The Vile One's Dungeon: Interviews w/ Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg of Hot Fuzz Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 04.04.2007
The British director and actors cut the breeze with The Vile One live in Austin, Texas for the Hot Fuzztival!
March 31st, 2007. The Four Seasons Hotel. Austin, Texas.
Last Saturday was the day of the Hot Fuzztival in Austin, Texas held at the greatest movie theatre on the planet, the original Alamo Drafthouse cinema. These various "Fuzztivals" were being held all around the country, but the Austin one was particularly special with a fantastic line-up of vintage cop movies as well as the finale being an early screening of the Hot Fuzz. This would also unfortunately be one of the last special shows to be held at the Drafthouse before it leaves it's original location where it has resided for over a decade.
I managed to get an early interview with the film's director and writer, Edgar Wright, and his actors, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (also co-writer for the movie with Edgar Wright as well) to talk about the movie. I knew trying to come prepared for these hilarious personalities would be hard but I also knew it was going to be a blast and they did not disappoint.
A personal shout out to all the people that made obtaining this interview possible. Thank you, and you rock.
Jeffrey "The Vile One" Harris: First of all I wanted to thank you guys so much for coming out this weekend. I mean thank you for your continued support of the Austin Film community, for having this show at the original Alamo Drafthouse before it moves venues—
Edgar Wright: Oh yeah I heard about that. It's closing down, right?
TVO: Their lease has run out and I believe they are moving to a place called the Ritz.
Simon Pegg: Well that's a shame.
TVO: Yeah, I'm going to miss it. But, sometimes things change and we'll see where it goes. So thank you for having this show at the original Alamo.
SP: S'alright. It's something we kind of make sure we do in a way because we had such a great reception—and the support goes two ways. We've got such an amazing amount of support from the Austin community, so you know, it's no chore for us to come.
TVO: And also thank you for helping us to Keep Austin Weird.
SP: Austin weird?
TVO: Keep Austin Weird. That's sort of like our city motto.
EW: Oh I see.
SP: It's a little heart of weirdness in the middle of Texas, right?
TVO: Yeah.
SP: Absolutely.
TVO: It's a bit of an anomaly for Texas.
EW: It's like Eerie Indiana except in Texas.
TVO: Yes, exactly.
SP: Or maybe it's an island of sanity in a state of weirdness. There you go. Did you ever look at it that way?
TVO: Well . . .
EW: All the guys out there they're the bad ones, and the guys in here are the sane ones.
SP: Maybe the lunatics are running the asylum.
TVO: I never thought of it that way because I'm from the suburbs of Houston, I went to school here.
SP: Uh-oh.
TVO: And I loved it here and I really tried hard to stay but eventually I had to leave . . . Hook ‘Em Horns.
SP: Hook ‘Em Horns. That's what I'll be closing with tonight.
TVO: Going from Shaun of The Dead to the Hot Fuzz, was this a harder or easier experience on yourselves? Was there more or less money to work with?
EW: More money to work with, but maybe not as much money as the ambition of the script. So, we kind of had double the budget of Shaun, but the ideas, the size of the cast, and the amount of locations were at least kind of quadruple that size. So, it was more money but it still felt very kind of tight, and we really tried to put all the money on the screen.
SP: It was a bit of both, wasn't it? Because with Shaun of the Dead behind us it meant we could get the cast that we got. It meant that we could get a little bit more money. It meant that we didn't have to peddle the script around to various production companies hoping it's gonna get made. But, as Edgar said, the you know, we then wrote the script which was very ambitious, so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to match and hopefully succeed Shaun of the Dead so there was that pressure as well.
TVO: Working on this movie after the huge cult success of Shaun of The Dead in the United States were there any types of people around the movie, possible with black hats or black capes, and curly mustaches going "Mwahaha! This is my movie now!"
EW: You've completely lost me there, I'm sorry *laughs*.
SP: You know, the studios.
TVO: Studio executive types.
EW: *laughs* I started imagining V from V For Vendetta for a second there I was confused . . . Someone pointed out that Timothy Dalton [Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz] looks exactly like the V For Vendetta mask.
TVO: So he looks like Guy Fawkes?
SP: Yeah the mustache. No, I think the people that look after us have always been pretty nurturing, and certainly Working Title are very—you know they kind of let us do our thing. And obviously you know there are people counting the dollar signs somewhere and making sure we stay on target, and there's a little . . . rap of the knuckles maybe, but that's probably about it. They deliberately try to make themselves look like Kate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings so it's not to fear them.
*I'm trying hard not to crack up here and there's a bit of silliness that you won't see.*
Nick Frost: It's going well.
EW: This is the first interview of the day. Those [other] guys are going to get nonsense.
TVO: So writing the script, how much time did you have? And Simon, how do you and Edgar write with each other?
