It’s easy to envisage Simon Pegg as a kickass supercop and zombie nemesis but you wouldn’t instinctively, erm, peg him as a romantic lead. But such a notion didn’t put off the crowd waiting to welcome him and the cast of debut director David Schwimmer’s London-set rom-com (sans zom) Run, Fatboy, Run at the Odeon Leicester Square on Monday night – even the publicity posters depicting the star in the tightest shorts known to humanity didn’t rain on their parade.
“Everyone has been talking about the trunks,” says Pegg. “I guess I should wear them more often.”
Mostly shot in and around Hackney, the film finds Dennis (Pegg) desperate to win back the love of his life (Thandie Newton – next to be seen in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla) five years after he left her standing at the altar – and eight months’ pregnant to boot.
Competing against superfit current beau (Hank Azaria) for her affections, Dennis attempts to prove his commitment by running a London Marathon in her honour. With a little help from Harish Patel, Dylan Moran and a few musical montages, the portly wannabe Casanova sets off on his challenge. It’s a tribute that Pegg himself wouldn’t necessarily feel the need to partake in himself.
“I ran a marathon and then back again for my wife – that’s what it took,” he says. “No I’ve never done anything so dramatic in my life and I hope that I won’t have to. I think flowers tend to do it for low-level misdemeanours.”
Having spent an hour pressing the flesh with the crowd outside (“You feel bad if you miss anyone out so you’ve got to be methodical about it. Obviously I’m not Tom Cruise so I don’t have to spend too long out there.”), Pegg and co are obviously loving the attention – and each other. “I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Simon again,” says a gushing Schwimmer. “I think he’s one of the finest actors of his generation. “On Big Nothing (their one and only previous collaboration), there were days when we didn’t work together and this time there were days when I got to work with him everyday. It was a blast.”
In fact the director had a great time filming in Blighty.
“Everyone was really warm and the crew here was fantastic,” he says. “I had an all-English crew, my cinematographer, my editor, everyone, and everyone was terrific. “The weather wasn’t so great and, because we were on a very modest budget, every day counted, but we really lucked out.” Such is the good feeling in fact that, having recently had a taste of what’s it’s like to be the one’s holding the Dictaphones on the set of his next flick How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, Pegg has even got some love for the hacks chucking the questions at him. “I’ve got a newfound respect for journalists, it was interesting. It’s funny because Toby Young (on whose memoirs the film is based) is probably one of the most tenacious but loathed journalist there is, so to be playing a character based on him was an interesting eye opener.”
For this project, however, Pegg kept himself busy both starring and re-writing Michal Ian Black’s original screenplay.
“I rewrote the whole thing for the British audience because it was set in America. I think there was a slight problem with one little swear word that they wouldn’t accept and we had to change but, otherwise, it’s basically the same story.”
As for upcoming projects from the Shaun/Hot Fuzz team, Pegg is staying fairly tight-lipped, “Nick (Frost) and I are writing something together and Edgar (Wright) and I are writing something together,” he says. “There’s the third film in our little trilogy to make. Edgar and I are making a little side project and a couple of things in the pipeline that I can’t even mention.”
As for that omitted cuss-word, what was it? “’Cock’. They wanted ‘Prat’. The Americans hate ‘Cock’ and you can quote me on that.”