SIMON PEGG: I Want To Be a Good Man For My Daughter

Simon Pegg is a legend of the entertainment industry, with a career spanning more than 30 years. Growing up in Gloucester with a cinema just down the road, Simon’s deep love of films was fostered early on. From Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End to Star Trek and the Mission: Impossible franchise, he’s built one of the most beloved bodies of work. I grew up watching Simon’s films, so getting the chance to meet him was surreal. We talked about everything from working with Tom Cruise and J. J. Abrams to our shared love of horror movies and what it means to be a good dad. In this conversation, Simon shares: Why he’ll never make a sequel to the Cornetto TrilogyBeing the child of divorce and what that’s taught him as a parent His favourite thing about his best friend, Nick Frost The moment he got the call for Mission: Impossible Simon is a reminder that turning a childhood passion into a lifelong career isn't about luck, it's about never letting go of the thing you love. Simon Pegg is Great Company. 'The Undeclared War' is available NOW https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-undeclared-war on C4/ On Demand and on Peacock/ NBC in the US from 27th August If you enjoyed the show, you can also follow us: Instagram-@greatcompanypodcast https://www.instagram.com/greatcompanypodcast/# TikTok -@greatcompanypodcast https://open.acast.com/networks/611e511b4ec6dc00134bced2/shows/65d737dfdc02e00016c413b2/episodes/www.tiktok.com/@greatcompanypodcast Jamie -@jamielaing https://www.instagram.com/jamielaing/?hl=en-gb And if you've got thoughts, questions and comments, you can email us at: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] THE CREDITS Producers: Helen Burke Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins Video: Josh Bennett Senior Social Media Manager: Laura Coughlan Audio: Rafi Amsili Geovannetti Executive Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  As a kid, you are processing the idea that your father would rather be somewhere else than with you. And going into my mum in the morning and just saying, where's dad? And I remember that day, and I was six probably. It stamps itself on your

• 0:13Speaker 01

  It does.

• 0:14Speaker 00

  subconscious. And that is what abandonment is.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  Fatherhood is a big thing. We really don't talk about.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  There is no instruction manual, you know. What I tried to do for Tilly was just, I tried to be the best man I could be.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  Explain that to me in like, what ways?

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Simon Pegg and I'm in great company.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  You've never taken a shortcut before?

• 0:31Speaker 00

  Simon.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Simon Pegg, everybody!

• 0:34Speaker 00

  Edgar Wright swore blind that a strawberry Cornetto was the ultimate hangover cure.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Do you want anything from the shop?

• 0:41Speaker 00

  Cornetto. At the Shaun of the Dead premiere, we had free Cornettos. Me and Edgar and Nick were like, this is amazing. We've got free ice cream. This is, this is so cool. We should put one in the next film in case we get free ice cream again. It was sheer, sheer just hoping we could get free ice cream.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  The question that people always say to you is, why don't you make another Shaun of the Dead? Why don't you go make another Hot Fuzz?

• 1:00Speaker 00

  But not everything needs a sequel. Some stories just end.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  I just disagree. I just feel like Hot Fuzz does.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  I think Hot Fuzz we could probably do.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  Man, I have a game that I want to play with you.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  Go on.

• 1:11Speaker 01

  How good at improv are you?

• 1:12Speaker 00

  Pretty good.

• 1:13Speaker 01

  Okay, well, should I, should I set a scene? We're dating. You're meeting me in a pub. And you're here to break up with me, but I think you're gonna propose to me.

• 1:22Speaker 00

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Hey, listen, thanks for coming.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  Okay, guys, I'm gonna be honest, I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out because I'm about to record an episode with Simon Pegg. Yeah, Simon P E double G. That's Simon Pegg from Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Paul, all the big ones, Mission Impossible. What? He's coming in the studio. He's actually next door about to interview him, so I'm super excited. So many questions, so many things that I want to ask. Now, I know you're excited, but before we start, if I can ask you one quick thing, if you can click that subscribe button. It means we can keep getting guests like Simon Pegg, keep making the show better and better for you guys. And you join this amazing community of incredible people who love this show and watch it every single week. Okay, if you can do that one thing, I love you forever. Enjoy this incredible episode of Great Company with Simon Pegg.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. Shh. I can keep my old phone and I also get the latest iPhone every year. Shh, anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody, listen up! Shh. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade-in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.

• 2:40Speaker 03

  When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to shipstation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  So I'm beyond excited. I, I, I can't, it's, it's, you know, it's, um, because I've watched you growing up, right? And loved your movies. Then sitting with you and interviewing you and chatting to you, it's kind of a weird, like, weird sort of moment for me, I suppose.

• 3:31Speaker 00

  I get that a lot these days of people saying, I grew up watching you. And it makes me realise how old I am.

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I don't, but I, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't think you're old though, in that way.

• 3:43Speaker 00

  No, but it makes me realise how long I've been working, you know, 30 years. So, you know, there, there are kids out there that, that literally started watching me as tiny children.

• 3:56Speaker 00

  Weird.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, but do you not also think that that's so great? What a great thing for your career, the fact that you can work this long?

• 4:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  Because when you start out, it's one of those things that you kind of want to have, where you want to have that career where you can just keep going and going and going.

• 4:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, but you kind of, I guess you sort of, you, you, you never really stop and kind of look back down the road and, and realise just how, you, you just keep going and going and going. And then suddenly you're meeting, what's nice is meeting young people who weren't born when, say Shaun of the Dead came out.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:26Speaker 00

  Who, who liked the movie, you know, that's, that's the best you can hope for.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Can you make me feel better then? Because I think in this, and you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna validate me now, right? So in this industry, right, the entertainment industry.

• 4:39Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  You're always searching for the next thing, always looking for the next thing, always wanting the next thing. But even someone in your position, in your career, the things that you've done, are you always thinking, what's next? What's more, what else can I do? Or are you sort of content?

• 4:53Speaker 00

  I think it's a bit of both. I mean, I, like, when I started out, I never had like a plan. I never, I never, when we were saying, uh, making space, say, I never thought, okay, in five years I want to be doing this, or I want to be doing that. You just sort of, everything kind of comes at you over the horizon and, and you, you tackle it as it arrives. So, um, at, at this stage in my career, at 56, I'm thinking, what do I want to do in the, in the back half, you know? And, and that's, I'm a little bit more considered about that now, I think. Because I've only got so much time left, you know? And I don't want to, I don't want to go and join another film franchise, say, and be attached to that for 20 years because I'll be 76 when I finish. That's just like weird.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  So isn't life fucking weird?

• 5:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Like, I'm 37. Like, where did that, I have a kid.

• 5:49Speaker 00

  Well, one thing that I've realised as a parent though is, my daughter's 17 now. And you'll realise this when, when yours get to that age is that the time you spend with them is tiny. You know, they, suddenly they're adults. It happens so quickly. My daughter's entire life is on my phone. She was born in 2009, a year after the first iPhone. So I have, I can scroll through her entire life. And now she's gonna go to university next year and she's gonna leave home. And it's, it's a whack in the face. It really is.

• 6:22Speaker 01

  You have Tilly, right? Tilly's 17. I have Ziggy, who Ziggy is seven months old now.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  You're in the trenches.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Simon, he's fucking, do this. I, I need to talk just, okay, just, I'm gonna pin that for a second, but like, I'm in the trenches, man.

• 6:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  He doesn't sleep.

• 6:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  He doesn't like, uh, really know what he's doing. I'm like lying in bed. He had to come into our bed last night because he's crying. He doesn't know that I'm interviewing you.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  Be careful with that.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  I know. I'm trying to not do that, but my wife is like, he likes it more. I'm like, I know, but that means we're not gonna connect anymore.

