"Simon Pegg"

25:09It's just, it's constantly hilariously funny. Well, and respect, like massive respect. Yeah. We had a big dinner years ago. By the way, you're going to fucking freak out when I tell you this. You guys are going to be so bummed out because I think it was November 2005. I mean, I can't. In London. Remember we had that big dinner with a bunch of us, Simon, and it was me and Amy and you guys and Darren Brown, the magician. Yes. Do you remember that? Yeah, of course. That was a long time ago. And I think, did I tell this story about saying whether or not you could be hypnotized? Did I tell this hypnotized?

25:46No. So we were at this big dinner, and Simon and... I guess Darren wanted to come. He was a fan of Arrested Development because he's a magician or whatever. And there were a bunch of guys there. Who else was there? He wanted to meet an illusionist. Yeah, he did. Joe Cornish, I think, was there. A bunch of them. And Pete. And I asked around the table. I said to Darren Brown, the hypnotist, his magician, whatever. I said, can you tell if somebody's really susceptible to being hypnotized and being persuaded. And I said, everybody go around the table and say whether or not you think you, because he sort of said, yeah, I can kind of tell.

26:24And so everybody went around the table and I remember I said, like, I definitely could be persuaded to do probably anything. And everybody had different answers. But I remember Amy Poehler at the time going, there's no way. You can't get me. Just in that very Amy way. She's like, no way. There's no way. Very Boston. Like, no way. No fucking way. You can't persuade me anything. And we're at this really fancy restaurant at Mayfair. The check comes. And Amy looks at me and goes, we got this. And I go, what do you mean we got this? It's like 3 ,000 pounds. I might use an expensive dinner. She's like, no, no, no, we got it.

26:58So we're in the cab on the way back to the hotel. And I go, he got you. Darren Brown, he convinced you to pick up the check. And then she looked at me and she goes, do you think? And I go, fuck yeah. It would be great if she turned to you and said, wait, I paid for the check. Did I ever tell you that, Simon? No. I didn't know that. Yeah. That's amazing. I find it, he's weird to be around Darren, you know, because you're constantly worried that he might do something strange to your mind. Yeah. So, Simon, your level of astonishment is greater on the sets of Star Trek or Mission Impossible as far as execution, scope of production.

27:35Probably Mission Impossible. Yeah, right. Just because of the stuff that Tom Cruise does, you know, that we are witness to on the day of him jumping off a cliff on a motorbike or whatever. Oh, yeah. I mean, that just sort of is genuinely terrifying. Right, and your stunt crew and safety crew and second unit, all that stuff that just must be like rocket scientists. Yeah, hundreds of cameras on... When we did the bike stunt, which is in Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1, there was a take he did where there were cameras mounted on the bike he was riding. So when he jumped off it, the bike just sort of cartwheeled away and caught him every time it spanned.

28:13And then they had to go down into the bottom of this quarry and find the bike and retrieve the cameras and find which ones were still working. And sure enough, they picked up this incredible footage of him just sort of like disappearing upwards as the bike. That's crazy. The degree of difficulty on all departments of those movies is just insane. That's so crazy. By the way, you know, I just found yesterday that I've actually got a second unit. Oh, good for you. So it was super tiny. You just discovered it. But it counts. But it counts. So wait, listen, I want to talk about, so Mission Impossible 3, JJ just called you out of the blue.

28:50JJ Abrams just called you out of the blue and offered you a card. Yeah, he did. Because of Shaun of the Dead, right? Because of Shaun. Me and Edgar were writing Hot Fuzz and the phone rang and it was JJ Abrams and he just sort of literally said, hey, do you want to come and be in Mission Impossible 3? And I said, yeah, okay. Yes, please. Yeah, okay, why not? And I didn't know. Let me finish, I'm just at me mate. Let me finish. In the same way, he emailed me about Star Trek and just said, do you want to play Scotty? I think he got bored of looking for someone and just thought, I get that other guy that I got last time.

29:25Wow. I mean, it is unusual to be part of two such big kind of iconic franchises that are very different. Unless you're Harrison Ford. Unless you're Harrison Ford, that's right. Yeah, Harrison Ford is the king. You're the British Harrison Ford. I've heard that before. Thank you. Would you say your biggest regret was hiring Bateman for Paul? That was a huge regret. Let's get to Paul. I was listening to Hayda the other day on the podcast talking about those jalapeno shooters, and you weren't there that day. It was me, Nick, and Hayda, and they gave us these tequila shots with jalapeno juice, and we shat lava the next day.

