It’s a warm summer’s day in June and Simon Pegg greets me at the gate to his home, deep in the Hertfordshire countryside. It’s an idyllic setting, surrounded by meadows, forests and fields: it’s easy to see why the actor has loved living here for the last 15 years.
As we walk through a field to his office, which is situated away from his house at the edge of his garden, Pegg says he’s happiest when he’s at home. He lives with his wife of over two decades, Maureen, and their teenage daughter, Tilly. We’re joined on our walk by one of Pegg’s three dogs, Bramwell the Schnauzer – the same breed of dog as Colin from Spaced, the hit Channel 4 sitcom he wrote with Jessica Hynes and where he first connected with director Edgar Wright. On the door to his office is the number 23 from the famous Meteor Street Spaced house, while inside, there’s a poster of the cast. “I look a lot younger there,” he laughs.
Pegg, now 56, was in his late twenties when the show first aired, seven years after he began his career as a stand-up comedian and jobbing actor. Success came fast: by 2006, he was in Hollywood, working alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. Roles in three Star Trek films, Star Wars and Steven Spielberg’s TinTin and Ready Player One followed.
Post Spaced, it was his work on the affectionately named Cornetto Trilogy – beginning with 2004’s Shaun of the Dead – that led to director J. J. Abrams and the Mission: Impossible team calling. He made the films with Wright and actor Nick Frost, whose photo is lovingly on show in Pegg’s office. “Our friendship existed long before we worked together,” he says of his best friend, looking at the picture while sipping his coffee. “I really wrote the part for him in Spaced just because I wanted to see him a bit more!” He says he knew Frost was talented. “I told him it would be a waste if he didn’t put all his talents to work. I was really happy that it worked out.”
Pegg says he bonded with Wright in a similar way. “We spent a lot of time together and I love him. He’s one of my best friends. I’m always in awe of him as a director, just because he’s so gifted. The opportunity to work with your friends is always a delight because you have a rhythm, and you have an existing chemistry that you can build on.”
To the joy of Cornetto Trilogy fans around the world, Pegg recently shared a reunion snap with Wright on Instagram. Then, a few days later, Frost posed a picture of himself with a Cornetto ice cream. Could the old gang really be getting back together? Happily, it seems so. “It just felt like an inevitability to me,” he says of writing once more with Wright. “Edgar and I are, at the moment, meeting up weekly either in person or on Zoom, just to talk about ideas. We’ve got a lot of potential avenues to walk down.”
“Edgar and I are meeting up weekly just to talk about ideas. We’ve got a lot of potential avenues to walk down.”
He continues: “We know it must be something that we’re both really into. Like we were both really into zombie movies, action movies and science fiction. So those genres were adopted before because we had a passion for them,” he says. Fans shouldn’t expect a fourth Cornetto film though; Pegg says it will be something completely different. “We’re definitely not doing another zombie film, but we’re just figuring it out. We’re not sure if we’re doing another action film, either. But I’m definitely hoping, at some point, to make another comedy with Edgar.”
He says he will always treasure working with both Wright and Frost. “It’s a real safe space for me, working with them. When I get asked for advice, I always say find other people with the same likes. Find actors and directors who feel the same way you do and work with them because it’s such a fruitful situation to work from.”
“It’s a real safe space for me, working with [Nick and Edgar]. When I get asked for advice, I always say find other people with the same likes. Find actors and directors who feel the same way you do and work with them because it’s such a fruitful situation to work from.”
Pegg points to a shirt he wore in Shaun of the Dead, bloodied and red ink-stained, that hangs in a frame on his office wall. The zombie comedy was made on a modest budget of £4 million, but became a global hit, grossing £29 million. The “Rom-Zom-Com,” as he and Wright have jokingly called it in the past, made him a household name: he says he’ll never forget what it did for his career. “I look back on all that stuff fondly as a very important part of my growth as an actor and writer. I will always value those, particularly the Cornetto films and Spaced, as being the things that set me on my way.”
Pegg’s office is a film geek’s paradise. Shelves are stacked full of DVDs and books on film, while big screen posters fill the walls. There’s a framed photograph of Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones – one of Pegg’s favourite films growing up – while a trio of Cornetto film posters line a wall of their own. There’s Funko Pop! figures of his cinematic heroes, a bronze bust of the alien Paul (his 2011 extraterrestrial buddy movie with Frost), and sci-fi nods to the likes of Predator. Close to his office, Pegg even has his own cinema.
