Over the past two decades, Simon Pegg has become somewhat of a poster boy for geeks all over. To add to his credit, the Shaun of the Dead actor has been busy co-writing the new Star Trek film and a rumor was floating around that he could show up in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
That’s all well and good but according to The Guardian, Pegg admitted in a recent interview with Radio Times that he feels this type of entertainment is dumbing all of us down:
“Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie And Clyde and The French Connection – gritty, amoral art movies.
(…)
“Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.”
Pegg, who will appear in the new science fiction comedy Absolutely Anything, professes he’d like to hang up the geek hat and try for more dramatic roles:
“Sometimes (I) feel like I miss grown-up things,” he said. “And I honestly thought the other day that I’m gonna retire from geekdom.
“I’ve become the poster child for that generation, and it’s not necessarily something I particularly want to be. I’d quite like to go off and do some serious acting.”
Unfortunately for Pegg, superhero movies are a huge draw at the box office and will not be going away anytime soon. Aside from making the obvious comparisons of our society to, say, that of the movie Idiocracy, might I be the first to suggest the actor explore more dramatic roles on television? I mean, Martin Freeman moved from The Hobbit to Fargo and it worked out pretty great for him!
(Via The Guardian and Radio Times)