30:01Oh, my God. I'm glad you weren't there for the sake of your bottom. He doesn't remember where he was yesterday, so that's the good news. Do you remember when we gave you a Teen Wolf 2 poster at the annual wrap gift. I do. We all signed it. I do remember that. I was very warmed by that. Where is it? Where is it, Jason? I sold that. Binned. Yeah. Binned. Immediately binned. Jay, get that framed. How unbelievably rude. No, I think it came framed. It was framed. But then you unframed it. I thought you told me you unframed it. You just sell it easier. You use the fucking roll that. Wait, I want to go back.

30:37So in 2009, you completed the second installment of your nerd trifecta, which again is a real thing. With Star Trek, who helped you with your Scottish accent? Was it hard? Like, do you have Scots in your family? Yeah, I'm married to a Scot and a Glaswegian. So her dad helped me a lot. Sean's married to a Scot too. Yeah. There you go. Nice, buddy. Lovely. Hello there. Yeah, I got help from the family on that because they're the first people to... Although they kept trying to make me put like tawdry little Scottish rudeness into the script. And I did actually try a few things, but JJ came up to me and said, Simon, they've got to understand what you're saying.

31:17Let's hear just a little bit of it. The rudest thing you could say in Scottish. I do actually say, there's a famous Scottish Glaswegian saying, which is getty fuck. If you're, instead of like, you know, shut up or get out of it, it's getty fuck. And in the first Star Trek, I do actually say to Deep Roy, who plays my little wingman. You hear me go, get it. So anyone who's Scottish would know exactly what I was about. Oh, that's great. That's great. Oh, wow. That's crazy. And then you got to write one, like in six months. Yeah, that was... How did you get to write? That was like someone giving you the keys to a really, really expensive car.

31:56It was the hardest thing I've ever done just because we had no time. And Justin Lin, who was the director, who's a brilliant, brilliant guy, but he's not a verbal communicator. And it was really hard to understand what he wanted at first. Like he used to drive me insane. And there's some people know it's Star Trek Beyond. Star Trek Beyond, yeah. And myself and Doug Jung, we wrote that script together, but it was loads of fun. And Doug came to stay with me in the UK and we'd write during the day. And then at night we'd watch episodes of the original series just to try and get little Easter eggs to put in.

32:27And we eventually ended up... You know, weirdly, it was the first time I'd faced the idea of being rewritten by someone else. That's wild. You know, we'd worked really hard on it. And then our producer, Lindsay, called and said, we're going to get some fresh eyes on the script. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, I'd never experienced that before. And I was so incensed and angry that, how dare you? Right. I come from my cushy little British filmmaking background. Well, Sean's mom used to get fresh eyes about every two months, right?

33:04What we did was we'd get... Justin Lin would send us the rewrites and then Doug and I would secretly rewrite them and then send them back to Justin and then Justin would deliver them to Paramount as his notes. So we would secretly rewrite the rewrites. If you're listening to this, Paramount, then it all worked out okay in the end, I'm sure. That's fucking great. What a great way to rig the system in your favor. Yeah, that's why. I just can't believe. Did you get rewritten at all on Paul? No. No. And it shows. No. No, the Lorenzo? No, we didn't. We were lucky. What was the Lorenzoil? Lorenzo Zoyl.

33:44That was your... Lorenzo Zoyl. When we came up with your character name, we took the day off. It was the deepest cut. That's enough brilliance for the day. It was Nick's idea. Lorenzo Zoyl. Right. Then how do I reveal that? Aren't I being at least near the end of the movie, right? Like under the spaceship or something? Your reaction to that, I'm not just saying it. Your reaction to that is one of the most supreme comedy double takes I have ever witnessed in any comedy forum. It wasn't the joke that it was the first time I'd really heard it said? And I was like, oh, fuck. What? You go, agent, you say something like, thank you, agent.

