Fuzzy Logic: A Word with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright — May 18th 2007

By Stephen Head

Hot Fuzz is everything a fan of Shaun of the Dead could ask for. It's got the humor and it's got the action. Correction: it's got a lot of humor and a mother lode of action, particularly in its final forty minutes. ("Forgive us," says star and co-writer Simon Pegg. "We wanted to blow shit up.") During a recent screening of the film in Boston, Pegg, co-star Nick Frost, and writer-director Edgar Wright spoke with Netscape's Steve Head about cheap laughs, persistence, and Peter Jackson's cameo appearance as a deranged Santa.


Pegg: Mission accomplished, then. We tried to keep it crapless.

Frost: Virtually crap-free.

Netscape: After the success of Shaun of the Dead, there was some concern that you would hit a sophomore slump with Hot Fuzz. The general consensus is that you dodged the bullet. But did you feel any pressure to deliver this time around?

Pegg: I don't think we were concerned about what the critics might say.

Frost: If [Pegg and Wright] can make me laugh, then it's working. Whatever it is, it's working.

Wright: If we were simply trying to please other people, it wouldn't have worked. We'd be controlled by the perspective of others, psychologically tossed about as the wind blows. So it's important that we focus on what we know. Hot Fuzz is the movie we'd want to see. That's our barometer, essentially.

Netscape: Are you improvising much when the camera is rolling?

Pegg: We meticulously write the whole thing: storyboards, flip charts, and the like. But then you come up with lines out of the blue, and it works. Nick's adept at changing things at the last moment.

Frost: [Pointing to himself] This is a full-on entertainment package.

Netscape: When you commit to doing a project like Hot Fuzz, you know you'll be involved with it for the next two years. How do you deal with that?

Wright: It goes with the territory. You've got to get out there and talk about your movie. And we believe we've made something wonderful to share, and fans will love it. We're proud of our work, so it's not like we'll get tired of discussing it.

Wright: Thank you, Shaun. We love you.

Pegg: Next.

Frost: Hot Fuzz forever.

Pegg: By the power of Greyskull.

Netscape: You've said that you wanted to capture the essence of movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II--that over-the-top coolness--and place it in a parochial British context. So you end up with a blazing shootout in a sleepy English village.

Pegg: Which is one of the reasons we wanted to do it. We wanted to make an action movie in a place where nothing really happens. Then, of course, things start to happen.

Netscape: You filmed in Wells, Somerset, right? Was there any concern from the town?

Wright: We don't directly identify the city. We went with the fictitious town of Sanford. That meant we had to eliminate a cathedral from the establishing shots. In real life there's this incredibly gigantic cathedral dwarfing everything. When you see the city in the movie: no cathedral.


Netscape: Was there any concern from the town?

Wright: There were some restrictions. You have tax laws and things. And you can't film at certain times. But we were able to do just about all we'd set out to do.

Netscape: You've got an incredible cast: Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton.

Wright: Who would have thought we'd get to work with Timothy Dalton--Prince Barin from Flash Gordon? I try not be a fan, but sometimes I can't help it. Anyway, it's amazing to see him work. The way he delivers his lines, that's all him. You can't write that smile. The evil, evil smile. It's too dastardly.

Netscape: You also got to work with Peter Jackson.

Wright: He came to the set for a bit and we worked in a short part for him. Watch carefully, though, because he's only on screen for a few seconds. He plays a deranged Santa. I sent him a copy of the movie so he could see it in New Zealand, and he got back to me saying he was displeased with his amount of screen time. [Laughs]

Netscape: Some might say that you guys are the best that British comedy has to offer right now.

Pegg: Well, not the best. One strand of it, I think.

Netscape: Nick, can you still go to the corner store without being recognized?

Frost: It's happened. I used to be a little averse to it, but it's nice to be recognized for your work.

Netscape: Did you always imagine that this kind of thing would happen?

Frost: I wanted to be a stand-up comic. Nerves were an issue. I used to be really afraid to get up in front of people and perform. But I wanted to be a comedian and I wanted to be good at it, so I had to face my fear. Part of doing that was letting people know I sometimes got nervous. Now I've become comfortable with it. It's fun.

Netscape: What did you learn while making Hot Fuzz? Any lessons you might apply to your next project?

Wright: One of the things we learned was not to release the name of the movie too early. We had the name before we had the script or anything, and at a certain point we realized we couldn't change it even if we wanted to.

Wright: And I will learn how to swiftly say the line: "A judicial application of bacon and beans." I couldn't get it out of my mouth. It's there. It's on the page, and I couldn't deliver it quickly. (Laughs)

Netscape: Is Hot Fuzz going to make the action-movie fanboy (and fangirl) happy?

Pegg: The ego of the fanboy is gargantuan. You'd better get your shit straight, or they'll take you down. But we're confident in our knowledge of action films.

Wright: Point Break, Bad Boys II, Tango & Cash, The Rock, Dirty Harry--we love these movies. There is no derision. They are what they are.

Netscape: One last question. What's your favorite action kill?

Pegg: So many to choose from! I'd say we're somewhat in agreement on The Last Boy Scout. It has my absolute favorite death: Taylor Negron falling into the helicopter's blades. Just a spectacular way to go.

Tags: hot fuzz,simon pegg,nick frost,edgar wright

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