• 6:59Speaker 00

  And also they're, he's gonna want to stay there.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  But then there'll be a time when you're, you're begging him to come and get into bed with you because, you know, there's a, there's a day when, and you don't know it, but there is a day that's the last day you'll ever pick him up. You know, you'll ever carry him anywhere. There's a day, the last day he'll ever come into bed with you. And those moments, they, they, they, they sort of come and go and you don't realise. And then you're like, wait a minute, I can't pick you up anymore. You're too big, you know? It's weird for dads as well. I'd say.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Because they feel like a Tamagotchi.

• 7:32Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah, you gotta keep him alive. That's what you're doing right now.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  But also, it's like mine. It's like, you're not a human. You're, you, you belong, it's mine. I can.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, and they're part of you.

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  I found it very profound the first time I looked at her and saw my face in her. You know, that was weird. The, the realisation that, that I had another heart beating in the world, you know? That, that was really profound. But I think for you at this stage, all you can do for this first year is be supportive of your wife. That's the sexiest thing you can do. You don't have a connection with the baby like mum does, you know? So you're kind of trying to find your place. What do I do? What am I for? You've kind of been deposed slightly because you're not the most, you know, important person in her life anymore.

• 8:23Speaker 00

  But all you can do is just be there, say yes all the time, be super supportive. And at some point, he'll look at you and he'll go, oh, that's dad. And he'll smile and then you'll suddenly feel it. But I think a lot of dads feel a little bit

• 8:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  at sea for the first year.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  But dads don't talk about this.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  No, men don't talk about anything, apart from video games.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  We don't talk about anything.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  No, I know.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  It's like a big issue. I don't even know that.

• 8:47Speaker 00

  It's a huge issue.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  It's a huge issue.

• 8:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  And fatherhood is a big thing. We really don't talk about, I don't think. And I'm, and I'm trying to work out why we don't. And I think it's because, I think we're scared of a reaction from our partner. I think we're scared of a reaction from our friends, our family. I think we try and fool ourselves and lie to ourselves because we don't really want to be different. But the truth is, in my experience, is you have this thing that you hold that is yours and your wife gives birth and you hold it. And you're straight away meant to love it. You're meant to have a connection straight away. And you've, and in my experience, you feel protective.

• 9:21Speaker 00

  Oh, very, yeah.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Hugely, but it's, it's a thing that you have to learn to know and understand. No one explains that to you. No one talks.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  There's no rulebook. Did you have that moment when we got back from the hospital? And and and sort of put her down in her little carrier chair and it was like, all right, so what now? It's like, what do we do now? Nobody, there is no instruction manual, you know. Every baby is a is a new thing. It's very odd to think, I don't know this person, this person who has just come out of my wife. I I don't know them. And then and you get to know them and I mean, it's brilliant, brilliant. The best thing you can do is, what I tried to do for Tilly was just, I tried to be the best man I could be. Because I, you know, children tend to look for elements of their parents in their partners, right? So it's the same, the same for you.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  You you try and be the best man you can be so that when they go on to meet people, they look for those attributes in other people. And I just wanted to make sure that I set an example for Tilly so that she would look for those those kind of attributes in. And and her boyfriend now, Max, is a lovely guy. He's super, super cool and I think good. She's not looking for, I was worried at first because she always, you know, fancied the bad guy and things, like Draco Malfoy was her favorite in Harry Potter. You know, it was these weird kind of like slightly dark kind of characters that she was gravitating towards. I was, oh, no.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  Take it for that.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  No.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Take it for that.

• 10:59Speaker 00

  So for you, it's about showing him what it means to be a bloke, you know, a good bloke.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, they say, especially with daughters, that if you're, if a daughter, if a daughter knows they're loved by their father, they can be, they can love themselves.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  And so then they don't need the validation from other people.

• 11:22Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  That if they don't have to go seeking it, if it comes, then they're like, okay, this is good. I I I I deserve this, it's fine.

• 11:29Speaker 00

  That's very true.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  And and I think you're right because, you know, my parents divorced, your parents divorced around seven years old, right? Mine around the same age.

• 11:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  And I think that sets you up in not a great fashion.

• 11:41Speaker 00

  No.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  That abandonment comes in.

• 11:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, and that's at a time when your core beliefs are being established. You know, your attitude towards so many things are built between seven and fourteen. And then they stay, they're almost immutable. And you have to really go back into your psychology to kind of undo some of the damage that gets done to you as a kid.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  Because otherwise you carry it forward.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  So what happened when your parents divorced? What did that, what do you think that did to you?

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Well, they did, it was fairly amicable as far as I can remember. But nevertheless, as a kid, you are processing the idea that your father usually would rather be somewhere else than with you, you know? And that is what abandonment is, because no matter what the reason and marry young and, you know, you change as you get older and they're they're they're all kind of reasonable reasons to to separate. But as a child, you just perceive it as, oh, you don't want to be with me anymore, you know? And that, you carry that and you and as as much as your, both parents can say, look, it's not like that. That's not why this happened. You you you you still feel that way, you know? It's hard.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  It's really hard. And also, I don't know with your experience, but my experience with it was, um, I remember that, I remember the day my parents came in and said they're getting divorced, right? And I almost had that way, I didn't want to laugh because I felt so awkward.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Because I was like, this is weird, what, I don't really get what's going on here. And but then that happens, then you go out and play again. It just, it it it it.

• 13:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  You you would just continue life, right?

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, cognitively, you're making all these kind of like connections. I I I I remember the day we were suddenly staying, I don't remember getting there. But I remember being at my nan's house and going into my mom in the morning and just saying, where's dad? And her saying, oh, um, he's gonna go, he's gone away for a while, you know? And I remember that day and I was six probably. So it it it stamps itself on your subconscious.

• 13:45Speaker 01

  I can, I can see the room that I was in.

• 13:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, me too.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Which is like, that that's the crazy thing about like childhood, right? I can remember so many things, I can remember the room, I can remember this first goal I scored in football.

• 13:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, me too. It really dribbled in, it was a terrible goal, but I scored.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Mine was from the corner.

• 14:02Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  It's unbelievable.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  Really?

• 14:04Speaker 01

  I was five, I can't remember what I did yesterday.

• 14:06Speaker 00

  Curled it in.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Just went in. But why do we think those things imprint on us here? Is it because it's our first experience or something?

• 14:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it's because obviously our brain is doing a lot more than just perceiving reality, you know? Our brain is is is very busy, um, beyond just our subjective experience. It's kind of, it's logging stuff and and recording things and and shaping our attitudes. And um, that that we don't have any control over that, how how our emotions are affected, you know? They just are.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  So how did you think with Tilly, how did you want to parent different, do you think?

• 14:43Speaker 00

  Well, I wanted to stick around for starters.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  A good starting point.

• 14:47Speaker 00

  So, you know, Maureen and I, my wife and I, you know, we work hard at, you know, because marriage is a, it it it marriage isn't a fairy tale. It's a, it's an agreement that you make and you can.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  No one tells you that as well.

• 14:58Speaker 00

  No.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  Because all the Disney movies.

• 15:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, right, you're you're led to believe it's some sort of like, okay, well, like dolphins or swans or whatever, we just. But you you have to, you have to kind of.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Which is made happily.

• 15:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, happily ever after, you know?

• 15:11Speaker 01

  That's what it is.

• 15:12Speaker 00

  So you you you you you meet an obstacle and you you either give up or you carry on, you know? And and we both really wanted to be there for her. So anytime we ran into sort of, you know, trouble or whatever, or just disagreement or whatever, it's like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna keep going. And um, and so for me, it was just about making sure that she felt loved at all times and and I able to speak to us and, you know, I just tried to think about. My dad was a great, is, was a great guy. I I understand his foibles and I understand everything that happened. But what I didn't want to do was what he did, you know? And um, because I I I knew the damage that that inflicted upon me, you know?