34:25Zoile, you go, call me Lorenzo. And we go, Lorenzo Zoile. And you go, yeah. Then you sort of do this, like you suddenly heard it for the first time. And it's just fucking sublime, Jason. It really is. It really just, it's just textbook. It's not surprising that I remember little of that, because I think it was a night shoot, if memory serves. It was a night shoot. Yeah, we were up on the, on the ski ball with Sigourney Weaver. And Taos, as Kristen Wiig used to call it. Thows. Thows, that's right. So Edgar Wright, who we've already established is one of your besties and does a lot of stuff. I didn't know this.

34:59I didn't know he wrote and directed Baby Driver. I love that movie. Yeah, yeah. I love that movie so much. Really? I mean, that is a masterpiece. He had that script for a long time, yeah. And I heard you do somewhere an impression of him. Can you do just a little bit of Edgar Wright? He'll listen to this and he'll kill me. He does listen to it. His voice is quite high. That's terrible. he gets quite drunk and he's talking in your ear quite loud

35:27Edgar has a right to come on the show now himself we gotta get him on the show he does send me reviews of episodes sometimes via text well Edgar my phone number is still the same where's my text not reviews but he'll say I really enjoyed I could listen to you do that for nine hours and Nick does it really well as well it's got it it's very high it's kind of like a pterodactyl. Oh, my God. But he is, you know, I mean, I've counted one of the luckiest moments of my life meeting Edgar just because he is such an extraordinary talent and you know, I love him to bits, so I'm sure he'll forgive me for doing his voice quite like this.

36:10We'll be right back.

36:16And now, back to the show. I remember like it was yesterday although I'm not sure of some of the details but I'm pretty sure it was a screening of Hot Fuzz that I believe you were there with me, Willie that we got invited to and I met you and Nick and Edgar and Edgar or all you guys had loved Arrested Development like that's why we were there that's how we got invited and I remember that as being one of the first times that I thought, oh, this show is being seen by cool folks. Simon, I think you're thinking the same thing I am. It was a screening of the movie that you did with Mike Judge. Oh, yeah, it was...

36:58It was the screening of... Oh, Extract. Extract. Extract, yeah, that's it. Simon, did we go together or something? We met up there with Edgar or something. That's right, and then afterwards we were in the bar and there was you, me, Amy, and you guys and Amy and me. and there was some, I remember there was some paparazzi shots of us all kind of like hanging off each other and smiling and drinking. And I remember being really... Was I drinking? I don't know. I was still drinking at that time. No, you weren't. Jason, you were not. No, I was still on it in those days. No, well, Paul's right when you got sober, right?

37:31Around that time. Just after Paul, yeah. I was pretty drunk through Paul. But it was like the year after that that I got sober. Good for you. Good for you, yeah. I have to fan out because I'm not going to... Go, Sean. So Star Wars universe and Star Wars world and like growing up was that surreal getting like invited into that world and then like, you know, being around Carrie Fisher and all of those people. And was that you behind the thing? Four, six portions. Was that you, that big guy? Yeah, that was me in the big fat suit, yeah. And was that all CGI or was that just you? They CGI'd my face a little bit just to make me look less human, but it was a big suit and yeah, he was called Unkar Plutt and he owned the Millennium Falcon, which is like, you know, I was very happy the fact that I have now owned the Millennium Falcon and been the engineer on the Starship Enterprise.

38:20That's so insane. That's a personal triumph. But wait, so like growing up and like seeing, were you a fan and then now you're in it and you're around Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford? I mean, were you like... Yeah, it was extraordinary. I, you know, I mean, that set as well of The Force Awakens because it felt very much like the first sort of, you know, the first Star Wars, the Star Wars I grew up loving. And to be around those guys, I was on set the day when Harrison Ford and Han and Chewie came onto the Millennium Falcon again for the first time. Crazy, I cried. I cried like a child. And then I had a great, I've told this story before, but it's a good story.

38:53It's worth telling. I had a massive crush on Carrie Fisher when I was a kid. I mean, she was the first romantic love that I remember feeling, you know, and I would kiss her picture before I went to sleep and I was just so in love with her. This is pre-Return of the Jedi, before even, you know. Well, you had a poster and you'd make out with a poster or something? I kind of kissed it quite sort of coyly because I was seven, eight, I think I was when I saw Star Wars. It didn't get to the UK until 1978. So I'm on set with her and we're walking around the set of the... Just look at Will's face, just trying to come up with...

