Sitting side by side, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost lay claim to the kind of easy banter that results from long-term friendship.
Pegg, wearing jeans, T-shirt and a baker boy hat, puts his arm around his mate’s shoulders at one point, proudly proclaiming: “Nick and I have worked together for 10 years and we’ve been friends for much longer.”
For cinema viewers, their off-screen chemistry has conjured up comedy gold, firstly with the small screen success of Pegg’s late Nineties TV show Spaced and then zombie comedy Shaun Of The Dead in 2004 and spoof police picture Hot Fuzz in 2007.
Now they’re hoping to repeat the success with their latest movie Paul, which marks the first time they’ve written a feature film together.
“Writing a film and then making a film is tough,” says Frost, 38, also dressed down in jeans and a T-shirt. “Yeah, we had a couple of creative barneys,” agrees Pegg, 41.
“In fact we were tearing each other’s throats out a second ago,” he jokes, shaking a fist at Frost’s face, before his friend continues: “The good thing about being best friends is it enables us to get over it, and not to let it eat you up inside until you’re an old man and living in a bedsit drinking yourself to death.”
Pegg explains the collaboration has proven an interesting experience. “We’ve slightly changed the dynamic of our characters in this one. In the other movies, which I wrote with Edgar Wright, I played the main character and Nick is the sidekick.
“This film is very much a double header. If anything, Nick’s character is slightly more dominant and confident, whereas mine’s a bit of a wallflower at first.”
Directed by Superbad’s Greg Mottola, the film revolves around an alien smart-ass named Paul, superbly voiced by Seth Rogan, who’s been locked up in a military base advising world leaders about his kind for the last 60 years.
When Paul worries he’s outlived his usefulness and fears the dissection table may be drawing uncomfortably close, he escapes and hitches a lift on the first RV that passes by. Fortunately for him, the RV’s driven by Clive (Frost) and Graeme (Pegg), two sci-fi fans who’ve been saving for decades to make their pilgrimage to America’s UFO heartland.
Frost describes the film as “a love letter to Spielberg and a love letter to fan boys”.