• 15:56Speaker 00

  So I just wanted to kind of uh, just be as cool as possible. It's not easy because I'm not. You know, I'm just a person. But you you you want to be, you want to be the best person you can be and have your thing with, like, my thing with Tils is is movies, like, we we bonded over movies since she was very small. And that's our little place where we go every Saturday, we watch a film and uh.

• 16:22Speaker 01

  Every Saturday?

• 16:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. And that's like, I mean, she's seen more films than most people my age, let alone her age. And that that's been our our kind of our little bonding space. That's a good thing to have, it's something you can have just with him.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. So any movie, do you start in a decade or a year or type or genre?

• 16:41Speaker 00

  We started like, when, until she was about nine, we were watching films that were age appropriate.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  Sure, so it wasn't Fight Club?

• 16:48Speaker 00

  No. Now that's one of her favorite films.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  It's a great film.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  But and then at nine, I accidentally showed her It.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  Because I thought it was like Stranger Things, I thought, yeah, it's little kids, like fighting monsters, it'll be fine. No, she slept with the light on for three weeks. And then after that, she was, she she sort of emerged from that cocoon of of trauma, like, I want to watch more. So then now we've watched every horror film, like really nasty ones as well.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  Okay, so so like, uh, The Train to Busan?

• 17:18Speaker 00

  Oh, she loves that movie.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  It's a great movie.

• 17:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  I'm a huge horror movie fan.

• 17:22Speaker 00

  Are you? Me too.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  I I've been reasonably trying to work out why that is, and I think it's because it makes me feel something.

• 17:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course.

• 17:28Speaker 01

  Makes me feel like, weirdly, I I like feeling emotions, right? I I like when I get emotional, right? I like it, right?

• 17:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, you feel alive.

• 17:36Speaker 01

  I feel alive, I like feeling happier, but I can feel those emotions quite a lot. Feeling scared is like a rare emotion, you don't really feel scared.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  You don't want to feel that in the real world.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  No, you you you really don't.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  So like, that's why horror films and roller coasters are great, because they let you rehearse fear without having any real danger, you know? And so for me, I'm, I actually said to Tilly, we went to see Weapons.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  So good.

• 18:00Speaker 00

  So good.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:01Speaker 00

  And I was like, we were walking in and I was like, you know, I'm really, I I'm always looking for the, for the, for the next scare, you know, Tilly? Because I'm I'm unscarable these days, I've seen everything. Cut to in the cinema, there was one jump scare in Weapons and I literally screamed out loud and the whole of the crowd just looked at me. And Tilly just gave me the most withering look. I walked in there all Jack the Biscuit, like, you can't scare me.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  Have you recently watched Obsession?

• 18:30Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  That is, and you know, what I love about Obsession is, I think it cost a million to make.

• 18:36Speaker 00

  No, seven fifty.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars and it's grossed, it's the highest grossing, it's the first movie to do that, cost that much and gross over a hundred million, right?

• 18:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I think it's one of the most successful movies ever in terms of its gross and its budget. I've been watching Curry Barker for a while on YouTube because he has loads of horror shorts on YouTube. And I've kind of been following him and then I saw that he'd got a feature film and was kind of like, oh, this should be good. But no, it was masterful.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  You know, and I watched that, I was like, I'm gonna watch this little YouTube film. And I sat downstairs. I was, it scared the shit out of me.

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's great.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  The boy, I had to, I went up, I had to sort of stop it, right?

• 19:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  And I had to go upstairs to my wife who was in bed and I was a bit like,

• 19:21Speaker 01

  I had to spoon her and you know,

• 19:24Speaker 00

  Really, you were just?

• 19:25Speaker 01

  And she was like, you alright? I was like, not really.

• 19:28Speaker 00

  We watched it on, well, I went to see it at the cinema and then on Tillie's birthday, me and her and her boyfriend watched it and then she just trolled him for the rest of the night, was like standing in the corner. And go, why don't you love me? And he hates horror films.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  What do you think makes a good horror movie?

• 19:46Speaker 00

  I think it has to appeal to our core fears, you know, things that, I mean, basically, our fear, fear, human fear is basically not knowing the unknown. So it starts off with what was in the back of that cave, you know, like, primitive people looking into the back of a cave and not knowing if there's a bear in there. You know, we still have that fear in our DNA. And so it's tapping into those kind of things. Uh, just the unknown and the, the, ultimately the extension of that is death, our ultimate fear is death.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  And the big thing that we fear about death is we don't know anything about it, you know, we don't know what it is or why it is, all those things, it's very primal. And so all fear stems from that. And that's what good horror filmmakers tap into.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Are you scared of death?

• 20:36Speaker 00

  I'm scared of dying, I'm not scared of death. You know, I don't, you, you, you try not to kind of think about it too much, I don't think. But I, I'm very, I'm an atheist, so I, I feel like it's fine, it's gonna, I'm not gonna know. It's like, people say what happens after death and you know, what happened before you were born, it's the same. You just didn't exist, you know, that's, that's what happens. You become, you, you dissolve into atoms and you become something else, you'll be a tree or a.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  I, I, I, I agree with you and not, and annoyingly so, I, I don't like the fact that I agree with you. Because I wanna feel like, you know, we're friends now.

• 21:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  This great friendship that we have, this can't end here. This has got to fold into more. We've got to, you know, we can't just.

• 21:25Speaker 00

  But we put so much importance on our subjective experience, like, the reason we think we have a soul is because we can't quite comprehend the idea that our personality, our, our subjective experience, which is just info, that's all it is. It's just memories from over time, you know, that that must be more important, that must live in some other form, it must be like a floating bubble or a bit of smoke. It isn't, it's just mental pollution from our subjective experience and.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Mental pollution.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's kind of what, I was reading Noah Yuval Harari and he was talking about the fact that human beings are so strange because we have this, this, this subjective experience that we, we can, uh, uh, interpret and, and, and sort of, um, we can imagine things, we can do all these incredible things. And he was sort of saying that our brains are so complex that all the processes that, that we use all the time and the way that we perceive reality, our personalities are just pollution from that. There's, it's just something that happens. And it's kind of bizarre because we're the only animal on the planet that does that. And really the only animal on the planet doesn't live in total harmony with its, its surroundings, you know?

• 22:40Speaker 00

  And, and it makes me think that maybe humans were a mistake.

• 22:47Speaker 00

  Like a kind of, like a, like a, like an aberration. Because like, I, I have no doubt, you know, in the billions of solar systems, galaxies that exist, there are loads and loads of, there's so much life out there.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  You think there is?

• 22:59Speaker 00

  But not necessarily intelligent life in the way that we think intelligent life.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  We, we, we put, we're so self-important as human beings. We think our ability to, to build things is important, it's not, it's just self-serving. Whereas if you imagine a planet with just animals on it, that aren't, that don't have subjective experience, that only have sort of emotional reactive experience. Those planets will last for billions and billions of years because it all works as one organism. Whereas we, we kind of don't. We're, we're actively affecting our own planet, you know, by our actions. Which doesn't really make sense when you look at the sort of cosmic plan.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to shipstation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  Whoever says saving money is hard doesn't know that new customers who bundle and save with Progressive save hundreds. Because switching your home and auto insurance is better than cutting down on the things you love. Like those iced lattes that help you get ready to face the day. So, switch your home and auto to Progressive and see if you could save and keep sipping away. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  I heard you talk about something really interesting, right, which is you, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, these like, just, I mean, just goes on, right? And the question that people always say to you is, why don't you make another Shaun of the Dead? Why don't you go make another Hot Fuzz? And what I love is that you go, well, that's the obvious thing to do, right? That's comfort. And actually, the best bit of art is when you're in a place where you don't quite know if it's good or bad. Living in comfort is kind of safe, that's what everyone kind of does. And you never want to do that. You, it feels like you want to always be looking and trying and doing different things.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, we, I mean, the human beings generally will take the path of least resistance, you know, and, and what we, and what the market has, has drilled in recently is familiarity. It's just like, okay, people want to see the same thing again, so let's do lots of sequels and lots of prequels and remake animations into live actions just because people want to, people want familiarity when what we really need is, is, is newness.