“When I’m not working, I just watch movies,” Pegg laughs, as he settles Bramwell, who is barking at his reflection in the Shaun of the Dead shirt frame. One of Pegg’s favourite things to do, he says, is to watch films with his daughter. “It’s my passion and my daughter’s as well. I’ve kind of raised her as a film fan. Every weekend we watch a film together and it’s been a really nice way for us to connect. It’s our little happy place.” His daughter could be off to study film at university, just as he did – and he couldn’t be prouder. “She’s seen, I think, more films than most adults of my age. She’s definitely prepared!”
Pegg’s love of film was also well-documented in his emotive memoir, Nerd do Well. As a child, he had fond memories of going to the cinema to watch Indiana Jones and Star Wars. He loved Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill – and even got to hang out with them when he appeared in The Force Awakens in 2015. He says it was a dream come true. “The experience of making that film was amazing because it had been such a huge part of my childhood. It affected me in lots of different ways in terms of my appreciation of cinema and music and my imagination.”
He was overwhelmed when he arrived on set. “To be there and hanging out with the people I idolised as a kid was incredible. Just being around those props and that world, meeting Carrie, Mark and Harrison, and being able to tell them how much they meant to me,” he smiles, still thrilled by the memory. “I mean I loved Carrie Fisher,” he chuckles of his teenage crush on the star. “To get to hang out with her and Mark as well, who I’m now sort of friends with – it’s crazy to think about. I always think about what I would’ve thought if someone had told me that was going to be the case one day.”
“The experience of making Star Wars was amazing because it had been such a huge part of my childhood. It affected me in lots of different ways in terms of my appreciation of cinema and music and my imagination.”
Pegg says he’s still pinching himself, not least about the exciting projects he’s got on the horizon. He’s turning his hand to directing and has plans to make a feature film that he’s adapted from a novel. The title is under wraps – “I don’t want to jinx it” – but it’s from a book he’s “loved” for “many years.” “I feel so ready to do it, to go behind the camera. I love the idea of being with something from its inception to completion. I’m really excited about it.”
He’s hoping that he can deploy some of the skills he’s picked up over the years working with some of the world’s leading directors too. “I’ve shadowed Chris McQuarrie, Edgar Wright and Brad Bird, just watching them choose lenses and frame shots.” Working with Spielberg, his childhood hero, was also one of the most special and informative experiences of his career.
“It’s lovely to have worked with someone like Steven, just because I grew up watching his films. I have a huge affection for him as a director and now as a person. [Working with him] was a real achievement, which I treasure.”
He can also draw from his experiences on both indie and blockbuster films, having navigated easily between the two throughout his career. “I mean, the catering is very different between them,” he deadpans. “But in all seriousness, when you’re making an indie movie, every penny counts. On big movies, they just tend to throw money at it, which coming from independent cinema, can be utterly galling. But filmmaking doesn’t change that much from indie to blockbusters. In the eye of the storm, it’s still the same thing, it’s just the size of it all gets bigger.”
“I feel so ready to do it, to go behind the camera. I love the idea of being with something from its inception to completion. I’m really excited about it.”
He thinks AI could be a tool to help in this area, particularly in terms of budget. “It could save Hollywood because it will bring down the budgets of films to the extent that they might start being able to see a profit again, and smaller films that wouldn’t ordinarily get made, will. As long as the people using it are creatives and are using it responsibly,” he cautions, “and we find a way to make it environmentally friendly.”
He is aware of the criticism the technology attracts. “It’s not that different to Alfred Hitchcock making films with back projection. All these things are at first kind of derided and seen as some kind of affront to art, but they’re not. They’re all tools we can embrace. Humans still must be involved to make this work.”
Pegg is keen to try all kinds of filmmaking – including improvisational projects, like his latest with director Jamie Adams, Only What We Carry. The film was made in just six days and Adams gave Pegg a brief outline for the film, then worked with him on developing his character, artistic director Julian Johns, using ‘character conversations’. Pegg says it was a “uniquely collaborative process” and “unlike anything he’d done before.”
The film even got Quentin Tarantino out of semi-retirement, not as a director, but as an actor. Pegg has known Tarantino since Shaun of the Dead: he was an early supporter of the film. “We play best friends in the movie,” Pegg explains. “So having known each other for 20 years was helpful, because we were able to get straight into that rhythm. Quentin wanted to be an actor originally and he’s really good. Obviously, everything he says is written by him, so you know you’re going to be dealing with quality improvisation. I think he really enjoyed it as well. I think he loved being on a film set and not being the director.”
