Star Trek: Why Simon Pegg Was Annoyed When Cast As Scotty
As a Star Trek fan, being cast in Star Trek was a dream come true for Simon Pegg - but the manner of his casting still annoyed him a little.
According to Simon Pegg, he was actually annoyed when cast in Star Trek as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. In 2009, J.J. Abrams boldly went where sci-fi had most certainly gone before by rebooting Star Trek. In a move as risky as it was intriguing, Abrams reimagined Star Trek: The Original Series as a blockbuster sci-fi movie, complete with an A-list cast in all the lead roles. With a fanbase as loyal as Star Trek's, it easily could have backfired, but thanks to clever writing and appropriate reverence to the source material, a new spin-off franchise was born.
Most often referred to as Star Trek's Kelvin timeline, Abrams' idea materialized into an alternate Star Trek universe in which James T. Kirk's father was killed on the day of his birth by time-traveling Romulans. By integrating big-budget effects and hard-hitting action with more traditional elements of Star Trek, the Kelvin timeline movies have proved popular with fans. Additionally, by writing them out of the wider Star Trek canon, they're free of the constraints that decades of established continuity would otherwise have placed upon them.
One of the best aspects of Abrams' Star Trek was the careful casting of its core characters. One such actor cast was Simon Pegg, a lifelong fan who found himself in the role of Star Trek's Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the Enterprise's engineering officer. However, despite it being a dream role for Pegg, he was actually a little annoyed by the manner of his casting - particularly how unceremonious it was.
Revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair, Pegg recalls the way in which he was offered the role via email after coming off of a seven-hour flight:
"And I was almost annoyed by that. The tenacity of it irked me. Because you can't just throw the ball into my court like that and expect me to smash it back. I need some time to think about it. But of course, three or four days later, I was like 'Yes, of course!' But it just felt like such a, like he was just handing me this massive opportunity, and I wanted dinner and a movie."
The idea of Star Trek fans taking the franchise seriously has become a played-out joke, but Pegg's sentiments point out exactly why he was so perfect for the role. As an actor, he wanted to be courted for the part, but Abrams knew him to be a huge Star Trek fan and, as such, he had no choice but to accept. This is essentially in line with Scotty's character, too: easily frustrated, but ultimately reliable.
Pegg wishing for a little more ceremony regarding his being offered the part is understandable. After all, becoming a part of Star Trek is every fan's dream, and it came true for him—although perhaps not quite in the way he'd hoped. Still, as the Kelvin timeline's Scotty, Pegg is now a key part of the rebooted franchise's cast, making him a part of Star Trek's iconic history.