39:25What would the poster that Sean... Oh, my... Oh, Sean? Yeah. Lightsabers. We were walking around the set of the Resistance base, arm in arm, and I was kind of chatting with her and stuff. and I stopped and I looked at her in her eyes and I said, you know, and the thing was it was the same fucking eyes. It was the same, I know that's an obvious thing to say, but it was her eyes. The eyes that I had just dreamed of ever looking into as a kid. And I said, you know, I've always loved you, don't you? Oh God. She grabbed my hand and she looked at my wedding and she went, fuck you. Nice. Really? She's so funny.

40:08She was the best. She said, you know, the one thing she said to me when I first met her years and years and years and years ago, never met her in my whole life, was sitting right next to her at this dinner, and she goes, you know Han Solo and I were fucking the whole time. And I was like...

40:24I was like, what? It completely shattered, like, everything. There's that roast she did. I think it's a roast of Harrison Ford or something, but she starts talking, and she starts talking about how nervous Harrison Ford looks because he doesn't know what she's going to say, because obviously, you know, shit happened. Right, right. Wait, really? Okay, so wait. So there you are. So now it was Force Awakens. Is that what you're talking about? That was what I was in, yeah. Yeah, Force Awakens. Because that was like 30 years after the Battle of Endor, right? Fuck you, Will. No, hang on. So I'm just trying to think because there's that pilot, what's his name, Poe Dameron, and he's on the desert planet of Jakku.

41:06Are you looking at Wikipedia? Yes. No. What? Yes, he is. He is a moron. I can't believe they were on Jakku that whole time. By the way, did you notice that some people say in that movie, some people say Jakku and other people say Jakku. Of course I fucking noticed it, dude. It's Jakku. Of course. It's Jakku, right. It's a double K, come on. Of course I noticed it. And then I went and I bought a rope and I bought a chair and I was like, what would be a good spot for this? fucking hell okay so but wait I say that with love you know that I love wait so sometimes so after the Star Wars or one of the 27 Star Treks whatever you said I read that you went on vacation and you said don't I don't want you told your agent I don't want anybody to bother me I don't want any phone calls only if it's Steven Spielberg and then Steven Spielberg actually fucking calls you and tells you why he did yeah oh my god he phoned and said would you Will you come and be in Ready Player One?

42:05Yes, I love that movie too. Which is obviously an incredible call to get. And we'd work with him, you know, because he does a little cameo in Paul as well. So I'd work with him on Tintin and then he came in and did his little bit in Paul. And then I got to do Ready Player One. And to work with him is a dream. You know, he's just the most extraordinary. Yeah, of course. I mean, he's everything that I loved about cinema as a kid and as an adult. And he's very willing to sort of chat about his career and stuff. He's really, really... I love that. Without crowing, you know, he'll just tell you stories about Jaws and Close Encounters and it's just such a privilege, you know.

42:43He was at Sean's opening night. Oh, did he go see your play? Yeah, yeah. He's an investor in it. Nice fella. Oh, wow. Has he been on the show? Yeah. Yeah. Last year. Super nice. Wait, so Ready Player One, so then you talked a little bit about the English, you talked about a little bit like American humor versus English humor and like how something about like something about like how we always say just kidding or something but americans like yeah well that's sort of it's there's a weird thing and it's it comes from a lot of sort of snobbishness snobbishness in british comedy circles sometimes that you hear our americans they don't do irony and it's such a bullshit statement because americans do some of the greatest irony ever You guys just don't use it so much socially.

43:30Present company accepted. I mean, Jason particularly, because you've got a British mom, right? So you're just drier than many a desert. And I'm usually grumpy, so it's kind of a double negative. So, yeah, you're virtually British. I'm very hungry. He's hungry. He's so hungry. But because British people are very ashamed of their emotions, they just wrap everything in sarcasm and irony, socially, you know. but i think american people generally are just a little less uptight and so if they do say something dry they'll qualify it as as just kidding just in case that person thinks that they were being serious which is right right but you know you only have to watch i mean arrested is a great example of a of a brilliantly dry comedy show you know it's i actually started showing my my 14 year old daughter the show the other day which was great because it meant i could sort of go back to the beginning and it it's it's such a good example of like dry american humor at its uh at its best yeah well it but it pales in comparison to the you know all the monty python stuff i mean the british office i mean that's that that whole style of not winking and just playing everything as a drama um but a deeply flawed character in a drama like then you've got real Real good humor.

