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August/September 2005 - "Men We Love" Issue

Simon Pegg - Actor, Writer
Ever since Shaun of the Dead, we can’t get this sweet U.K. import out of our heads.

By Tracy Egan
Photo by Aaron Schuman

In America, actor/writer Simon Pegg is known mostly for his starring role as the unlikely hero Shaun – a sales clerk who takes on the undead – in the 2004 "zom rom com" (zombie romantic comedy) Shaun of the Dead, which he co-wrote with director Edgar Wright. And while most Americans are just now discovering the charm of the 35-year-old, hazel-eyed Englishman, he’s been keen on U.S. pop culture since he first saw Star Wars when he was seven. "I think there’s a weird fantasy element to American pop culture – it’s at once foreign and familiar," he says. Pegg’s work is often laden with American pop-cultural references, like the film Hot Fuzz, a comedy that plays on the American action/cop genre, due out next year.

That same enthusiasm for pop culture is particularly exhibited in the show Spaced, the much-loved, offbeat comedy that Pegg co-starred in an co-wrote with Jessica Stevenson. Aired in the U.K. from ’99 to ’01, Spaced is about the misadventures of twenty-something flatmates Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson) and their oddball crew of friends and neighbors. Smart, silly, and sophisticated, episodes often careen into fantasy-like absurdity, but are couched in the reality of slackerism –where lofty ambitions are anchored by diminished motivations. Tim is an aspiring comic book artist who works at a comic book shop but spends his downtime playing countless hours of video games. Daisy is an out-of-work aspiring writer who rarely gets published, mainly because she dos things like deciding to investigate whether inactivity breeds laziness but can’t even be bothered to get off the couch to write an article about it. Daisy even blows an interview for her dream job at FLAPS, a post-feminist magazine for modern women who want it "big, fast, and hard." (Hmm…) Already a cult classic, Spaced is the best show you never saw. The U.S. DVD release has been temporarily held up due to music clearance issues, leading eager U.S. fans to buy region-free DVD players just to watch the U.K. DVDs.

Pegg infuses aspects of himself into the characters he writes, making them more accessible, which is perhaps why he’s won the adoration of an extra-special audience – the ladies. One particular group call themselves "PeggLeggs" and convene in the forums at Peggster.net, a site that feature fanfic, fun facts (he was born on Valentine’s Day and he’s Apple Martin’s godfather), and even a petition to make Pegg’s dream of being a guest on The Simpsons come true. "I find it inordinately flattering," says Pegg of his admirers. But even with the infatuation of anonymous girls, he remains humble. "I know one day they’re just going to fly off to somebody else. There’ll be some other guy that they’ll like and [my forum will] just be a cobweb," he says sheepishly, with a wide smile. Speaking of cobwebs, Pegg was a goth in high school. "I was a horrible goth, though," he jokes. "I didn’t go that one step toward proper goth-dom, which was to gye my hair black. My mum would have screamed – and I got on really well with my mum." One would assume that the former goth’s penchant for video games, comic books, and Star Wars would have hindered his success with girls in high school, but Pegg says that isn’t so. "I never geeked out at the expense of a social life. You don’t have to –I mean, there’s nothing wrong with being a geek. It’s just about being enthusiastic." Amen.

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