Already an established comedy star in Britain with the hit TV series “Spaced,” Simon Pegg made a strong transatlantic impression with the films “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” Now he’s pushing further into the mainstream as the lead in the romantic comedy “Run, Fatboy, Run” opposite Thandie Newton, and beaming up into the role of “Scotty,” chief engineer of the starship Enterprise, in the upcoming “Star Trek” movie.
One of the few comic actors who regularly writes his own material, Pegg reworked “Fatboy” from an original screenplay by Comedy Central stalwart Michael Ian Black. Checking in from Los Angeles, Pegg said that the advantages are enormous for an actor who creates his own scenes, and for a writer who can’t be kicked off the set.
“I think it’s the best way to work. You don’t have to defer to anybody,” he said. “You can write to your own strengths. It optimizes the filmmaking process. I’m surprised more actors don’t do it.”
Reminded that most performers probably don’t have the writing ability, he replied dryly, “Oh yeah, I didn’t think of that.”
A large part of his comic persona, Pegg believes, is his ordinariness. “I’m an average-looking kind of guy. You can pitch yourself as being an everyday Joe, and in this day and age that kind of character is becoming more and more of a protagonist.
“With the rise of reality TV and video cameras, we’re demystifying the filmmaking process. Often you’ll find quite regular people at the center of film stories now,” particularly in comedy with the likes of Seth Rogen and Steve Carell. “In that tradition, it’s been fun to write about quite mundane people having comic adventures.”
In “Run, Fatboy, Run,” Pegg plays Dennis, a man who five years after deserting his pregnant girlfriend at the altar tries to win back her affection by completing a marathon. Adapting Black’s script by moving the action from New York to London and adding more ironic British humor was an enjoyable challenge, he said.
“The notion of trying to translate it into a British setting was really fascinating to me. And Dennis does such a heinous thing at the top of the film, the idea of trying to make him sympathetic really appealed to me,” he said.
Thandie Newton plays Libby, Dennis’ ex, who has moved on to a relationship with Whit, a wealthy, overachieving athlete played by Hank Azaria. Balancing the film’s character study of a hapless slacker against the female-centered demands of the genre took some work, Pegg said. “(Dennis) can’t believe he’s with her and believes marrying her will be to her detriment,” he said. “That’s the reason he decides to run away rather than face up to the fact that she does love him and he needs to earn her love.
“We didn’t want Libby to seem shallow in that she’s chosen Whit.
“In the first draft of the script Whit was immediately a sleazeball, and we wanted him at least from the outset to look like a viable proposition. He’s funny, he’s friendly, he’s polite, well-off, handsome, everything Dennis isn’t. That makes it more interesting for the audiences as well, because it’s not so easy for them to set their allegiances.”
The film seems tailored to move Pegg from a cult hero into the ranks of mass-market leading men, but he insists that that was not the goal.
“I don’t have a game plan,” the 38-year-old actor said. “What I do is go into work in the morning and love that. The consequence of that is less relevant to me. I just want to make films that I like watching.”
