Age: 38
What: Star of “How To Lose Friends and Alienate People,” opening Friday.
Role: Failed magazine journo Sidney Young, based on real-life author Toby Young, whose book “How To Lose Friends” was inspired by his brief, embarrassing Vanity Fair tenure.
Interviewed at: Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware Pl., Room 3504.
Childhood: “Big sci-fi nerd. Still am. For better or for worse, I was exactly the right age for ‘Star Wars,’ so that completely consumed me as a child. Also, I was an avid follower of ‘Star Trek,’ which was on BB2 weekdays at 6 p.m.”
Childhood dream fulfilled: Pegg plays Scotty in the forthcoming “Star Trek” feature.
Not all comedy is created equal: Pegg co-starred in “Hot Fuzz,” in which he played a tough-as-nails London policeman transferred to a quaint little English village riddled with unsolved murders. “That film was much harder than ‘How To Lose Friends.’ In ‘Hot Fuzz’ I was in a straitjacket the whole time. I don’t smile for 40 minutes in that film. In ‘How To Lose Friends’ I was free to be silly and employ the various tricks I use to dupe people into thinking I’m an actor.”
Funny you mention “Hot Fuzz”: Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, stars of “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” first met at a screening of the 2007 film.
If there were comedy Oscars, Pegg would’ve voted for: Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein.” “Comedy acting is tough! It’s a skill. I’ve seen really good actors try to do comedy, and they’re so unfunny, it’s almost a relief because you think, Oh, I can do something other people can’t do.”
