Big Screen
74 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2008
ILLUSTRATIONBYTIMBOWER
How did a goofyBrit become
asought-afterstatesidestar?
Play along with our game of
Life: Simon Pegg Edition to
findout. BySamMachkovech
SIMON,
PEGGED
For actors in theUK, the road toAmerican stardom tends to favor thedashingand reserved
— your Colin Firths and Pierce Brosnans. But a fumbling, excitable, and geeky Brit named
Simon Pegg has broken the mold, slashing his way through
Shaun of the Dead
’s zombies
and intoAmerica’s heart. Thismonth, he’ll tacklehis biggest leading role yet in
How toLose
Friends &Alienate People
. Put on your game face and follow the 38-year-old actor’s road
to success. (Dice not included.)
Pegg lands his first British
TV series in the fall of 1995:
the short-lived
SixPairs of
Pants
.
Roll again.
Pegg’s cynical, bumbling
personality collideswith
highbrowManhattan
glitz in thismonth’s
How
to Lose Friends&Alien-
atePeople
.
Jumpahead
two spaces to thefinal
frontier.
The self-proclaimedgeekwill
beScotty in next year’s
Star
Trek
movie.
Beamyourself
up to theWinner’sCircle.
Pegg’s stand-
up-comedy
career blossoms
with an appear-
ance at Britain’s
hugeEdinburgh
International
Festival in 1995.
Move forward
four spaces.
In the 1996BritishTV series
Asylum
, Pegg’s
character, a dopey pizza boy, is tricked into
staying at a loony bin full of crazed stand-up
comedians. Though highly bizarre and not
particularly successful, the series, whichPegg
cowrote, marks the beginning of his path into
dark comedy.
Losea turn.
After acting in a fewmore
popular BritishTV shows and
working onBBC radio, Pegg
takes center stage in 1999’s
cult-smashTV series
Spaced
,
inwhich the average lives of
latent British30-somethings
are given a surrealist, cinematic
treatment. This series— think
Seinfeld
for the art-school
crowd—finally came out on
AmericanDVD this year.
Jump
ahead three spaces.
Pegg’s firstAmerican exposure comes in
2001, thanks to aminor role on theHBO
miniseries
Band of Brothers
. There, hemeets
former
Friends
star DavidSchwimmer. The
two actors eventually collaborate on the
2006Britishfilm
BigNothing
and on2007’s
RunFatboyRun
.
Collect aGoldenChance
card to celebrate theirbudding friendship.
Zombiesmeet the dry,
dark humor of Pegg
and his
Spaced
costars
in2004’s
Shaun of the
Dead
, whichPegg co-
wrote.
Advance twospac-
es to themovie’s famed
pub, theWinchester,
andgetaGoldenChance
card fordoingyourbest
zombie imitation.
TheWinchester
pub.
Haveadrink!
InPegg’s first
blockbuster
movie,
Mission:
Impossible III
(2006), he plays
token science
geniusBenji
Dunn.
Spend
time research-
ingwhat ex-
actly thefilm’s
secret Rabbit’s
Foot project is;
losea turn.
In2007,
Hot Fuzz
is billed as “
Shaun
meets
actionmovies.” This buddy-copfilm sees
cowriter Pegg’s, aswell as his collabora-
tors’, knack for absurdity, sharp jokes, and
cinematic flair reach new, explosive heights.
Hopoverawhitepicket fenceandad-
vance three spaceswithgunsblazing.