• 25:41Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  You know, and I, for me, like with the Cornetto movies, it's like, some stories end. You know, Shaun of the Dead ends. If, to make a sequel, we'd have to undo all the resolution that takes place at the end of. Yeah, but then it's like, if you, then if you go back and watch Shaun of the Dead, then you're like, okay, but he's gonna have to have this other adventure. Some films lend themselves to it, you know, the, the Marvel films or Mission Impossible or Star.

• 26:07Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 26:07Speaker 00

  That, because they're ongoing adventures that, about people that get into adventures. Shaun of the Dead is not, it's about an electrical sales clerk, you know? And he doesn't have adventures, he has one big adventure and that's it, you know? And I, I think that, that I sometimes find that sequels can retroactively spoil their predecessors. Alien is a great example because in Alien Three, the beginning of Alien Three, I'll, I'll try not to spoil it for people that haven't seen it. But it somewhat undoes a lot of the, um, the, the, the, the stakes and the achievements of Ripley in Aliens. So when you watch Aliens again, you're just thinking, oh, I don't bother. Because that's the.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Because I don't care, I'm not in it now because it's just like, yeah, it's going back.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Those people are gonna die, so why, why save them?

• 26:54Speaker 01

  So then what do you, what is your take on James Bond?

• 26:57Speaker 00

  Well, he's, he's a secret agent, so he got, he, he is gonna have adventures for his entire life. And so there are chapters that we can dip into. Some things necessitate sequelization and, and I'm not saying sequels are bad, but not everything needs a sequel. Some stories just end.

• 27:13Speaker 01

  I just, I just disagree, I just feel like Hot Fuzz does.

• 27:17Speaker 00

  I think Hot, Hot Fuzz, we could probably do another one.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  Like, I probably could go around the room here and in most rooms, especially within the UK and say, give me your top 10 movies. I reckon a lot of people, Shaun of the Dead would be up there, Hot Fuzz would be up there. And I'm not even kidding you. People like to go, yeah, we got Fight Club or Shawshank Redemption, hell no. You kidding me? And but that's, and what I, to have that sort of body of work, you must feel like insanely proud of doing that.

• 27:47Speaker 00

  I do, I feel, I'm really happy that we, we made three movies. Because we never made a third series of space and we always kind of wanted to, but it was time and circumstance just worked against us in that. And, and also we made Shaun and that changed everything. So to finish like a, a trilogy of films all about a kind of, you know, the individual versus the collective, all about, or featuring a specific ice cream. That felt like we've done something, you know? And now, now we're talking about doing something new, it's like, well, what is it gonna be, you know? Because it's not gonna be like that, it's gonna be something different.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  Can you explain, uh, the Cornetto movement? Explain why it's called the Cornetto movies?

• 28:34Speaker 00

  Edgar Wright swore blind that a strawberry Cornetto was the ultimate hangover cure. So when, when, uh, when they wake up in the morning of the zombie apocalypse, uh, Ed requests one from the shop. And then in, when we were making Hot Fuzz, actually at the Shaun of the Dead premiere.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  We had free Cornetos and and we were like, me and Edgar and Nick were like, this is amazing. We got free ice cream. This is this is so cool. We should put one in the next film in case we get free ice cream again. So then one ended up in Hot Fuzz. We very kind of like, you know, slightly self aggrandizingly referenced ourselves in Hot Fuzz by repeating the line, do you want anything from the shop? And then it was like, well, we got to put one in the World's End now because that's, you know, it could be like our three flavors Cornetto trilogy, like in the Kristof Kozlowski kind of, you know, three colors, white, red, white and blue. And then that just became a thing. So by the time we did the World's End, they were advertising it on Cornetto boxes. So that's why it became the the Cornetto trilogy.

• 29:39Speaker 00

  It's it was sheer sheer just hoping we could get free ice cream.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  I have a game that I want to play with you.

• 29:44Speaker 00

  Go on, I love a game.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  Okay, it's called Finish That Line.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  I'm gonna read a line.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:49Speaker 01

  And then you have to finish it.

• 29:50Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  And it's it's not just a random line.

• 29:53Speaker 00

  No. From any film.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  From any film. It's a line from your movies.

• 29:57Speaker 00

  Okay, okay, all right.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  First one. No luck catching them killers then?

• 30:02Speaker 00

  It's just the one killer, actually. I'm good with the ones I wrote.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  So you I can't tell you how much thrill this is giving me. I'm trying to keep it caged.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  Frickin buzzing about this. Okay, here we go.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  We're in a pub. What are we gonna do now?

• 30:21Speaker 00

  Okay, so that's Shaun of the Dead and it's something like, I can see if the cool is on, no, I could see if the, no, um, it's, it's not, is it have a sit down? No.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  What do you do in a pub normally?

• 30:31Speaker 00

  Drink. Have a beer.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  We get around it.

• 30:34Speaker 00

  We get riding.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  That's it. Okay, next one, ready? Are you sure you're fine to drive?

• 30:40Speaker 00

  What are you talking about? You were just dead.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  A minute ago, you were dead.

• 30:45Speaker 00

  A minute ago, you were dead, yeah.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Okay, here we go. Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is?

• 30:51Speaker 00

  Oh, that could be any of my films.

• 30:53Speaker 01

  It is actually quite hard.

• 30:54Speaker 00

  Oh, wait, this is Star Trek.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Yes, it is.

• 30:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is?

• 30:58Speaker 00

  It is.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  To hide?

• 31:00Speaker 00

  To hide a starship under the sea.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  At the bottom of the sea.

• 31:03Speaker 00

  Bottom of the sea.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Let's frickin go. Here we go. If we don't come down hard on these clowns.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  We'll be up to our balls in jugglers.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Let's go.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  Your characters that you create, you say you have to come from your own experiences, right?

• 31:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 31:21Speaker 01

  That's how you write them. Can you elaborate on it? Explain that, why that's important?

• 31:25Speaker 00

  I think because you you have to write from a position of the truth, you know, and if you if you're writing from experience, then you can be truthful, you know, because you know what you're talking about. With Shaun of the Dead, that was our life at the time, not the zombies, obviously. But the the there was a pub called The Shepherds on the corner of Shepherd's Hill and Archway Road. It's now called The Boogaloo. It's a very good pub, always has been. But on before it was The Boogaloo and it was like a cool music venue. It was a very basic old man's boozer run by John and Bernie, who we named the landlord and lady in Shaun of the Dead after. And Nick and I loved it. It was on the corner of our road and we spent all of our time in there.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  And Edgar used to get so annoyed at us because he wanted us to come into town and go to the Groucho Club and stuff. And we were like, no, we this is our pub. And and so The Winchester was born from that idea that, you know, Shaun and Ed had this one place that they always went and they we'd done that thing that Ed does in the movie when he he he gives everyone a kind of backstory and a nickname. We did that with all the regulars in The Shepherds before we got to know them. And then the reason we called it The Winchester is because there needed to be a rifle over the bar. So that whole experience of like, being ensconced in this one pub and that pub being the answer to all of our problems, that was the root of Shaun of the Dead and that came from the truth.

• 32:52Speaker 00

  Hot Fuzz was different because I knew nothing about policing. And so Edgar and I did a lot of research and we went out with the cops in Brixton and in the countryside. We learned the difference between rural policing and metropolitan policing. And so that we could then write from a position of the truth. And the World's End was, you know, I wrote that two years after I got sober. So that was all like about that, about the pain of being an addict. And so when you write from the truth, it just feels, it feels more authentic, I think.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  It it also must be like, um, in a way cathartic, like, do you journal?

• 33:33Speaker 00

  No, but I guess I do with the films.

• 33:37Speaker 01

  That's what I mean, right? Because it is. It's like you're getting it out there, putting it out there. And so it kind of, it's like that whole,

• 33:45Speaker 01

  going back to how like as men, we don't really talk, right? I for many years has never spoken anything, right?

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  And in my twenties, I drank just way too much, too much. And, you know, it's one of the things I kind of really regret. Because there were so many wasted nights, so many wasted days, so many times where I didn't turn up to my mom's sixtieth. I didn't turn up to Christmas.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  You know, because I just wanted to go and get drunk.

• 34:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 01

  And it almost makes me emotional now thinking about it because I look at that twenty year old kid who was so confused. He was so insecure. He was so not knowing where he was in life. And all I kept turning to was, oh, well, if I this this liquid or whatever that I can drink, oh, this just makes it go away, really.

• 34:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  So I can just drink that.

• 34:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  And I didn't realize the slow effect that it was slowly having on me.

• 34:39Speaker 00

  Because we think, I mean, people will say alcohol is a social lubricant. But the thing that it really is, is an emotional anesthetic. And that's what that's why a lot of people drink to excess is because they're just trying to change how they feel without actual medication, you know, because going and getting medicated for something, whether it's, you know, depression and anxiety or ADHD or whatever, it's it's so so much easier to just drink it away.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:02Speaker 00

  Because you can do that. You don't have to talk to anyone. You don't have to admit that you've got any issues. You can just go to the pub and drink. And that's why it's such a sort of dangerous and I mean, now that I'm on the other side of it and I look back at the culture, we're so encouraged to to do it, you know, it's like, it's a chemical. It's a it is a drug, you know, that's what it is. But we don't see it as that because it's so socially acceptable. But we're still using a chemical compound to alter how we feel, which is what all drugs do. And so to be on the other side of that, looking back, it's like bursting out of a forest and looking back and realizing how dark and dangerous it was, you know.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  What was the moment that you decided to quit alcohol?

• 35:46Speaker 00

  I was in San Diego and I was promoting the film Paul and um, I I stopped for a while and I fell off the wagon there. And then I can't remember like the next four days or so. And I remember coming home to London and actually stopping on the way back from Heathrow to go into a pub just to get a drink, you know. And I got back and my wife could tell. And I thought that I had blown everything and that, you know, it was over. And I just went out and I got another can of like some awful strong cider. And then I woke up in the priory and then I

• 36:28Speaker 00

  then I realized that it was I either get straight or I'd lose everything that that matters to me, you know. And then so after that, that was two thousand and ten and I haven't drunk since.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Wow, that's like, it's just insane, right? Looking back. And and also, which I think is so that the reason why someone I just really just admire you talking about it, right? Because someone in your position talking about that, so many people who look up to you, including myself, right? Just go, wow, that's amazing. If someone like that can do it, someone like that can achieve all those things and and then get that feels.

• 37:04Speaker 00

  And also you realize that you you get all these things that are supposed to make you happy. So like I was, you know, I I I was a I'd been doing well in the film industry, you know, Shaun had come out, Hot Fuzz, Paul. I'd had I'd had a baby, which was like the most profound, wonderful thing that happened to me. And yet, some for some reason, I still wasn't happy and that that made me realize that that success is not.

• 37:32Speaker 00

  Anything you achieve other than your own personal happiness, if you're happy, whether you're, you know, digging ditches or, or the king of the world.

• 37:45Speaker 00

  If the dig, if the ditch digger is happy and the king of the world isn't, the ditch digger is way more successful than the king of the world, you know?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  Hundred percent, man. And we, and it's so crazy. We don't realize that, right?

• 37:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  We don't realize it. And we realize all of this is kind of fluff, really.

• 37:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  And actually, what really matters is, you know, I, I went to, um, I went to a therapist when all of that was going on. And I think therapy is one of the most amazing things.

• 38:07Speaker 00

  It is.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  It's incredible. And if you can afford it, or you can get it on the NHS, or whatever way of getting it, I just think it improves your life. And I kept talking about different things and, and she said to me, she called Mao, she was amazing. She said, Jamie, I just keep you, hey, you talk about all these different things. All you've got to do is compare yourself to yourself yesterday, or last week, or last year. And if you're a better version of yourself now, then you're successful.

• 38:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  And I was like, that is a, an amazing way to sort of think about it, right?

• 38:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it's doable, you know, it's not like an insurmountable task. You can, you can do it by increments, but you can do it, you know?

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Can we talk about your friendship with Nick Frost?

• 38:42Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  I don't know the guy. He seems like a legend.

• 38:46Speaker 00

  He is a legend.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  There's a, there's a lovely quote, which I want to find about where he talks about how much you love each other.

• 38:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Uh, he said, we literally fell in love. He took a big fucking lump of idiot clay and he gave me the confidence to believe. And he noticed there was something within me.

• 39:06Speaker 00

  Bless him.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  That's amazing, man.

• 39:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, you know, I, it was one of those strange things. I mean, you get, you get into adulthood and you think, I'm not gonna, what's the quote from Stand By Me? You know, you don't have friends like you do when you're 12 or whatever.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Great movie.

• 39:21Speaker 00

  But I, I met him and we just started hanging out and I just got a massive dopamine hit from him, you know? That's what it was. We, we both got that from each other. And this is long before he, you know, was in space. This is a good five, six years before he actually started working as an actor. And I was a stand-up comic at the time, so he'd just come to my gigs with me and we'd hang out and he made me laugh so much, like none of the comics I knew did. And, um, and we just sort of cemented this friendship. And really, in the end,

• 39:59Speaker 00

  writing that role for him in space, which was based on a character that he'd come up with, um, was a way of spending more time with him.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Is it really?

• 40:07Speaker 00

  Yeah. It was like, hey, if you come work with me, then we can hang out more.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. What is the best thing about Nick?

• 40:14Speaker 00

  He's just, Nick is so down to earth. We came from completely different backgrounds. And he always makes a joke about it. It was like my fair lady, you know, I was like Henry Higgins to his Eliza Doolittle. And yes, I kind of like, you know, I, I, I showed him all this stuff and films and, and, but he, he showed me as much about life and about kind of, I don't know, I, I was, I, I came out of Bristol University as quite an uptight, politically correct kind of student. And Nick just taught me that, you, you know, the, the, the real political correctness is about intent. It's about, you know, it's okay to make jokes about anything as long as they're not fundamentalized by prejudice. Do you know what I mean?

• 41:01Speaker 01

  I read something, something where you said, you know, horror basically doesn't get the recognition it deserves at like ceremonies like the Oscars. And you also said that about comedy. Which is so, and when I was reading this, I was like, it's so true.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:14Speaker 01

  It, it doesn't, it feels like you have to, I don't know, um, you have to, Daniel Day Lewis has to become some whatever it is. And they go, oh, this is,

• 41:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  You have to become something totally different. But comedy, like horror, is a really hard genre. Im- impeccably hard, right? So why do you think this? Why do you think it's not taken in a way as seriously as other genres?

• 41:36Speaker 00

  I think it's exactly that, because it's not serious. It's deemed as not serious. And, and that, that hugely underestimates and undervalues the skill it takes to be funny, you know? Because it's not serious. It's not serious. That's why. And horror as well, because it's a genre. And often some horror is schlocky horror. So you get horror, which is very gory and silly sometimes. And, and so that's not deemed awards worthy. But then you get films like Silence of the Lambs, you know, which did very well at the Oscars.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  And that did win an Oscar.

