'Ready Player One' star Simon Pegg discusses working with Steven Spielberg
Pegg was on hiatus after two big projects -- until Steven Spielberg called.
Simon Pegg was fresh off of not just one dream job, but two.
In fact, he was so satisfied with his acting career, he decided to take a six-month break to think about his next steps.
But that hiatus was short-lived.
"I did 'Star Wars.' I then got the gig writing "Star Trek Beyond." It was like being given the key to the kingdom," Pegg said in a recent interview on "Popcorn with Peter Travers." "It was incredibly daunting, emotionally taxing. And we got that film made and finished shooting it in Dubai.
"I got back to the UK and I just thought, 'What do I do now?" Pegg added. "I feel like I've fulfilled all of my sort of childhood dreams."
That's when Pegg called his agent.
"I said to my agent in the U.S., 'I'm going to take six months off and think about what comes next. Don't call me unless Steven Spielberg rings," Pegg recalled. "And he did. It was a flippant remark and it came [true]."
Pegg is now starring in Spielberg's newest film, "Ready Player One." He said there was absolutely no hesitation in taking on the role.
"So when I got the call that Steven Spielberg wants to talk to you, I was like, 'Yeah, okay. I'll do it'."
He talked about his character in the film.
"I play the part of Ogden Morrow, who is the co-creator of this virtual world called the Oasis," Pegg, 48, told Travers. "He created it with James Halliday, played by the inimitable Mark Rylance.
"I am the kind of Jobs to his Woz," he added, referring to Microsoft co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. "I was able to take the product to the masses and deliver it as a thing with a slightly more adept, gregarious social ability. Whereas Mark's character, James Halliday, wasn't happy in the real world. He was unable to kind of communicate and connect with people, which explains why he's created this sort of artificial realm in which he prefers to exist rather than the real world."
Pegg compared the storyline to the current social media world, where people sort of reinvent themselves online.
Travers asked Pegg if Spielberg had chosen him for the role because of his love for gaming.
"There's a time when I was very much a gamer. And then I had children. And you realize what a waste of time video games is because there are more important things like keeping a human being alive," Pegg said. "But then when they get old enough to play, then suddenly you remember. And we play a lot of video games now."
He added, "But the thing that attracted me to it really was Spielberg. He shaped my love of films. He wrote the book on creating big cinema but with an artistic sensibility, the guy that is able to invest a blockbuster with art, artfulness."
“Ready Player One” is in theaters everywhere.
Be sure to watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Simon Pegg in the video above.
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