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 Enlarge | By Benjamin Ealovega, 20th Century Fox |
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| Works alone: Simon Pegg did the voice of Buck, a one-eyed weasel, in the latest Ice Age movie. | |
When he calls to discuss his latest project, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, he has one request: that the reporter call him back so that the chat is on the newspaper's dime.
To be fair, his phone bill could get hefty with all the promotion he has had to do this summer. Family-friendly dino caper Ice Age arrives Wednesday, and the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek already has hit blockbuster status.
But Pegg, 39, doesn't take much credit for his successful summer.
"Both of those films are hugely ensemble-driven, and it just so happens" that I'm in them, he says. "If they were my movies, driven entirely by me, then maybe I'd feel a bit full of myself. But I have no illusions about the fact that it's purely coincidence. It's not me. I'm just along for the ride."
Pegg was, however, the force behind the 2004 zombie farce Shaun of the Dead, a cult hit that helped get him noticed — and hired — for later roles in Mission: Impossible III and the David Schwimmer-directed Run Fatboy Run.
"I actually feel quite lucky," he says. "I think you have to never think that these things happen because you're in some way better than anyone else. It's just fortune and hard work, really. It's all just jobs."
Pegg took the Ice Age job in part to appeal to a younger audience — namely, his nieces, nephews and the baby he's expecting this summer with wife Maureen McCann — since his other roles are not quite suitable for the milk-and-cookies crowd.
"It's also one of those children's films that actually appeals to grown-ups as well. There's stuff in there for the accompanying adult to enjoy," he says.
His character is a swashbuckling, one-eyed, slightly deranged weasel named Buck who helps the Ice Age gang (voiced by Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary and John Leguizamo) navigate the lush, dangerous world of the dinosaurs.
Because voice work often requires actors to perform their lines alone, Pegg hasn't met any of his co-stars except for Leary, whom he introduced for a stand-up gig in 1990 at his university in Bristol, England.
"It's so strange that 20 years later I'm doing a movie with him," he says. "I can't wait to meet them all."
For now, he's in Santa Fe working with another group of all-stars on a new project, Paul, about a pair of British pals who help an alien get back to his spaceship.
He and Shaun pal Nick Frost wrote the comedy and managed to round up Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, Sigourney Weaver, Blythe Danner and Kristen Wiig, a group Pegg calls an "embarrassment" of talent.
"It's amazing — and they're all saying our words. It's hard to believe."
Pegg's career is something he still can't quite believe, but he knows his place on the Hollywood food chain — and likes it.
"I'm not glamorous or anything. I'm kind of happy about that," he says. "It's easier for me. I'm a slightly overweight, middle-aged white man — nobody cares for that. But if you're Megan Fox, or whatever, there's an aesthetic appeal there."
That isn't to say he hasn't had his run-ins with the paparazzi.
"It's started to happen a little bit in the U.K., and it's kind of like, really, really, who's going to buy those pictures?" he says. "Some guy got me at Albuquerque the other night at like 1 o'clock in the morning. He waited until we arrived on the plane back from L.A., and I said, 'Who's gonna buy this?! Who gives a (expletive) about this? I'll give you 10 bucks to (beat it), and you'll earn more!' "http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-06-29-simon-pegg_N.htm
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