Simon Pegg graduates Benji from sidekick to screaming action man in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation

SIMON Pegg on being in Tom Cruise’s hands for the crazy-brave stunts in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and that MI6 can only be shot in space.

TOM Cruise climbs cliff faces untethered, scales the world’s tallest skyscraper and

hangs off the side of an Airbus A400 mid-take off.

What does Simon Pegg do? He screams like a girl as Cruise steers a BMW at

high speed.

More accustomed to providing geek support and comic relief as Agent Benji of the

Impossible Missions Force (IMF), Pegg finally lives on the edge in his third outing,

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

“To be more in the thick of the action was really fun. The biggest stunt I did was

probably the car chase with Tom in Casablanca, in which I just have to sit in the

passenger seat and scream,” Pegg laughs.

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The scene called for Ethan Hunt and Benji to pursue a motorcycle gang through

narrow streets. In the film, it’s a high-octane rush. The shooting of it was a more stop-

start affair.

Men of action: Director Christopher McQuarrie, Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise on the set of Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.

“It took us about a week of trying to shut down the streets of Casablanca on a daily

basis, which is not an easy task by any means,” Pegg explains. “It was really tough to

get the folks, who were obviously very excited about Tom, to not get run over.”

When the pair did get their motor running, Pegg’s screams “came naturally”.

“But I never felt unsafe — this is the weird thing. I spoke to the stunt co-ordinator

before and he said, ‘Tom’s going to be doing all of the driving because I don’t have a

driver better than him’. And he is an extraordinary driver — he has incredible precision

and skill.

“So it was more like being on a fairground ride where you’re pretty sure you’re not

going to die but you can scream quite freely.”

Mind you, he adds, “we were doing some mental things”.

“We went down a flight of stairs, we drove through this alleyway, which was barely

wider than the car, and at really high speeds. It was kind of terrifying, but it looks

great on the screen. (Director) Chris McQuarrie made sure the cameras were looking

in so you’re not just looking at a car careening around, you’re looking at us reacting

to being thrown into this incredible situation.”

Breakout role: Simon Pegg battles zombies in 2004 horror comedy film Shaun Of the Dead, which made $30 million at the box office.

Pegg, 45, could never be accused of being a movie chicken.

The brave Brit has battled zombies in Shaun Of the Dead and alien robots in The

World’s End. He ran a marathon in Run, Fatboy, Run and put on one of those silly

motion-capture leotards for The Adventures Of Tintin. He’s even tackled — gasp! — a

rom-com in Man Up (a fresh and funny film awaiting Australian release).

But this Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation derring-do was something different.

What brought it on, Mr Pegg? Can’t be seen to be soft around the gung-ho Mr Cruise?

“It’s not about pussying out, it’s more like: I can’t not do this because it would be

selling the film short,” he says.

“Tom is so obsessively keen on thrilling the audience and making sure that they don’t

just go, ‘Oh my God, Ethan Hunt’s hanging off a plane!’ They go, ‘Oh my God, Tom

Cruise is hanging off a plane!’ Because there’s a degree of enjoyment there knowing

it’s the actual actors. To say, ‘Nah, I’ll leave it to my stuntman’, you’d be short-

changing everybody.

“He’s never one to shame you into doing anything — you just want to live up to the

standard he’s setting.”

Pegg calls the new movie’s already infamous Tom-on-plane stunt “a typical day on

set”.

“I worry in a way — like, if we do Mission: Impossible 6, he’s going to have to go into

space, because he can’t get any higher,” he laughs.

Taking the lead: Simon Pegg’s Benji calls the shots in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation." (David James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions via AP)

This high-stakes, action-packed world is one Pegg never really thought he’d get used

to. Though the success of his comedies with Edgar Wright and Nick Frost and his role

as Scotty in the Star Trek films have thrust him on to the A-list, when he was first

approached about joining the IMF he’d only just won a bit of indie infamy via Shaun

of the Dead.

“When J.J. Abrams called me, way back when, almost 10 years ago, I was thrilled that

he’d thought of me and very chuffed that he’d seen Shaun Of the Dead. I thought,

‘This is going to be a fun little thing to do’.”

The job Abrams had for him on Mission: Impossible III amounted to “a couple of

days”.

In the years that followed, Pegg and Abrams became friends, Star Trek happened and

Benji got a promotion.

“When they started talking about Ghost Protocol, I got an email from J.J. one

morning saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about Benji being an agent?’ I was like,

‘Well yeah, of course!’ So in Ghost Protocol, we saw Benji being this freshly-trained,

quite enthusiastic, not-very-jaded young agent.”

The evolution continues in Rogue Nation, to the point that much of the movie is The

Ethan and Benji Show. No bad thing.

Ethan is a fugitive taking fire from, on one side, the CIA, which has grown tired of the

IMF’s messy operations. On the other, nefarious rogue organisation the Syndicate has

declared Ethan Enemy No.1.

Benji goes from denying knowledge of Ethan’s whereabouts to joining him on the

run.

“Benji’s been out there (in the field) a while and he has a very abiding affection for

Ethan, but he’s not the same guy he was,” Pegg elaborates. “He’s matured a little bit,

so while he’ll still do anything for Ethan, he’s not afraid to stand up to him. It’s nice

to play a character across that arc — for 10 years.”

Will it be 10 years and retirement for Benji, or can Pegg see himself strapping in for

another Mission: Impossible?

“If a chance to do another Mission comes around, I’ll be there like a flash … If I

survive this one!”

Boldly going on: Simon Pegg (centre, as Scotty) is writing Star Trek 3.

In the meantime, Pegg has a daring feat of a different kind to pull off.

Though he’s been writing professionally for 20 years, scripting a Star Trek film is

next level stuff.

So now he’s been given the keys to the Starship Enterprise, can we expect the third

instalment in the blockbuster sci-fi franchise to be called Star Trek: Rise of Scotty?

“No,” he laughs, “it’s called Star Trek Beyond. When I write for myself with Edgar,

I’m the lead character so it’s easy. It’s more difficult when you write for yourself and

an ensemble at the same time. I understand Scotty’s dialogue better than any of the

other characters, but it is an ensemble, so it’s important that everybody gets their

moment.

“And really. the main characters in Star Trek are Spock, Kirk and Bones.”

Scripting a blockbuster. Doing stunts … Is there anything Pegg has yet to achieve in

movies?

“I’d like to direct, actually,” he admits. “There was something I was skirting around

adapting recently but it didn’t come off. If I find something that I’m equally invested

in as I was with that, then I would love to direct. I think that’ll be within the next few

years.”

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — ROGUE NATION OPENS TODAY

Originally published as Simon Pegg graduates Benji from sidekick to screaming action man in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation