Simon Pegg might just be the ultimate survivor; having survived zombie attacks in Edgar Wright’s cult-smash Shaun of the Dead, international espionage alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and alien-takeover as Scotty in the newest Star Trek reboot, he’s no stranger to his own self-danger, which director Kriv Stenders knows too well. That’s why seeing Pegg as the mostly aloof end-of-the-day hero works so well as the lead-billed star in Stenders’ new black comedy thriller, Kill Me Three Times. We recently had the chance to sit down with Mr. Pegg and Stenders, who talked at length about the film.
YOUR CHARACTER IS SO MULTIDIMENSIONAL, HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR THAT ROLE?
SIMON PEGG: Well, I spent some time killing people for a living… ha! No it was all on the page for this film, it was right there. The joy of this [script] was reading it and thinking, “Oh I could so play this character.” It was a gift in terms of characters and not being a regular, nice chap which I often play. It was an amoral, kind of suave guys and I felt like this was going to be fun.
WHAT RESONATED WITH YOU GUYS IN TERMS OF WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT AND WHAT YOU COULD BRING TO IT DIRECTORIALLY OR AS AN ACTOR?
KRIV STENDERS: It was such a fun read, when I first read the script it really leapt off the page and it’s one of those rare screenplays that you can “see” it as you read it, and I loved the engineering of it. It was very cleverly constructed and written. For a filmmaker who loves movies, it was a gift. I love those kinds of films that have a really great conceptual engine, and the minute I read it I knew I had to do it. When Simon came onboard, the die was cast; we really knew what kind of beast we were making.
YEAH LUKE [HEMSWORTH] AND ALICE [BRAGA] WERE SAYING WHEN YOU CAME ONBOARD, THEY IMMEDIATELY KNEW THE TONE OF THE MOVIE.
SP: Haha, I don’t consider myself a comedian– I was a comedian a long time ago but I’m an actor now and dammit I want to be taken seriously.
(Laughter)
But I think people who are known for comedy work well as villains because it provides a sort of extra textural edge of like-ability. Evil is not funny, evil is horrible, so to soften it slightly with a degree of humor makes it something you can enjoy and take pleasure in. That’s to our amusement; we walk into this beautiful Western Australian town and we see the utter shambles of a community, all backstabbing, fighting, and betraying each other, and with Charlie– the bad guy– we all go, “Oh my god what a sh*t show.” It was fun to play that.
HOW WAS IT SHOOTING A GUN?
SP: It’s cool in a “movie” sense.
(Laughter)
The thing about this film that I really like is that it is violent, but it’s a theatrical violence. It’s hyper-real, it’s not nasty real violence. You should never lose sight of the fact that violence is never a good thing, but for entertainment purposes, there is a degree of enjoyment.
IT SEEMS FARCICAL IN A WAY.
SP: Yeah, the whole film is just a catalogue of errors made by these very inept people, into which walks this very professional, super-professional, man who finds it all incredible annoying.
HOW MANY CIGARETTES DID YOU HAVE TO SMOKE?
SP: Haha I don’t know, that’s a really good question! I’ve never been asked that before. They were not real, it was a lovely herbal blend. Not that kind of herbal blend. We’d get nothing done. I’d just be at craft services all day!
(Laughter)
No, they were these stinking edible cigarettes. I used to be a smoker so hopefully I could portray Charlie’s chain smoking nonchalance with some authenticity. If they had been real, no, that would have been it. I would have been back on them.
IN YOUR PREVIOUS WORK YOU’VE OFTEN HAD WRITING CREDITS, HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO WORKING ON A FILM AS AN ACTOR?
SP: I really like writing and being a part of what I write, but sometimes it’s nice to read a script and not need to do anything. Then you can just have fun acting. It’s nice, it’s like a holiday sometimes, when you have enough faith in the script and just let go. I especially love the way it plays with the audience’s perception of what’s happening, information is given in increments so you think one thing is happening and then there is a twist… I really like that playfulness. It would be really conceited on me to think I could doctor every script I get.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE SHOOTING IN AUSTRALIA?
KS: In Australia we have a very small industry, but for a small country we make a lot of movies but we’re also limited because budgets are smaller and it is hard to make films for the international stage. This was a great opportunity to make an Australian film with an Australian cast and some international cast, therefore it wasn’t a film struggling to get out of its origins. I said to the crew to think of this film like an American movie that just happens to be shot in Australia. Alice was on the project before I came on, and when I knew she was attached I thought it was lovely idea. Sometimes you’ll cast an American in an Australian role and it feels wrong because you can see it’s a cynical thing to make the film more commercial.
SP: I think it felt right to have Charlie be British because he is literally from the other side of the planet, he’s an alien in this town. He looks like it, he sounds like it, and it was really nice to play him being literally from being from the other side of the world. It all added to his mystic.
SIMON, IF YOU COULD FILM A MOVIE ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
SP: Ah, that’s one of the best things about this job: traveling. I’ve been to many places, but I’d love to shoot in Italy. I’ve never been to Italy.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THE FILM IS THAT IT SEEMS TO CHALLENGE TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES, IS THIS SOMETHING YOU HAD IN THIS FILM PURELY FOR COMEDIC PURPOSES?
KS: A lot of it was inherent in the screenplay. What I love about this film is that it is a genre film, essentially a thriller or a noir thriller. Noir thrillers have tropes that everyone expects and that’s the great thing about genre films, it’s all right to use these tropes, it’s just how you spin them. We weren’t making a realist, kitchen-sink drama, we were making a fun movie and I loved that I could play with those stereotypes.
YOU ARE SO FILM LITERATE, DO YOU EVER TAKE INSPIRATION FROM PERFORMANCES OR CHARACTERS THAT YOU’VE SEEN IN OTHER MOVIES?
SP: All the time, you draw on what’s gone on before. There are certain great performances that stay in your mind you might subconsciously channel.
DOES CHARLIE END UP LIVING PAST THE FILM, IN YOUR MIND?
SP: Oh absolutely! I’m fully expecting “Kill Me Four Times.”
‘Kill Me Three Times’ opens at the Nuart Theatre this Friday.
