ anything it is on being British in light of being in American culture. I think that is why it is recognizable to an American audience because they deal with aspect of the culture.”
This is the third time to be in Dallas, it was asked if he was getting tired of the Metroplex. He deadpanned, “I’m getting tired of not seeing Dallas.” All he sees is the hotels when in town, going from interview to interview in a suite and off to the next town that afternoon.
The character of Toby Young that he plays in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People in into the idea of fame and our preoccupation with it. He sees celebrity as a bizarre obsession about something that means absolutely nothing. “It is weird,” he said, “like being voyeuristic about this class of people you can spy on and they actually let you do it.” When asked about his run-ins with paparazzi he joked, “I’m not that interesting.”
And he finds that actors are just people. “I’m waiting to meet one of these ego monsters, because I haven’t met one yet. Everyone is far more ordinary than you expect them to be.”
On whom he would like to work with, he was diplomatic saying it was like asking whom you favorite band is. “There a so many good film makers and writers that it is hard to choose,” he said, “but I’d like to work with the Coen Brothers, Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen. We have a shared affection for the work. I was going to work with Tarantino but it fell through due to scheduling.”
And finally on what genre he would like to work in he simply said science fiction. “It is a genre I enjoy.” Then he added, “but I don’t look that far into the future. I have about eighteen months of work in the future.”
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People opens October 3, 2008
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