9 Days to Simon Pegg! Q&A with the Peggster

Simon Pegg will be here at BookPeople in 9 DAYS!  To tide us all over until THE MAN is in THE STORE on Wednesday, June 15th, 7pm, he answered some questions from the BookPeople staff. Because he’s awesome.  Thanks for taking the time, Si. Is it cool if we call you Si?  Oh.  Sir Peggster, then?

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Q:  What’s the most traumatic childhood memory you dug up while dredging your life for material for Nerd Do Well?

A:  Probably smashing my face in on a brick wall in 1978. Actually no, flying all the way to New York to see the Phantom Menace was worse than that. I know it’s not strictly a childhood memory but in some respect, the child inside me died that day, smashed into oblivion against the brick wall of George Lucas’s incoherent folly.

Q:  You’re only visiting three cities on your US tour for the book, New York, LA and Austin. Other than the awesome breakfast tacos, what made you choose Austin?

A:  To be honest it’s not my decision where I go, that’s down to the PR people at Penguin. However if I was given the choice, Austin would definitely be top of the list. I love this city and have since I first visited back in 2004 on the Shaun of the Dead press tour. I’ve returned since for Hot Fuzz and Spaced screenings at the old and new Alamo Drafthouses respectively. Most recently I was in town for SXSW and the most amazing screening of Paul ever. There was actually mention of Austin in the Paul screenplay. Kristen Wiig’s character Ruth lies to the authorities and says she’s on the way to a christian missionary in Austin and comments on the bats. It got cut for time though. Again, that was my decision.

Q:  What does Steven Spielberg look like up close?

A:  Steven Spielberg in HD.

Q:  If you could have the face of one superhero and the body of another, who would you choose for which part?

A:  I’d have the head of the Hulk and the body of Antman. It would look weird but the strength of the diminutive body would nonetheless support the giant bonce. It would have comic value and freak out potential enemies. That’s a win/win.

Here are three questions we regularly discuss/debate amongst ourselves on staff:

Q:  Who would be on your zombie survival team?

A:  From Zombie film lore I would have Peter and Roger from Dawn of the Dead, Sarah from Day of the Dead, Ben from Night of the Living Dead and Ed from Shaun of the Dead.

In real life I would take Nick (Ed from Shaun of the Dead) Frost and Michael (Kill List) Smiley and together we would protect our ever growing families with terminal intensity.

Q:  If you could be any dinosaur, what dinosaur would you be and why?

A:  T-Rex because he’s the boss. Everyone else is lunch.

Q:  When you’re walking down the street, what theme song plays in your head?

A:  Inception and, to a lesser extent, Beetlejuice.