• 42:10Speaker 00

  Obsession, I'm sure, will get nodded to because it, how could it not, you know?

• 42:14Speaker 01

  It can't be ignored.

• 42:14Speaker 00

  And Indi Navaratti's performance is absolutely amazing, you know? They all are good in it. But often it's seen as, as frivolous and, and kind of not worthy of, of accolade because no one's, you know, doing a really earnest, dramatic performance, you know? That seems to be the thing that gets most rewarded.

• 42:33Speaker 01

  When was that moment in your career that you had that was a pivotal turning point that changed, that made you think differently?

• 42:41Speaker 00

  I think when we, when we made space for Channel Four in 1999, I think walking onto the set of that show, having written it with Jessica Hines, and seeing the set and realizing that all these other people had taken our script and extrapolated all the production design and the costumes and all that from it, that felt like, that felt important, you know, it's like, jeez, this is, this came from a silly idea that me and Jess had, and now suddenly it's a real thing. And, and, and, and other people have, have contributed to it and, and made it three dimensional and real.

• 43:18Speaker 00

  That, that was a profound moment, you know, I felt very kind of humbled by that because it certainly made me realize what a collaboration film and television making is, you know? Often as actors, we get all the accolades because we're up front with the cosmetic end of it. But it's such a collaboration. There are so many people involved in, in making it a thing. And that's something I've always tried to remember, you know? And when you pick up an award for something, y- y- y- you've been put there by so many different people that have created the thing that you've been given the opportunity to excel in, you know?

• 43:58Speaker 00

  That's something that I always, so whenever I'm on anything, I'm always incredibly conscious of the fact that we're all in this together. Like I'd never pull one of those kind of like, you know, you hear about some actors just behaving badly.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:11Speaker 00

  I just couldn't do that. I couldn't sleep at night.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  No ways, right?

• 44:14Speaker 00

  No.

• 44:15Speaker 01

  You got, why, but why would you be rude?

• 44:17Speaker 00

  No, I mean, and also you're just having fun.

• 44:20Speaker 01

  I know.

• 44:22Speaker 00

  You're getting to do your hobby for a job. Stop frowning.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  When you walked onto that set in 1999 and you looked around, imposter syndrome?

• 44:33Speaker 00

  No, because I felt like I'd worked hard to get there, you know? It's like, I've never felt that

• 44:40Speaker 00

  in my career because I've, I've done the, the, I've put in the hours, you know? And so when I got to be in, you know, when we did Shaun of the Dead, uh, and then, and then latterly, because of that film, I wound up in some of those big sort of Hollywood movies. I felt like, no, I've, I've, I didn't jump here. I scaled here, you know? And so it was a bit weird on the first mission impossible because that was strange.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Just give me a little bit, Hulk, because that must be pretty weird. When you stand on the set and you're like, hey, everyone. Yeah, I guess we're shooting Mission Impossible.

• 45:15Speaker 00

  It was crazy because I, it was the first time I'd been to Hollywood and we were shooting on the Paramount lot and obviously it was a massive production like I'd never seen before. And I just felt a little bit like, okay, this is gonna be like a kind of bit of stunt casting. J.J. Abrams, like Shaun of the Dead.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:34Speaker 00

  And, uh, and so here I am and I'll do my day or two on this and I'll go home and, you know, have a little badge or something. And then,

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, like Blue Peter.

• 45:44Speaker 00

  I met Tom Cruise's badge.

• 45:47Speaker 01

  Just put it on your little.

• 45:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, um, and then a couple of years later, he called me about Star Trek and then, and then we found out, you know, the character was gonna persist in the mission franchise and, but it all felt fairly sequential and, and never like I'd won a competition, you know?

• 46:06Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 46:07Speaker 00

  Which was, I think that's a good way, but also I'd also tried to remember.

• 46:12Speaker 00

  That it was, it wasn't a competition and it wasn't something that you, you, you, you get from, you know, making a wish. This is just work.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  It is just work and it's progression.

• 46:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  And, and it is, it's, it's funny, right? When you do put in that hard work and you put in the hours and suddenly you, you reap the rewards. You're like, oh no.

• 46:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. And you have to, you have to, the way that you deal with it is very important as well. I always say, when I get asked, I get asked by a lot of young people about, what's your advice? And I always say, just chase everything, you know, don't, don't think that it's going to fall into your lap. Don't think, even if you're like supremely talented.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  Can't agree more.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  It's not just going to happen for you.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:49Speaker 00

  You have to chase everything and, and be proactive and get out there and make stuff and, and, and get seen, you know?

• 46:56Speaker 01

  So that is the best piece of advice, anyone who's listening or watching this, a hundred percent. And I think we forget, I think people think, cause I thought it for a while, right? Someone's going to open a door and say, come on in.

• 47:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:06Speaker 01

  There you go. We're all in here. We've been waiting for you.

• 47:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:09Speaker 01

  That never happens.

• 47:10Speaker 00

  No.

• 47:10Speaker 01

  You have to work and no one cares that you think you're good.

• 47:15Speaker 00

  No, absolutely not.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  No one cares that you think you're talented.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  No one cares. You have to prove to people that you can create stuff, do stuff, make stuff happen, right? Cause everyone's slightly, in a way, we're all out for ourselves. We're all doing our own thing. So you have to show that you can collaborate or help or assist or do something.

• 47:31Speaker 00

  And not feel entitled to it, you know?

• 47:32Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. When you, when you get a big Hollywood movie like that and you've, you know, and this is a while ago, what happened? Do you, does your agent call you? Who calls you?

• 47:41Speaker 00

  JJ called me.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  JJ Ferengi? Gets your number?

• 47:43Speaker 00

  I was in, yeah. And that's very him. He's sort of like, he, he, he doesn't like to go through the kind of traditional route of like calling agents or that kind of stuff. I was writing Hot Fuzz with Edgar and the phone rang, uh, and.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  It's your mobile?

• 47:57Speaker 00

  No, it was just the office phone. I was working at Big Talk where our production company at the time. And JJ Abrams is on the phone and sort of kind of.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  And I. Do you prep yourself? You're like, oh, here we go.

• 48:07Speaker 00

  Yeah. I was like, I kind of vaguely knew him from Alias. And then he just sort of said, he just sort of said, hey, Simon, do you want to come and be in Mission Impossible Three? And I'd literally, I'd been, I'd auditioned for Mission Impossible Three, like a month before. This was a different, different production. Joe Carnahan was directing. It went into a development. They went as far as casting it and then they ditched the whole thing.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:28Speaker 00

  JJ took over and they came out with a whole new thing. So I'd said in an interview, oh, I'm not, you know, someone said, are you going to go off to, to Hollywood now? Like, you know, like it's a betrayal.

• 48:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  And I said, well, no, I'm not going to go off and just do Mission Impossible Three. Like, cause I thought I wasn't. And then I suddenly was.

• 48:47Speaker 00

  And that was it. And then JJ like sent me the whole first season of Lost on, on DVDs and to, to, to, to sort of demonstrate what he was about. And, and I was like, sure, why not? And I had no idea the kind of life decision I was making at the time.

• 49:02Speaker 01

  Cause it's huge, right?

• 49:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  And that franchise just, you know, like you said, it's 20 years.

• 49:08Speaker 00

  It was, but then there'd only been two at that point, you know, there'd only been Mission Impossible One and Two. And Mission Two had done very well, but was an odd film because it was, it was John Woo and John Woo is a fantastic filmmaker, but there was an odd disconnect between the kind of Hong Kong cinema and the Hollywood model. So it, it, Mission Two is one of those kind of Marmite films for a lot of people. So Three was a bit of a gamble and JJ was, you know, had done mainly television. So I had no idea what was going to happen. I certainly didn't realise I'd be in it for 20 years, you know?

