Pegg and Frost having fun with science fiction

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Pegg and Frost having fun with science fiction
March 11, 2011
Dean Richards
Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK — The 2004 film "Shaun of the Dead" took every cliche we'd ever seen in zombie movies and turned it into a hilarious spoof. British comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the childhood friends turned filmmaking partners behind "Shaun" and, a couple of years later, the equally funny buddy cop satire "Hot Fuzz."

Even though they've worked on projects independently, they seem most at home working together and in spoof mode. Last weekend, the pair, starring in "Paul," which opens March 18, told me they have the best jobs in the world.

Q

All you do is make fun of people and things, but none of it is mean-spirited.

Frost: It is fun, especially with your mates. I don't think that is lost on us. I think when you start taking that for granted is when you probably need to start doing a different job.

Pegg: I prefer thinking that we're having fun with things, rather than making fun of them. It's something we've always done in our films. We stick with stuff we love rather than stuff we want to belittle. I don't like that as a comedic trait.

Frost: It's lazy.

Pegg: It's harder to actually send up the stuff you love. We wanted to make a zombie film, so we made a zombie film. We wanted to make an action movie, so we did that. And in this instance, we really want to make a sort of Spielberg-ian sci-fi comedy, so that's what we did. It's a false impression that we've given because we've taken on specific genres, but what we might do next might not occupy a genre. We don't set out to lampoon anything specifically. This film happens to be in the sci-fi genre but it's not to take on sci-fi movies.

Q

You've co-written the film, and the characters you play might be considered comic book convention nerds. How far from that are the real Simon and Nick?

Frost: They're kind of us in a way, and they are our mates, so there wasn't much studying to be done, really. We've been to Comic-Con and a few other big shows like that. You can't be seen to be making fun of them because it's essentially us. The Comic-Con crowd is very vociferous. They'd let us know if they were offended.

Pegg: For people to sort of embody characters like this and not understand that world, you'd wind up creating very broad and inaccurate characters. We've been to Comic-Con many times. … We are nerds to a degree and as such, we think we're qualified to talk about this genre. The best Jewish jokes are told by Jewish people only. The minute a blond, tall, blue-eyed man tells a Jewish joke, it becomes kind of dodgy.

Q

Whenever I see one of you in a movie without the other, I kind of feel you're cheating on the other.

Pegg: He knows where my heart is.

Frost: He can cheat; it's fine. It's not a competition. What's good for Simon is good for us.

Pegg: I feel the same way. When he goes off and does stuff, I'm like, "So what are they like? Are they fun? Did you have a good time?"

It's nice that you have that kind of open relationship.

Pegg: We can see other directors. It's the same with ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" director) Edgar Wright. When we worked with ("Paul" director) Greg Mottola and Edgar was off working on "Scott Pilgrim (vs. the World)," we would often have conversations like, "How's Michael Cera? How's your bevy of new, young, good looking actors?"

Simon, what can you tell me about "Mission Impossible 4" and "Star Trek"?

Pegg: "Mission" is just finishing up. Brad Bird is directing. He's done an amazing job. We start shooting "Star Trek" this year.