Peggster.Net Exclusive Interview

H: Is there any movie you've seen, then saw again later and completely reversed your opinion of it?

S: You mean come out of it not liking it, and then…

H: Yeah, or the other way around.

S: Oh, yeah, I'll tell you what. A great one of that is Revenge of the Sith; when I saw it, I came out, thought it was great. And then saw it again and gradually realized that it's still not good enough. And the onlyreason it pulled the wool over my eyes were that it had some really brilliant moments in it that were enough to kind of inspire my Star Wars love, and there were a couple of bits in it that made me cry and I was so excited. And I left on a high because of those emotions, but then you watch it again and those moments don't surprise you.

N: It seems like the closer they get to the end to that one, and you start to see the threads that weave into [the original trilogy]…

S: Right, yeah. Seeing Peter Cushing's Moff Tarkin as a young man, and seeing the bridge of the blockade runner and all that, all that stuff was really exciting.

N: Something about Yoda trying to escape through the ducts really got to me, slinking off like a wounded animal.

S: Yeah! Yeah, it was really sad. I remember it was nice to see them doing that, because one of my favorite parts in The Empire Strikes Back is when he's fishing around in Luke's stuff, and his little backside is sticking out. And he's got such a cute little bum, Yoda! I just remember thinking, "He looks really real and his bum's great!" And now I'm distracted by Yoda's bum. Oh, also Attack of the Clones as well, because I wanted them to be really good, and I remember running out of the cinema after Attack of the Clones as well going "Yeah, yeah that was good!"… and then I kind of came to a stop and went, "Noooooo, it wasn't!" Because my want for it to be good was so enormous and overpowering, you know. Away from Star Wars, I'd say… well there are films you watch as a kid that you think are brilliant, and then you watch them again. Weird Science - I watched that again recently, it's awful. When I watched that when I was young, I thought it was fucking amazing! That happens a lot, when you develop your critical faculties and you start knowing what's good and what's not. When you're a kid, everything's just great. That's why in Hot Fuzz, you'll see, Nick's character Danny is like a kid and he thinks everything is great. His two favorite films are Bad Boys II and Point Break, and he can't distinguish between Bad Boys II and Serpico, they're just all great. And that's what you like when you're a kid, so I think you always look back on films, you'll go "You should see this film, I saw it when I was fifteen, it's fucking brilliant!"….you put it on, "Ohhh, my GOD! It's awful!"

N: I had a good one of those several years back, and I own it now, but after a long time my friend Paula and I rented Phantom of the Paradise.

S: Oh, yeah. Paul Williams!

N: Right, and I mean… it's not bad, it's great, it's DePalma…

S: But it's a cheesefest though, right?

N: Exactly. But when I was a kid, though, and it came on TV on Saturday afternoon, that movie scared the shit out of me.

S: Yeah, yeah..

N: The mask, and the skulking around, all that. But then we sat there, loving it, but giggling the whole time.

S: We've been doing these Hot Fuzztivals, and we showed Point Break - oh, this was in London actually. We showed it as a double bill with Bad Boys II. You should never do them together! And the audience really really laughed all the way through Point Break. And it was a definite re-evaluation of it; they weren't laughing because they thought it was bad, they were laughing out of enjoyment. But it is quite funny, that film. It's very pumped-up and testosterone-fueled, and very gay, you know. And the central romance in that is Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, even to the point where Lori Petty who plays Keanu Reeves's girlfriend, she kind of looks like him! She's sort of an androgynous version of him, you know. So it's funny when you can watch a film again which you watched in all earnestness, and suddenly it's hilariously funny. So I guess everything I watched before I was sixteen. (laughs)

H: Have you ever read a book that you thought you might like the chance to adapt into a screenplay?

S: Yeah, I actually read a book… I really haven't read much Terry Pratchett, right? But I read this book that was about a cat, and some talking rats, and it was called… [Ed: None of us could remember the exact title, but it's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Harmony], and it was about a dump that was next to a sort of wizarding school where they've been chucking out all these sort of spells and chemicals and stuff, and all the rats and a cat on the dump had become intelligent and could speak. They happened upon this scam where all the rats would go into this town, cause lots of trouble, and this guy would come in with his intelligent cat and they'd pretend to clear the town up. And I read it, and I thought it was a perfect sort of CG, kind of Pixar-style kids story. Because the book is very sort of cinematic, and I actually went as far as inquiring who had the rights but I think they're blanket-owned by some company or something. I didn't really follow up on it as much as I should, but in reading it I did really want to make a film of it. And also I read a book by Mitch Albom called The Five People You Meet in Heaven, have you ever read that?

H: No.

N: No, although that one might be in my "to read" pile, come to think of it. [Ed.: Nope, it's another Albom book...and d'oh, Simon, it's already been made into a film, albeit a telefilm. Good cast, tho! - Nic]

S: It is absolutely brilliant. It's a really really beautiful book, very moving. Made me cry. But then, Die Hard made me cry. (laughs) That one, as well. I don't know, there's not enough time, there's not enough hours in the day for everything we want to do, you know? But yeah, that's two.

H: If you were a zombie, who wouldn't you eat even if they were the last person on Earth?

S: (laughs) Who wouldn't I eat?! Um… plenty of people. I dunno, I don't like slagging people off. I guess I might as well go for the obvious one and just say our respective premiers, Bush and Blair. I probably wouldn't take a bite out of either of those two.

H: When was the last time you laughed until you cried?