• 49:44Speaker 01

  It's a long time.

• 49:45Speaker 00

  It is a long time.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  It's a long time.

• 49:46Speaker 00

  It felt longer on the last two.

• 49:50Speaker 00

  Felt longer than 20 years.

• 49:51Speaker 01

  I, I, I love that story of, uh, when you talk about, when you, when Tom Cruise did that stunt and he broke his ankle and he just gets up and keeps going.

• 50:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:00Speaker 01

  And, and you're just a bit like, what the?

• 50:03Speaker 00

  Well, that, that's him being a producer, you know, cause he obviously produces the movies and he knew if the, if, if, if he just bailed out of that shot, it would cost the production a huge amount of money and we'd have to go back and reshoot it. So he just hobbled out of shot. And then nine weeks later, when he was better, he kind of hobbled into the next shot and then ran off again. So yeah, that's, that's, that's just however long he's had in the business.

• 50:27Speaker 01

  Um, do you do your own stunts?

• 50:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's kind of the rule.

• 50:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Really?

• 50:33Speaker 00

  The stunts are real. That's, that's the kind of mantra on this, on the set. And it really, it's about the fact that you, you want to maintain, uh, the character throughout the, the stunt. So that, so it never comes, it never just about the stunt. You, you, you can, you can carry on acting whilst you're stunting.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  So do you, you know, when you were a kid, right? And you, you grew up just outside of Gloucestershire, right? And your dad owned a music shop. Do you look back at your childhood and the things you're doing and the things you created and all the dreams that you had and just think, man, I fricking did it?

• 51:05Speaker 00

  It's crazy. So much of my career has been about finding myself part of a thing that I've enjoyed as a kid. So like, whether that's Star Wars or Star Trek, or even Mission Impossible, I used to watch that show or Doctor Who, or working with Rick and Aid, because they were like, the young ones were, well, I was 12 when the young ones came out and that was a seismic event in comedy. Or, or even like, you know, I, me and Nick went to the Big Beach Boutique in 2002, the big free party that, you know, 250,000 people turned up to. And, and then this weekend I just DJed at it.

• 51:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:43Speaker 00

  So it's like that, those circularities are great. They're really, they're really satisfying.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's, you know, the fact that like you speak about how much of a Star Wars fan you are. And then I heard that you have Luke Skywalker's number.

• 51:59Speaker 00

  We DM each other occasionally.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  That must be.

• 52:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's nuts.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  It's nuts.

• 52:04Speaker 00

  It's totally nuts. When I think about how much I idolised those people as a child and now, you know, breathing the same air as them is, it, it does feel like a sort of achievement in a way.

• 52:15Speaker 01

  Truthfully, right? If you had to really think, what is the thing that you're most proud of?

• 52:19Speaker 00

  My daughter, without a doubt. She's such a good actor. I, she's following, she's going to follow me into the business. I know it because I went to see her in her, um, they did Les Mis as their school play. And she played Fanardia, the master of the house. And that's that great showstopping number. And, uh, I watched it and I, and I sort of sat there thinking, okay, oh dear.

• 52:46Speaker 01

  Here we go.

• 52:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. It was like, it was a real revelation. And I was almost like, a little bit perplexed by it because, and then in the interval, people were coming up to me as they usually do, but they weren't asking for pictures with me. They were telling me how good she was. And I was like, oh, fine. Okay.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:03Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 53:03Speaker 01

  Okay, good.

• 53:04Speaker 00

  She's all right.

• 53:04Speaker 01

  All right.

• 53:05Speaker 00

  She's all right. But no, I'm proud of her because of the person she is. And, and, you know, it, it, it, it is an extraordinary thing to, as you know, you know, to, to, to have a life that you've had some part in creating and, and it's a love that you, you can't even begin to quantify.

• 53:24Speaker 01

  You know, I, I had this whole thing in the movie that I, it sounds so weird, but I, I, I'm so upset but happy. I'm happy but upset because my baby won't know how much I love him until he has children. If he has children.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  Right, right.

• 53:40Speaker 01

  Cause you, you can't complain. So I want to climb inside him and, and speak to his heart, but I can't get to his heart.

• 53:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:46Speaker 01

  It's that kind of love.

• 53:48Speaker 00

  But then you spend, you spend your entire time while he's at home, trying to convince him, you know? That's, that's all you have to do.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  I love you.

• 53:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 54:00Speaker 03

  When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to shipstation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  You've got a new series coming out, The Undeclared War on Channel Four. It's the second series.

• 54:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, the first episode aired on Channel Four and I think it's all, they've, they've, um, you can binge it like they do sometimes now. They've dropped the whole six episodes onto all four.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  What is different when you're creating something like this to, to doing something in Hollywood?

• 54:54Speaker 00

  TV, generally TV, you work faster and the, the, you know, the setup time is, is less. You're, you're having to get a lot of stuff shot in a short space of time. So, and I like that. I like, I, I hate sitting in my trailer doing nothing. You know, that's the, the worst is when you're at work, but you're not working. That's just so dull for me. Anyway. Um, so TV is like, it's hard and fast. It's run and gun. And it's also like Channel Four was kind of, is kind of my spiritual home. That's where I started with Spaced. And to be back there doing this show, which is a completely different kind of animal for me because it's, A, it's a drama and it's, it's much more grounded in

• 55:35Speaker 00

  reality. You know, it's not my first spy show by any means, but this, there's no one tearing off masks and jumping off cliffs on motorbikes in this. You know, it's kind of about the real, the real war that we're fighting at the moment on the frontline, which is the internet. And that is, that's terrifying because it's happening around us right now, you know?

• 55:56Speaker 01

  So listen, I just want to say a huge thank you.

• 55:58Speaker 00

  Oh man, it's been such a pleasure.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  You, you, trust me, it's been a complete pleasure for me. It's been absolutely incredible. We have eight quickfire questions, but before that, I just want to ask one more thing. What kind of roles would you still like to play if you could choose anything?

• 56:11Speaker 00

  Just sort of diverse roles, you know, I, I kind of want to try and flex every muscle that I've got. And, which is why recently I've been doing a lot of sort of drama. And, um, I, I, I did an improvised film last year, which was really, really fun because it was six days shooting and.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  Totally improvised.

• 56:27Speaker 00

  Totally improvised. From, from an idea, Jamie Adams, who's the director, who's a great Welsh filmmaker. He, his method is to come up with a kind of outline.

• 56:38Speaker 00

  That so each scene you kind of have a description of what needs to happen and you know the story, but all of the dialogue is improvised. And I'd just come off making two films, which had taken five years. And then this film came in, it was like six days in France. As it turns out with with Sophia Butella, who I worked with before, I love and Quentin Tarantino and Charlotte Gainsborough and Lizzie McAlpine.

• 57:03Speaker 01

  Get out of here.

• 57:03Speaker 00

  And it was like, yeah, for six days, just making it up. And it was so, so fun.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Sorry, there must be a starting point though, yeah. Little starting point.

• 57:12Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, there's a, we know the story.

• 57:14Speaker 01

  Here we go, but just go.

• 57:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's like, okay, so in this scene, you're trying to convince her that this is the case and she's trying to convince you that that's the case. And Jamie's very like, he'll give one, he'll give an actor notes, but not tell the other actor that those notes have been given so that the the actor brings something new to the scene. And so you're finding the whole story as you go. And it was just an absolute delight. So stuff like that, which challenges me.

• 57:39Speaker 01

  I did an improv night, I love it.

• 57:40Speaker 00

  Did you?

• 57:41Speaker 01

  How good improv are you?

• 57:42Speaker 00

  Pretty good.