SP: We had about . . . I dunno it took about 18 months didn't it? I mean all in, with—we did a lot of research and a lot of—obviously we watched about 138 films, I think that's the exact count when we looked at the DVD's. And then—research period—we wrote the screenplay in Wales where we shot the film, and then we whittled it and whittled it for about six months after that, so – and we really do just sit opposite each other in an office and hash it out; and laugh and cry and lie on the floor –it's a really great way to work. I really like working with Edgar, and it's very *Edgar Wright makes a funny face directed at Simon Pegg* --no I do. Forget what I'm saying—It's really a very productive environment, you know. So it was about 18 months all in.
EW: Yeah I think so with sort of interruptions but—
SP: Edgar's a very good motivator. Me and Nick write together and we sit and we shit. We might write for an hour, and then we'll go out shopping.
TVO: And Mr. Frost what kind of input did you have on the script?
NF: Call me Nick. None really. We had a rehearsal period together, and I guess then I kind of bring the funny apart from—
EW: You're the first person to read the script.
NF: Yeah I mean we're just always kind of hanging out anyway, so I'm always hearing ideas from them. But you know we have a week and a bit and that's when we go through the script [the three of us] and anything that I can bring to Danny (his character in the movie), they might let me do it then.
SP: We write because we know Nick so well, we can write for him because we know exactly how he delivers his lines and stuff. But there's an element of Nick himself which only he can bring to it. So we always have this period . . . Someone said the other day, their favorite line was "I'm not made of iron" which Nick made up, which was galling to me because that's the only line in the script we didn't write. But there you go.
TVO: The version of the movie we are seeing today is the US version I'm assuming?
SP: It's the porn version.
TVO: Was anything changed from the UK version at all? Were any head butts put back in or anything?
EW: No it's exactly the same.
TVO: OK, great, so we are going to get the whole, full—
EW: Yeah absolutely.
SP: Yeah, won't get changed.
EW: You're going to miss the Universal Logo at the start which is the only thing, which personally I always get a thrill with.
SP: Is it UIP still?
EW: No . . . you can try to get the DVD of the version with the Universal logo, it's set for special edition . . . I'll act out the Universal logo tonight for the people who think they might be missing it.
TVO: So you'll do the whole *I start making the Universal Pictures movie logo with my hands and make the noises. Edgar, Nick, and Simon join in.*
TVO: The cast for this movie is fantastic. You have some of the best actors of British film and TV. You have Bill Nighy (Shaun of The Dead, Underworld, Pirates of The Carribbean 2 and 3). You have Timothy Dalton, the second best James Bond in my humble opinion.
EW: Who you counting as the first? Connery?
TVO: Daniel Craig, haha.
EW: Ohhh, he's gone straight to #1.
SP: A lot of people have been saying that.
TVO: I know, because it's the truth.
EW: So who's the rest of your rankings? Craig #1. Dalton.
SP: Connery.
TVO: Then Connery.
EW: Then Moore, then—
TVO: Then Lazenby!
EW: Then Moore, and Moore's at the last!
TVO: Then Pierce Brosnan at the very bottom.
EW: Really?!
SP: You're punishing Moore—
EW: Interesting.
SP: For bringing the sleazy. *In his best Roger Moore voice*, "I don't think I deserve that." That was me doing an impression of Roger Moore then as –
TVO: I think you'd make a great James Bond.
SP: Really? I don't think I'm suave enough for James Bond.
TVO: You are very suave.
SP: *laughs* I could've been a sort of slightly geeky—
EW: I think you could sort of play like an ice nazi. You could bleach your hair blonde and end up in like you know a wood chipper at the end of a ski chase.
NF: Goodbye Mister Bond!
TVO: And Nick I think they should look into hiring you as a new Blofeld.
NF: Or an Odd-job even.
TVO: I like you as Blofeld.
*Edgar Wright then proceeds to instruct me on the proper pronunciation of Blofeld and some other random silliness before I get things back on track.*
TVO: So was it hard getting the cast assembled for this movie? Working out their schedules?
EW: The scheduling thing is difficult, but you know we wouldn't have gotten this cast together for our first film. I mean it's definitely because we had the reputation of Shaun. And yeah, I just sort of had to talk to them all and explain to them this ensemble nature of the script and I wanted beyond the lines of dialogue that they have, kind of like a presence throughout the film. So I really wanted you to feel as soon as you're in Sanford you can spot these people, even on Simon's first jog through the village. You're thinking there's Paul Freeman, Stuart Wilson, going through very quickly and it gives these villagers in Sanford a sort of real presence, you know.
TVO: And a lot of the actors you cast were your first choices for those roles.
EW: Yeah, yeah.
TVO: It sounds like you really lucked out.
NF: They skilled out, there was no luck about it.
TVO: "In my experience there is no such thing as luck."
