6 Qs With 'Star Trek' Star Simon Pegg
By Emily Christianson, Hollywood.com Staff
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Simon Pegg might've been on strict orders not to talk about his role as Scotty in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek prequel, but the comic actor risked life and limb to give us this tiny taste of what’s to come …
How hush-hush is this?
"The minute I open my mouth, a bullet will come through that window. A dart will hit me in the neck and I will go unconscious. [Laughs] I don’t want to say anything spoiler-ish because JJ, his main thrust for making it secretive is to make it a surprise. In this day and age, it is hard to do that. It is hard to surprise with the internet communication as it is. I could say something now, and it could be in Australia in three seconds.
So, if I was to ask you about "beaming people up," that would be off limits?
"I can’t speak about it. Any plot, and I’m dead."
Would you call yourself a big fan of Star Trek?
"Yes, very much so. It was amazing to be a part of it."
You play Scotty, but you aren’t actually from Scotland.
"Yeah, but James Doohan wasn’t Scottish either, and he played the role and made it legendary to the point where people who have never even seen Star Trek are aware of that character. My wife is Scottish, and I spend a lot of time in Scotland every year, and I would hope that constant proximity to the Scots has enabled me to play the part. She was on set a lot of the time, and I would come off set and say 'Did that sound alright? Was that Scottish?' She’d go 'Yeah.' She was my yardstick for the whole thing. Also, she wanted me to play him [from] West Scotland rather than East because she’s from Glasgow."
Did you watch the original episodes to study James Doohan?
"No, because I didn’t want to do an impression of James Doohan. I think that would have done him a disservice and could have been seen as me making fun, which is the last thing I wanted. Those guys created some of the most significant characters in contemporary science fiction, and I think this film is entirely in deference of them. I didn’t want to go off and just pretend to be James Doohan, and I wanted to be Scotty and I wanted to do that in his honor so I tried not to watch it. I knew it very well. But I only watched a few episodes, but I didn’t want get bogged down impersonating him."
What was it like working with JJ?
"I worked with JJ once before, and the great thing is that he is an enthusiast. He is a movie lover. He is a geek like me. He is a fanboy, and I think if I wasn’t involved in Star Trek and I knew they were making a new film, I would want someone who is a fan of the franchise to make the film and that is what’s happened."
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