SAN DIEGO – Simon Pegg has some advice for all you adults: “Chill out.” And for you kids out there: “Grow up a bit.”
Growing up and chiling out are certainly two big themes of “The World’s End,” Pegg’s latest film with longtime co-writer Nick Frost, directed by Edgar Wright. The film now completes the trio’s Cornetto trilogy, which also included “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead.”
Those movies, too, approached issues of nostalgia, the paranormal and the character realism that “World’s End” does, but Pegg wasn’t as much of a jerk as he is in “World’s End,” as Gary King.
“Gary King was a hell of a character to play. I had to draw on various things hes at once maddening desperatley sad ver very annoying and kinda sweet and a little bit attractive but mainly horrible. I had to revisit all facets of my personality,” Pegg told HitFix during Comic-Con.
So what’s the most annoying behavior, from man-children, and children who want to be men?
“I do’nt like it when guys get really, really drunk and sort of revert to type. I don’t like seeing guys being disrespectful to women when they’re drunk… that’s a bit of a shame,” he said. “And adults should stop being so stuck up and serious and just let your inner child out a little bit every now and again. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as that’s not all that you’ve got.
“We’re in a schizophrenic time, we’re in the middle period before we suss out this extension to our youths now. We don’t have to grow up now, we don’t have to get married and have kids when we’re 20 anymore. But at the same time you have to use that time that you’ve been giving productively and not just piss it away or whatever.”
Extract more sage wisdom from Pegg in the video above. “The World’s End” premiered this week (July 23).