S: The cake flushing! The flushing of the cake. That was painful! Nick makes me laugh so much, and he's the one person that can really reduce me to a helpless wreck on the floor. That's why I kind of became like a pushy mum and got him into acting, was because I just thought "You should be making use of this talent that you have," because he is so funny. And like Ricky Gervais is great in that, all he does is screech with laughter. It's difficult to hang out with him sometimes, because he's always on.

H: Kicking grannies is one thing, but would you kick your own granny in the face…

S: Nooooooo!

H: Wait! Say….to end world hunger?

S: Ha! To end world hunger? That's unfair. No, I couldn't possibly. Even with that wonderful ramification. Kicking my own granny in the face would be horrible.

N: Would you kick Bob Geldof's granny in the face?

S: Yeaaaah. In a heartbeat. He'd probably let me! That's a great question, and also a very cruel question. (laughs)

H: Besides your wife, what is the one thing you miss the most when you're away from the UK?

S: Probably my house, and just my kind of comforts. We've just moved house and I built this little room; I did a trade-off with Mo where I said, look…we'll have a really lovely bathroom, if I can have a room where I can have a massive television and all my games and everything, and she agreed. So I've just had this room built where it's my place to go and hang out, watch films, play video games and I love it. I lie in it for hours and hours and hours. And I miss that. [Maureen] arrived here yesterday, it's her first time in LA.

H: Oh, cool!

S: She's off seeing Hollywood Boulevard and all that crap today. (laughs) So yeah, that's my number one thing to miss is my cinema room. And also family, and just home comforts. I'm not a party animal, you know. Occasionally you will see us going to a whole bunch of events because it's the time to do that, you know? For Hot Fuzz, we were out every single night. We were at the BAFTAS, we gave out a Brit award, that's part of the job. There was a period after Shaun of the Dead where we went to everything. I realize now that that's not the right thing to do. I never want to go to a premiere of a film that I'm not in, and I don't want to go to places where people go to be seen at those places. Because otherwise you start to get known for being you and not for being an actor, and I think that's quite a dangerous path to follow. But it's very tempting, you know, when you suddenly get invited to a Star Wars premiere. I got invited to the Spider-Man 3 premiere, and I really had to go "Ohhhh, umm…no!" But I had to think about it, you know? Because I know it would have been fun.

H: Is Ricky Gervais's character the gunner on the star destroyer in the Spaced universe, or would everything have found a way of happening by some other means?

S: (laughs) That's exactly what he is. You know, I never thought of it like that, but I'd put money on the fact that subconsciously that's exactly what I was going for with that. The idea that a very random act, a tiny little random act can have a massive effect on everything. For instance - I'm obsessed by this, I'm obsessed by fate and chance and coincidence - when I moved to London from Bristol University, with my then-girlfriend, who was kind of the girl that Sarah was based on from Spaced. We were looking all around greater London for a flat, north and south London, London has about 15 million people in central London. Massive, there were so many areas, so many little towns, boroughs, it's just giant. All we were looking for was a one bedroom flat and we happened upon this one-bedroom flat in North London, and it happened to be next door, or just near the restaurant where Nick happened to be working. When I think of all the things that led us to that flat, and to her getting that job, that lead to us sitting here now - and there were lots of other reasons that we're sitting here now, from your life, and your life - and it chills me to the bone to think that we might have gotten a flat somewhere else, and I would never have met Nick. And there would never have been Spaced or Shaun of the Dead, or Hot Fuzz, and who knows what there would have been. But it kind of creeps me out a little bit. And so, yeah, I'm obsessed by that stuff, and that came quite late in the writing process of Spaced. [The idea that] wouldn't that be great if Marsha never meant them to be a professional couple? Because we really wanted to unravel everything before the last episode and have the whole thing break apart, and Julia plays that scene so well. I remember when we shot it, she genuinely wells up with tears and it's just this fucking dreadful, dreadful moment. And the whole idea that they lied for no reason whatsoever, they just lied. God, this is, yeah… good question. Big tick for you!

And lastly, a few quick either/or questions!:

Coke or Pepsi?
Coke

Madonna or Prince?
Prince. I had to think about that one.

Dogs or cats?
That's a hard one actually. I grew up with cats but we're about to get a dog, so I'll say cats for now. But that might change.

Mod or rocker?
Rocker.

Old Galactica or New Galactica?
I've seen about one episode of the new one [so far], and I'll already say new, and there was this amazing shot of all the Vipers coming out of the ship and it was all hand-held! It was brilliant. It was like news footage. I've got it, I've bought it on DVD.

Grease or The Wiz?
Grease.

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
Crunchy.

Irresistable force or immovable object?
Irrestistable force.

Cowboys or astronauts?
Astronauts.

Daleks or Cybermen?
Daleks!

Autumn or spring?
Autumn, I think. Although I've found as I've gotten older I've enjoyed summer more than winter, I used to like winter very much. Now I like summer. But I still like autumn because it's Halloween and all that stuff. It's exciting.

Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin?
I think maybe Buster Keaton, actually. Because I think as a physical performer he was absolutely incredible, and he has the amazing distinction of breaking his neck without realizing it and being told thirty years afterward. He was getting a medical exam and by that time silent movies were over, he was doing some talkie. And the doctor said "So, when did you break your neck?!"

Red or white wine?
Red.

Daddy or chips? ;) *
Daddy.

[* Apologies to the non-UK members who have no idea what this one is about - a forum member suggested it! :-D - Harmony]

Thanks so much, Simon, for the interview. I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone else does, as well.

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