“[AI] could save Hollywood because it will bring down the budgets of films to the extent they might start being able to see a profit again, and smaller films that wouldn’t ordinarily get made, will. As long as the people using it are creative and are using it responsibly.”
Pegg is also back for a second series of acclaimed Channel 4 drama, The Undeclared War, where he plays a leading role as GCHQ Head of Operations, Daniel Patrick. He says season two has undergone a “glow up” with a new focus on Daniel’s relationship with his wife. “That was good fun because it was playing some real, domestic stuff, not just the high-stakes cyber-element of it,” he explains. The show is timely, exploring the forces trying to undermine the UK’s digital infrastructure. “We keep saying with this show, we want it to come out immediately when filming stops. Everything it’s saying is current.”
Both projects are dramatic outings for Pegg, who often gets typecast as a comedic actor. “I really like doing drama. When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I never envisaged myself as a comedy actor. I’m still referred to as a comedian sometimes, which I would refute because I haven’t been a comedian for 30 years now. I’m quite happy doing a variety of things.”
Looking back on his career, he says it was a strange moment last year, when the Mission: Impossible franchise seemingly ended with The Final Reckoning. “When it came out, it felt kind of monumental,” he says. “It was 20 years last year since I started and it never felt like the end because it went on for so long.”
Yet the reckoning may not have been so final, after all: Pegg believes the franchise could return. “I doubt very much it was the last one,” he laughs. “It definitely was the end of that chapter of Ethan Hunt’s life…but it might be that Tom is sitting on his hands in a year or two and thinks, ‘Let’s do another one.’ So, with that in mind, it was kind of like, ‘It’s the end, for now,’” he smiles. Would he return to the franchise if asked? “I’d want a script and a stop date,” he says, cryptically, perhaps hinting the experience was too much of a blast for him to ever say no.
“I doubt very much it was the last [Mission: Impossible]…It definitely was the end of that chapter of Ethan Hunt’s life…but it might be that Tom is sitting on his hands in a year or two and thinks, ‘Let’s do another one.’ So, with that in mind, it was kind of like, ‘It’s the end, for now.'”
“It’s been really interesting just getting to see Tom work and to kind of understand his method,” he reflects now, adding he’s still in awe of how much the actor dedicates to his craft. “He’s someone who utterly gives his entire being to filmmaking. If you want to be Tom Cruise, you have to dedicate everything to it, and it’s amazing to watch. It’s not something I think I could do particularly, not to the degree he does…I just think there’s a certain amount of sacrifice that he’s done to be where he is. He doesn’t have it all. He has an incredible career and an amazing work ethic, but that’s at the expense of normality.”
Pegg has other things to thank the franchise for, too, not least helping him to get in shape – something that was a key turning point in his recovery from alcoholism. The actor suffered with depression from his late teens, and he’d often medicate with drink. His lowest ebb culminated in him going missing from the 2010 San Diego Comic Con for four days. On his return, he landed in The Priory.
“I think one of the keys to staying on top of your mental health is being active and when I got sober, right before shooting 2011’s Ghost Protocol, I remember Tom saying to me, ‘You’re an agent now. Benji [his character] is an agent, so let’s get fit and let’s get in shape.’ And I was like, ‘Now I have a reason to do this.’” He’s kept in shape, and remained clean, ever since. “I started to work out on set in Prague, and I really started to enjoy it. I worked it into my daily routine. If you have an addictive personality, the trick is to swap out whatever was not good for you for something good for you, because you’re not going to change that.”
The World’s End, the third film in the Cornetto series, was secretly about Pegg’s addiction – although nobody knew it at the time. Over the years, the film has won more fans on account of how it started conversations about male mental health. “The whole idea of it being something you can’t talk about, that it’s shameful, or that you have to hide it. No, no you don’t. The minute you stop is when you start getting better,” he says.
He thinks the film Lost Transmissions – a film he made about mental health in 2019 – gave him more of a vocabulary to articulate what he’d been through. “I kind of felt ready to talk about my own situation a little bit more then,” he says. “I didn’t really know what the result would be, but it actually led to a lot of people appreciating it. Conversation is important, particularly for guys, because we tend to not want to talk about feelings so much. With guys, it’s drilled into them that such conversations are unseemly, when they’re absolutely not.”