EW: Ahhhh.
SP: Ben Kenobi.
TVO: That's right, another great British actor, Sir Alec Guinness—Oh wait, am I allowed to say Sir?
EW and SP: Yeh.
TVO: Bono says we're not allowed to call him Sir if we're American.
SP: Really?
EW: Bono . . . He can fuck off.
TVO: *We all laugh* Alright! I have that on digital audio. Now Mr. Wright, I was wondering if you can tell us at all about the progress of Ant-man? How that's going at all?
EW: It's still in script stage, it's been slightly on the back burner because of Hot Fuzz, but it's something that's like I've been working on the screenplay of that's kind of it—in the works, so there might not be much more to announce at Comic Con this year other than the fact we're still working on the script.
TVO: Is anyone in this room up for a role in the movie?
EW: Nick Frost is playing the part of Macro-biotic Scum.
NF: I'm gonna keep a lid on it until Comic Con when I come wearing my outfit. *Edgar Wright laughs* I'll come wearing my virus – viri.
TVO: I've been a little disappointed with some of the more recent Marvel Comic movie efforts. They've felt disappointing, is this something you are aware of at all and something you want to avoid with your film?
EW: Well . . . one thing I do want to–and I don't want to talk too much about it with Simon and Nick sitting here—but one thing I did want to do is make it have kind of a different feel—
NF: Pbbbltt. *Edgar Wright laughs hard at Frost's raspberry* Ah stop going going on about fucking Ant-man. Sick of it.
SP: You're doing a good job. Just put dot, dot, dot.
TVO: Simon did you do all your own stunts for this movie?
NF: *Sighs in exasperation* Going on about the fucking stunts.
SP: We did as much as we could, didn't we? Yeah, at a certain point you know that you can't do them you know if it's going to endanger the film in any way you just have to step away. But . . . our stunt coordinator was really keen for us to do as much as possible because it looks better when it's really us. But as a testament to his judgment, when we didn't do our stunts, we had a stuntman dislocate his collar bone, cut his head open, and get glass embedded in his elbow. So I think Paul (Herbert, the movie's stunt coordinator) made the right call there.
TVO: Is that you flipping through the air?
SP: What, when I . . . over the fence?
TVO: "Have you ever taken a short cut before?"
SP: It's me all the way and then the last one isn't me.
TVO: Is that you running through the fence *asking Nick Frost*.
NF: Oh yeah.
EW: Yes it is.
TVO: Is that you running out of the shack when you find the sea mine?
SP: Oh yeah, yeah, except like when there's glass and all.
EW: The thing where Nick goes through the fence I told him to look back at the camera. Look back behind him. And he said, "Why would I do that? Wouldn't I just keep on going?" And I said you should look back so the audience knows it's you, so it's definitely Simon and Nick, yeah.
TVO: For Nick and Simon, do you guys like to improv in your scenes a lot? And is anything in the movie tonight a scene you came up with and just sort of went with?
SP: No, it's all done—there's one line that you [Nick Frost] said that was—maybe it was in the script, I dunno—But when you said "Get ‘em in silly bollox" and got that laugh in right there. The way that we work and the way that Edgar works as a director is that we can't really afford to be random in front of a camera because everything is so symbiotic, it's sort of like everything works together. So you can't be improvising when the camera has to do a very specific move around you ‘cause you got to get all the bits at the right time. So there isn't much room for that, but in rehearsal as we said we'll play around a little bit. The only time we had room for improvise was in a sort of a fairly stationary shot in Shaun of The Dead when Nick was describing a woman behind me in a pub in the most profane ways he could just to really make me laugh . . . I think it's a testament to our skill that we make it look like we're improvising.
TVO: The thing that totally floored me at the [San Diego] Comic Con presentation [For Hot Fuzz] was that last clip you showed, when they see the mine. And then you hear that Lethal Weapon 3 trailer music. Are we going to hear that in the movie tonight?
EW: Yes you will.
TVO: FUCK YEAH!
*They laugh*
SP: That's the best reaction.
EW: That is as we discovered, I thought it was the Lethal Weapon 2 music, but it's actually from the first trailer as well, but it's not in the film, it's just trailer music.
TVO: Once I heard that I felt like I just really got what you were doing. Thank you so much.
EW: Thank you, we'll see you later.
TVO: Really looking forward to the show, and please enjoy our awesome city.
SP: We always do, cheers mate.
TVO: Shalom.
NF: Shalom.
Edgar, Simon, and Nick were nice enough to autograph a still photo I was given for the movie at San Diego Comic Con that Edgar Wright had signed, but Nick Frost had to part right when I was at the front of the autograph booth. Here are a couple pictures we were able to grab as well.
NEXT: Hot Fuzztival coverage and a review of the fucking awesome movie, Hot Fuzz.
