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Being a writer and an actor is a double blessing, but for Brit Simon Pegg, it has its disadvantages. In his new film Run Fatboy Run, Pegg's out-of-shape character Dennis has to run the London marathon. That's partly Pegg's fault - he helped to polish Michael Ian Black's
screenplay.
"As a writer-actor you forget that you're going to have to do what you're writing. Certainly with Hot Fuzz I was writing all these things: Angel sprints down the street, and then I read it as an actor and thought, 'Why did I write that?' Because it means a lot of physical pain."
Thankfully, the magic of editing meant he was never running more than a quarter of a mile. And although he's hardly fat in the film, he did have to wear a little latex tummy to play a convincing out-of-shape loser who takes up running to try to win back his former fiancee. He had left her at the altar five years earlier, while she was pregnant with their child.
Directed by former Friends star David Schwimmer, Fatboy marks a departure from Pegg's breakthrough work. Shaun of the Dead, a "rom-zom-com" which he co-wrote and starred in with his best mate Nick Frost in 2004, was a satirical retelling of George A. Romero's classic zombie flick. Likewise, Hot Fuzz, about a couple of chalk 'n' cheese cops, was a hilarious parody of action films.
Next to those critical hits, Fatboy is a fairly formulaic and broad rom-com that relies heavily on slapstick and your classic boy-meets-girl-loses-girl structure.
"It was a chance to just go out there and do something that was different to what I'd done before ... You are dealing with structural archetypes and they always go a certain way and we did want it to be a fairly classic story as well as bring something new to it. It's a very sweet-natured romantic comedy and that's what it sets out to be and that's what it is. I am very happy with it."
Pegg's career in comedy began on the London stand-up circuit before he moved into TV. In 1999 he created and co-wrote the cult sitcom Spaced, about a down-on-their-luck pair who pretend who be a couple in order to rent a flat.
He has always been picky about his projects, he says but despite how it appears, he and Schwimmer have not sought each other out. They first worked together on the Steven Spielberg war mini-series Band of Brothers in 2001 and became friends while shooting Big Nothing in 2006. It was during that time that Schwimmer reminded Pegg of the Fatboy script they'd both read years earlier.
Since his breakthrough with Shaun, Pegg has enjoyed a rare international appeal. He's even godfather to Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter Apple. "I'm everyone's godfather," he quips.
Shaun fan JJ Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield), offered Pegg a role in Mission Impossible 3. Next came a part in the film adaptation of Toby Young's best-seller, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. He is now working on Abrams' Star Trek remake, playing Scotty, the engineer.
"It makes you realise that the world stage in terms of film isn't a closed thing. We basically made a film that did well and then people who make other films saw that film. The route to that wasn't particularly complex or difficult. Obviously getting Shaun made was difficult and we worked very hard to make it as appealing as we could. But once you enter into that world, it's not as fairytale closed off as you think it might be."
It helps that Fatboy is a multicultural film. Dennis has a mixed-race relationship with Libby, played by Thandie Newton, and plays second fiddle to Hank Azaria's American banker. Then there's his Irish best mate, played by Black Books creator Dylan Moran, Little Britain's David Walliams (in a cameo role) and his Indian neighbour, played by Harish Patel.
"The idea of the film was to appeal to as many levels as [possible]. With an American director it would hopefully have a life in America. Maybe we use irony a little more in the UK, maybe the Americans are slightly more emotionally open. But otherwise we laugh at exactly the same things. What's different, and what people mistake for our differences of humour is just a difference of subject matter. We just have a different life experience."
That soon became evident on set.
"Oh yeah, I'm a pretty bad giggler. There were times when David had to leave the room or we had to take a moment and just pull it together and keep a straight face while Dylan was squirted with custard, or the scene where we had to pretend where Mr Ghoshdashtidar had this fake disease and he's in this wheelchair. Harish was such a funny man that I lost it entirely. I had to lie on the floor, I couldn't cope."
Pegg is now filming Star Trek and is in the process of writing his next film with Frost, in which he's bound to write himself into more awkward scenarios.
"It's difficult for people who are just actors because they're slightly buffeted by circumstance, whereas if you write you get to have a say in what you're doing, so I've always had a bit of control over, you know, over my destiny."
LOWDOWN
Who: Simon Pegg
What: Run Fatboy Run, out now
Key roles: Spaced (TV sitcom, 1999-2001), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007)