Now, he seems in the best shape of his life and has a new style to match. He’s dressed in his “staples” of cargo shorts and a black t-shirt today, but on the red carpet, he’s recently been experimenting with bolder styles, including wearing brooches. “As a man, you hear the word ‘brooch’ and you think, ‘Oh that’s something my grandma would wear,’” he laughs. “But you can get really cool, elegant brooches which are masculine and are a statement.” He’s enjoyed taking more outfit risks, he says. “Sometimes ostentatious is fun. If you feel you like it, but you’re worried what other people will think, screw them. Put it on!”
A few weeks earlier, Pegg was on set in London for his Something About Rocks cover shoot. He “loved the chance to wear a suit” and enjoyed experimenting with some bold jewellery including a Hirsh London dragonfly pin. “It’s always nice to dress up. Sometimes me and my stylist pick something kind of crazy, and I like that. It’s fun.” The day before our shoot, Pegg went to a special BFI fellowship dinner for one of his heroes, Guillermo del Toro, and used that as an occasion to bedeck himself. “I wore these little jewelled skulls on my lapel because it was Guillermo, and he’s obsessed with skeletons,” he says. “Last year in Paris, I wore this gold, jewel-encrusted revolver around my neck – it was a fun little nod to Mission Impossible. You can say a lot with jewellery.”
“As a man, you hear the word ‘brooch’ and you think, ‘Oh that’s something my grandma would wear.’ But you can get really cool, elegant brooches which are masculine and are a statement.”
In recent years, Pegg has found other means of self-expression via moonlighting as a DJ. Back at his house, we walk out of his office and into his “laboratory”, a.k.a. a superb DJ booth in a treehouse, full of brightly coloured gig posters and shelves stacked with vinyl and CDs. His decks are kept here, a safe distance away from the neighbours.
“I’ve always been quite musical because my dad was a musician and I grew up around music too,” he says, gesturing at the silver chain around his neck with tiny DJ headphones on – a treasured gift from his wife. Did he ever think about music being a full-time career? “I never had the patience, probably due to my undiagnosed ADHD,” he says, revealing that his potential neurodivergence “is becoming more of a conversation” of late. He thinks “it would answer a lot of questions.”
He is capable of “hyper-focussing”, he says, and when he sets his mind on something, understands it quickly – like learning how to DJ. It all began when Blur’s Alex James asked him to DJ a few years back. Then, Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim), spotted his music on Instagram. He asked him to play his ‘All Back to Minehead’ event last year. “Unbeknownst to me, this was a sort of audition in a way, to play at the Big Beach Boutique in Brighton this summer.” He admits to a few excited nerves. “I feel like an imposter…but I work hard at it, I spend a lot of time finding the tracks like I like and figuring out how to play them together and make new tracks. It’s like a kind of science project!”
“I never had the patience [to learn to DJ properly], probably due to my undiagnosed ADHD. It’s becoming more of a conversation…[and] would answer a lot of questions.”
Next year, he’d love to play Glastonbury, “having spoken to Emily Eavis about what’s possible,” and is looking forward to more film and television. “I just want to keep making interesting stuff, stuff that challenges me,” he says contentedly, as we walk back down the field towards his gate.
After our interview, he’s going back to his DJ booth with Bramwell, to seek out a club remix from Spaced, ‘Let Me Show You’ by Camisra. “Spaced fans in the crowd always go bananas when that bassline comes in,” he smiles. He’s clearly in his element when it comes to creating. “Art, if you can call it something as lofty as that, is self-expression, and that’s what I really missed, making my own things these last few years as that’s kind of where I came from,” he smiles, going all the way back to Spaced. “I really love it.”
Credits
Photographs: @TomoBrejc
Styling: @ArabellaBoyceStylist
Jewellery Styling: @Scarlintheshire
Grooming: @TaraHMakeup
Skin, @Elemis
Hair, @LivingProofInc
Photo Assistant: @sambrown212
Videographer: Luca Birindelli
Stylist’s Assistant: Mia Barr
Producer: @clarelazaro
Location: @The_OldLaceFactory
Socials: @lilyfnrose
Managing Editor and Writer: @eaubrey_writes
Deputy Editor: @kpfashioned
Editor-in-chief: @Something_about_time
