Simon Pegg: From stand-up comedian to Hollywood sucess

Meeting the international press to promote his latest movie, The World's End, at Claridges Hotel in July in London, the Brit made the proclamation while agreeing that he might have been typecast as the underdog in Hollywood movies.

He said with a hearty laugh: "You play to your strengths. I wind up playing Benji in Mission: Impossible because that role suits me, and Scotty in Star Trek because that is kind of what I can do quite well.

"Hopefully, I won't do that forever, but if it means I can participate in these fantastic films, I'm quite happy to be the underdog."

Pegg began his career as a stand-up comedian, and very often brings his comedic roots to his film roles.

The 43-year-old said: "Films like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Star Trek: Into Darkness are whammed so tight with tension that you need to release it every now and again, and the audiences drink up comedy like thirsty people needing water."

Pegg reunites with writing partner and director Edgar Wright and long-time collaborator Nick Frost for The World's End, following their hits Shaun Of The Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007).

In its UK opening weekend, the trio proved they have still got the box-office Midas' touch when The World's End raked in £2.1 million (S$4.2 million), beating the £1.6 million opening from Shaun Of The Dead in 2004, but falling behind Hot Fuzz's £5.9 million haul.

The World's End, which opens here on Sept 19, is about five men revisiting a teenage pub-crawl drinking marathon, 20 years after the first attempt failed with disastrous consequences.

Pegg plays Gary King, the man who reunites the team of misfits - Martin Freeman, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan - now husbands with careers, on the epic quest and unknowingly leads them into a possible annihilation of the human race.

Pegg, Wright and Frost's working relationship began in the award-winning Spaced.

Directed by Wright, the 1999 British sitcom served as Pegg's career launchpad.

Wright told FiRST in a separate interview: "Working with Simon is great because I feel that we're both very passionate about the genres that we've written for, but we also like putting a lot of our selves in there.

"I think that the thing that's very fun for us is that we've made a zombie film, a cop film and a sci-fi film, and yet we managed to be quite personal in all of them."

On whether he expected his continued success, the talented Pegg humbly said: "I never really looked that far ahead to be honest. I was thinking about this earlier, when I was a stand-up comedian, I never thought I'd have a sitcom.

"When we had the sitcom, I never really thought I'd be in movies.

"I'm always about what's happening there and then. I don't know what's going to happen next.

"Hopefully, I can continue to do what I love to do, which is to work, and can continue to feel good about what I do... that's all I can wish for really.

"Success is less important than happiness."

With big Hollywood franchise films under his belt, Pegg said coming home to film a small British film like The World's End was like "slipping on a T-shirt" and there was not much difference.

He explained: "It's remarkably similar really, when you get into the eye of the storm with film-making, it tends to the same no matter what the size of the film - if the sets get bigger, the middle of it is always the same, you've got the camera, the director and the crew and you.

"The catering does get better on the bigger films - catering in the US is amazing!"

'Very proud of it'

At the time of the interview, Pegg had just completed a drama called Hector And The Search For Happiness, a movie he couldn't wait to be out because he's "very proud of it".

Despite his worldwide success, he is still based in the UK, but filming often takes him around the globe away from home and his wife, Maureen, and four-year-old daughter Matilda.

Pegg said: "I'm doing a thriller in Australia in September called Kill Me Three Times and I'll be rounding up the year shooting a romantic comedy here in the UK.

"I want to find a way to be not away from home so much, it's very difficult to be away from my little one, just because I don't want to miss anything.

"I'm trying to figure out how to be an international film star and be a stay-at-home dad. I'm happy to be a home-dwelling husband, father and casual gardener."

With the The World's End's theme all about binge drinking, the Gloucester-born actor admitted he hasn't had a drink in three years.

He confessed that the last pub-crawl he had was for his stag night in 2005 in Belgium. "I just decided it was time to stop, I felt like I was turning 40 and I had a baby.

"I don't think you can be a responsible parent and drink.

"I really enjoy being teetotal and feel quite liberated, I'm a lot fitter than I was when I was 35," said Pegg.

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