• 57:43Speaker 01

  Okay, well, shall I, shall I set a scene?

• 57:47Speaker 01

  Listen, this is the scene.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 57:48Speaker 01

  Um, we're dating.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:50Speaker 01

  You're meeting me in a pub.

• 57:51Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  And you're here to break up with me, but I think you're gonna propose to me.

• 57:57Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh.

• 57:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:00Speaker 00

  Hey, listen, thanks for coming.

• 58:01Speaker 01

  It's all right. Um, how have you been?

• 58:04Speaker 00

  I've been all right. I've been, I've been thinking quite a lot.

• 58:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, you felt, you felt like you've been quiet over the past few days.

• 58:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, I've just been sort of taking stock of everything and.

• 58:14Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 58:16Speaker 01

  I'm just so excited for our future.

• 58:18Speaker 00

  Well, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about in a way.

• 58:20Speaker 01

  I know.

• 58:21Speaker 00

  I feel like, um,

• 58:25Speaker 00

  I feel like we've kind of reached a point in our relationship, you know?

• 58:29Speaker 01

  I feel the same way, where we want to go more.

• 58:32Speaker 00

  I would say not that. I feel like we might have played it all out. And I feel like what we need to do next is find ourselves, but on, but separately.

• 58:49Speaker 01

  I don't understand what you're saying. Why can't we find ourselves together?

• 58:53Speaker 00

  Well, we did, we have found ourselves together. I don't think that worked.

• 58:56Speaker 01

  It does work.

• 58:59Speaker 00

  For it to work, I think it would have to work for both of us. And right now, just at this moment in time, I'm feeling like it's not working for me, Jamie.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Are you saying you don't love me?

• 59:07Speaker 00

  I'm not saying I don't love you. I'm saying that I'm not seeing a future for us together. That doesn't mean that I don't love you, because I do. But I, I feel like it would be better for us if we, if we separated.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  But I'm confused, you love me, but you don't want to be with me?

• 59:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:31Speaker 01

  Matt Simon, honestly, buddy, thank you for everything. Thank you for everything you do for film, for people, for just making, you make people happy.

• 59:42Speaker 00

  No, thank you.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  And I think that's the greatest gift that you can give to this world, to be honest.

• 59:46Speaker 00

  You're very kind, thank you.

• 59:47Speaker 01

  I have eight quickfire questions, you ready for this?

• 59:49Speaker 00

  Shoot.

• 59:49Speaker 01

  What's a saying or phrase that makes you smile or cheers you up?

• 59:52Speaker 00

  Me, me, me and Tilly, we, we, we have this thing, we've run into the living room and shout tin foil. Don't ask me why, but it always makes us laugh.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  Best compliment anyone's ever given you?

• 1:00:03Speaker 00

  Um, that something that I've done has altered someone in a good way, you know?

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  What scares you most about yourself?

• 1:00:13Speaker 00

  My anger.

• 1:00:16Speaker 01

  When was the last time you cried?

• 1:00:19Speaker 00

  When was the last time I cried? I'm not a crier.

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  You don't cry?

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  I don't, not that easily. I have to real dig it out sometimes.

• 1:00:26Speaker 01

  What makes you cry if you watch it?

• 1:00:28Speaker 00

  Uh, anything with dads and sons, like in a movie, like that'll get me going.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  Have you seen, um,

• 1:00:36Speaker 01

  Something Ordinary, a James Norton?

• 1:00:38Speaker 00

  No, I like James Norton a lot.

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  So there's one thing, watch this with Tilly. James Norton movie, he plays an Irish window cleaner. No, we're special.

• 1:00:46Speaker 00

  No, we're special. I think I've heard of that.

• 1:00:48Speaker 01

  It is, he plays an Irish window cleaner and he has to look after his son for a weekend.

• 1:00:53Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:00:56Speaker 00

  Oh, God, no.

• 1:00:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:57Speaker 00

  That's just blub country.

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  Get ready for that. Why, anything that, and it's, anything that's father and son's big and makes you.

• 1:01:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, Tugli, and I also might, I lost my dad a couple of years ago, so that, that, that is going to be particularly, in fact, that might have been the last time I really cried.

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:01:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:01:15Speaker 01

  What's something you can't let go of?

• 1:01:19Speaker 00

  Probably Star Wars. I mean, I have let go of it. I, I, you know, for me, it was, it was such a pivotal thing in my childhood. It changed everything for me. Obviously, it's been recycled and, and there's so much of it now and lots of it I haven't seen. But sometimes I'll, I'll just go and watch something and maybe it's not for me. And I always think, oh, um, but I, I don't know, I guess. I guess it was just such a, again, a massive part of my childhood. Um, but it's not what it used to be, Star Wars. It's different now and, and, and as it should be, it should be different. It's not for me.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  Do you have a lightsaber?

• 1:02:00Speaker 00

  I used to. I had a bunch of them.

• 1:02:02Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:02:03Speaker 00

  And then I realized I was forty.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  What's your guilty pleasure?

• 1:02:10Speaker 00

  My guilty pleasure, probably chocolate.

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dark?

• 1:02:15Speaker 00

  No, milk.

• 1:02:16Speaker 01

  Milk, straight up.

• 1:02:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, straight up milk chocolate, like.

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  With a tea?

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Like, I like to put a cube, like a, and then drink the tea and melt it.

• 1:02:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. Keep it in the fridge?

• 1:02:26Speaker 00

  In this time of year, yes.

• 1:02:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:28Speaker 00

  Absolutely, yeah.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  Do you keep butter in the fridge?

• 1:02:30Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  Out of the fridge?

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  Out of the fridge, because it's such a bugger to spread. But in this weather, like the last couple of weeks, it's just been like water. It's like, just pouring it onto your bread, whatever.

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  I don't think there's anything better than bread and butter.

• 1:02:42Speaker 00

  Oh, I love it.

• 1:02:44Speaker 01

  It's unbelievable.

• 1:02:44Speaker 00

  Dairy's my sweet spot.

• 1:02:46Speaker 01

  What do you like most about yourself?

• 1:02:49Speaker 01

  Come on.

• 1:02:49Speaker 00

  Um.

• 1:02:49Speaker 01

  Dig deep.

• 1:02:51Speaker 00

  I'm learning to like myself m- m- more as I've got older, I think. Um, I, I, I like that I can make people laugh, you know, that, that's, it's a nice thing to be able to do. And, um, and, and I find it, I always say, you know, looks fade, but fun is forever.

• 1:03:08Speaker 01

  Bonus, what song would you like to be played at your funeral?

• 1:03:11Speaker 00

  Oh, Marianne by the Sisters of Mercy.

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  Carried out?

• 1:03:15Speaker 00

  It's a dirge, yeah, absolutely.

• 1:03:17Speaker 01

  Not in flames?

• 1:03:17Speaker 00

  No, I think probably, I wouldn't go for something from my Goth times. I would go for something really happy, like Jackie Wilson, Higher and Higher, something like that.

• 1:03:26Speaker 01

  That is, yeah.

• 1:03:27Speaker 00

  That's a good one to go. My grand, my granny went to Everything's Coming Up Roses by Ethel Merman. It was so funny, like, because it had been quite an emotional ceremony and it was like, everything's coming up roses. We were all laughing on our own.

• 1:03:39Speaker 01

  Simon Pegg, you've been unbelievable company. Everyone go and watch The Undeclared War on Channel Four. You are the greatest. Thank you so much.

• 1:03:46Speaker 00

  Thank you, mate.

• 1:03:46Speaker 01

  I really appreciate it.

• 1:03:47Speaker 00

  Thank you, Jamie. Oh, man.

• 1:03:49Speaker 01

  Buddy.

• 1:04:04Speaker 03

  When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to shipstation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.