44:45Yeah. Wait, so another Mission Impossible coming out soon on July 12th. Didn't you guys just do two in a row? Yeah. Are you filming the second part now? We're in the midst of doing two in a row. Oh, my God. We've stopped filming now so they can finish Dead Reckoning Part 1, and then we go out on a big press tour over the summer. We'll be in New York. Free tickets to your show, please, Sean. The Belasco Theater. Of course, anytime. Anytime you want. The Belasco, the Tabasco Theater. Tabasco Theater. It's hot as hell in there. Spicy shows. Another show. And then we go back to shooting in August, and then we complete part two, which will be out next year.

45:20And it's been a hell... I mean, we started shooting this one in 2020. No way, wow. In the September of 2020. Wow. I mean, it's taken us three years to shoot this movie. Wow, that's crazy. Wow, right in the thick of the hoax. I mean, we kind of... I mean, the pandemic. What did I say? You said hoax, yeah. I mean, Simon, you haven't stopped making great stuff... I know. for like 20 years. Yeah, I know. I mean... I want to get to that. Like, do you geek out like I would if I were you, when you get the scripts that you get or you produce or make? Like, are you a fan of the genre like I am? And you know what I mean?

45:57Like, you're like, oh, this is so cool. Yeah, I think I am, but I feel like I've aged out a little bit of stuff that I've not kind of kept up with all the new sort of Star Wars TV shows and stuff. And that's not to say that, it's not because I'm sure I have. I can catch you up. Just call me. I'll catch you up. I'll give you a ring afterwards. Wait, yeah, Simon, what kind of stuff are you watching comedy-wise? Because I'm trying to think if I watch any comedies, really. It's been a while. Yeah. Is there anything that's kind of... I started watching the show last night. I think you should leave on Netflix.

46:33Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah, it's great. I'm writing you down. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's really good. I think you should leave. I just re-watched it with somebody because the episodes are like sort of 16 minutes long. They're not that long. And I just got, when we were in Atlanta, I got Eli to go through and I watched them all again with him and they were just brilliant. Yeah, it's really strange but hilarious in the way that like Python used to be, you know, like sort of slightly baffling. It's a British show. You're not sure exactly why you're laughing. No, he's American.

47:00He shot here. Tim Robinson, brilliant, brilliant guy. And as you know, the very nature of, we had a lot of people from SNL on here over the last few years. the nature of sketch comedy is that it's really inconsistent it's so hard to from sketch to sketch to always be strong or always be good and that show I think you should leave those first six episodes oh you told me about that are consistently good every sketch sketch to sketch I did watch it yeah that was a while ago Simon wait I'm sorry this is the last Mission Impossible question just because I'm upset do you get to because your character is so funny and like it's so natural that you get to write your own lines?

47:39Like, are they cool with that? Because it sounds like... Not really. I mean, we don't really have a script. It's a very strange way of working. Really? We kind of make it up as we go along. I don't believe it. But it's true. I have not ever read a script for the film I've just made. What? Tom and McHugh, Chris McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, they know the story. They know the big set pieces. They know that those set pieces get shot first, usually. and then Chris McQuarrie who is a genius at sort of like solving problems he will come up with the connective tissue sort of grow the story kind of organically as we go but they're so complex I know but we get pages on the morning of shooting stuff and I have to say where have I been in the previous scene and where am I going and um it can be frustrating but it sort of works and occasionally I get to kind of ad-lib silly stuff like when we were shooting a scene for for Fallout when Tom was I was sort of guiding I'm basically like a GPS that's my job in Mission Impossible I just read directions for where Tom Cruise needs to go and all the stuff about having the map upside down and the 3D thing that was all kind of thrown in on in the moment oh really McHugh is a brilliant writer you know he's an Oscar winning writer he wrote The Usual Suspects and what an Incredible director.

