HOW WE MET: SIMON PEGG & JULIA DAVIS
INTERVIEWS BY SEAN O'CONNELL
The actor and comedian Simon Pegg, 34, was born in Gloucester and studied at Bristol University. He made his name in Channel 4's cult sitcom Spaced', and wrote and starred in the recent film Shaun of the Dead'. He lives in London with his partner.
The writer and star of the dark BBC sitcom Nighty Night', Julia Davis, 37, grew up in Bath. She has worked with some of the biggest names in comedy, including Steve Coogan, Chris Morris and Rob Brydon, with whom she co-wrote the mock-documentaries Human Remains'. She lives in London.
SIMON PEGG
My first memory of Julia is having a conversation with her while she was trapped under a car. We were doing some improvisations with Chris Morris for the BBC2 show Big Train in 1997. I can't remember what the sketch was about but I remember thinking she was really funny. I'd come off the stand-up circuit and you sort of know everybody on it, but I didn't know Julia and I went from thinking "who is this bizarre character from Bath, this country weirdo", to realising that this is someone I could get along with.
Shortly after that, Steve Coogan got me as support for his live show. By coincidence, Julia had sent him a tape of her characters and Steve got her in too. It was really exciting - we were going on tour with Steve Coogan! We were both pretty wet behind the ears, Steve had asked for us both, so we felt a bit special and we were all in it together. We were touring from February to June. Then we had a few weeks filming Big Train and then the rest of the year was spent doing the live show in the West End. So we spent a whole year together. It was a formative time for both of us, very rock'n'roll, going round in a big silver tour bus with hot and cold running booze. I remember the first night in Liverpool, and the first laugh that Steve got felt like a wind coming off the audience. I remember I looked at Julia and it was like, "Oh my God, this is incredible."
We used to do lots of stupid stuff together. Steve would come out as Pauline Calf and sing the opening number and Julia and me would do this little dance in the wings. It was really specific, kind of like naff literal miming to every word, and that was our way of getting ready because it stopped us feeling so nervous.
We quickly became firm friends. Julia's a very open person and we share a similar sense of surreal-edged humour. We enjoy trying to out-sick each other in terms of insults and concepts. I can insult her horribly and she'll always get it in the way it's meant. She's got quite a sick sense of humour herself, but she's not as dark as you'd imagine. She's a contradiction in a way: there's this sweet earth mother with new-age sensibilities, into crystals, horoscopes and all that stuff, a bit of a hippy really, affectionate, passive. But then underneath this veneer there's a filthy, beating heart of corruption.
The year after the show finished, Spaced happened so I couldn't see her as much, and I couldn't anyway because we'd spent such an intensive bout of time together. We text each other a lot though and I was really happy when Nighty Night took off. Julia's meticulous with the way she creates, the way she writes. She cuts and pastes. She doesn't use the computer cut and paste, she literally cuts out phrases from her scripts and sticks them on to other bits of paper. It's a weird way of working but she's that focused.
There's a great sense of fun when you work with her, and we were the worst on Big Train for giggling. I think we found each other in our inability to keep a straight face.
JULIA DAVIS
I can't remember much of the Big Train audition, where I first met Simon, except that he was very excitable and I immediately liked him. I felt like a bit of a country bumpkin travelling from Bath. I'd done a bit of radio work but didn't know anyone - they had to tell me afterwards that the posh guy in the corner had been Chris Morris. Simon was friendly though and when we made the pilot I ended up staying with him, sleeping in his front-room. His house was very much how Spaced is, that whole slacker look, smoke everywhere, weird models of things and semi-pornographic magazines. When I left he sent me a picture of a cow, which I've still got - he found it very amusing that I came from the West Country.
Shortly after, we started working on tour with Steve Coogan. I'd sent him a tape and when they asked if I wanted to do it, I was like who else is doing it? - very arrogant given that I was completely unknown - and they said Simon Pegg and I knew then that it would be a real laugh. It was a true adventure, like being on a weird school trip.
Certain people make you feel excited when you get near them: you just get in their company and you feel inspired. Simon does that and makes me laugh. He thinks I'm this joss-stick-burning hippy and really takes the piss, but in a way I find very funny. On the tour he could be moody. He would walk off in little tantrums and I remember an incident outside a cafe where he threw a chair down. It was quite a fiery relationship, but most of the time we were just having fun.
I think we allow ourselves to be children together. It's almost a brother sister thing, though there is definitely a chemistry between us that would be like a slightly wrong brother and sister relationship. We've never been out with each other, but in a way I think that's quite good... when it has never been dealt with.
Simon brings a sort of stupidity out in me. I'd describe him as an excitable puppy with a slightly twisted undertone. He is unpredictable, fun and clever, but there is darkness in there somewhere. I think most men in comedy do battle with a very evil part of themselves. He's like an essentially good man, with a tiny bad man in there.
Simon Pegg and Julia Davis are in BBC2's animated comedy I Am Not an Animal' on Mondays at 10pm