48:55He just somehow thrives in that situation. Yeah. Incredible. That's amazing. I love, I am so in love with those Mission Impossible movies. All of them. They're so. They're always great. They're so good. And you're always great in them. I mean. Yeah, and it's so hard, you're so great in them. And it's hard to believe that something that's so, that has that kind of scope, as Jason said, that's so good and complex and stuff, that you guys would sort of improvise in that way or not really have a full understanding to me on something so big. I don't know. I tell you where that wouldn't wash is. is on the oceanic planet of Ahto.

49:26No way. You can close the wiki window. No, you wouldn't be able to get away with it. Just shut that window down. Nice callback. Well, on that note. Beautifully done. Simon, you are like a dream. We've taken too much of your time. This is so nice to go. I feel like we just got started. Let's keep going. I don't know. We can do it two-parter. I know, I know. Will you say hi to Nick Frost, please? I will, I will. Get him on. Get Edgar on. And I, you know who put me onto this podcast was Naira Park, who, you know, Jason, she produced Paul. Oh, please tell her hi too. Yeah. She's Edgar and Edgar, my producer, she's done everything we've ever done.

50:03And last year she said, oh, you listen to Smartless, right? And I said, no. And so I had the whole of the back catalog to sort of like, which I literally have been like every time I go to the gym or every time I go for a drive, it's just become like the soundtrack. And then, like, however recently, the idea of actually doing it came up. And, man, it's just so, I love you guys. I think you're so amazing. If you ever got any ideas of people we should have on the show, please let us know. Yeah. Yes, I'll send you some British people and you can do your. Please. Oh, it's great to see you, man. Yeah.

50:39It's so nice to meet you, Simon. I'm such a fan. You too, Sean. It's a real pleasure. I'm serious about coming to see Good Night Oscar. I'd love to come see it if I can. Anytime. Don't miss that. Yeah, you'll be blown away. Simon, we love you. Okay. Do I just slam this lid? You slam it, Seth. Yeah, slam it. All right. Goodbye, Pally. You take care. Love you guys. Bye. Bye. Love you, buddy.

51:03Well, listen, that is a round peg in a round hole. Oh, nice. That peg's no square. No. What else? Those are really good, actually. Thanks, man. I'm coming up with a bye as we're talking. Are you? You know what I'm thinking about is this friend of mine. I'm not kidding. This is not getting to a bye. I've been trying to connect the dots. I was thinking about Scotty. Yeah. Because we were talking about Scotty. Yeah, I told him. I told him Simon Pegg was going to be on. He freaked out. And then remind me, I never told you this. This is not a joke. One of my best buddies growing up, his name is Scotty Bear.

51:40And then I thought about your... I swear to God. Oh, really? Yes. That's funny because Scotty's a bear and you like bony bear. Right. I like Scotty's bone and bear. Yeah. Anyway, so wait, but Simon Pegg, I've always wanted to meet him. I can't believe you knew him. I didn't know you guys knew him. I knew you worked with him in Paul, Jay. Yes. But I didn't know you knew him. He seems really fun. Jay's looking up a bye right now. No, yeah, I'm finding that my brain needs to completely shut down and focus on that and I can't hear you guys right now. JB, how fucking weird is that? So remember you thought it was a screening of Hot Fuzz and that I remembered it was a fucking screening of Extract and I remember going to the restaurant next door with Mike Judge and you and Amy and Simon.

52:29What does that say? Does it say anything? I'm looking for something that might be good for me. Is there something good that I don't remember it was a screening for me, my movie, that I'm thinking it was for him and his movie? Does that say something nice about me? No. Are you trying to get me? Like brownie points? Trying to fill up my own ledger, own side of the ledger. No, I don't think... No? You know, as a kid, I used to... Fuck me. Oh, yeah. In Star Wars, you know... Is this going to be... By the way, it better be amazing because you are like 0 for 40 right now. It's already lost. No, this is a good one.

53:05You know, when I was a kid, I always used to mix up the pronunciation of Luke Skywalker's mentor. I didn't know I didn't think it was Obi-Wan Kenobi No, no way I thought it was I thought it was Obi-Wan Kenobi Oh, I'll buy one Kenobi and two malts What? Sean Obi-Wan Kenobi and two malts Was that our out? No Smart Smartless.

53:44Smartless. Smartless is 100 % organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjarf.

54:01Smartless.