Simon Pegg Discusses Playing 'Scotty' in Stark Trek and Reprising the Role in Star Trek 2
Posted 06.24.11 by BrentJS
One of the more surprising casting choices in director J.J. Abrams's Star Trek reboot was that of hilarious British actor Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the Scottish engineer who was third in command of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original TV series and movies (and one of the only red-shirted crew members who didn't die when they made extra-vehicular trips). While other cast members — most notably Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Karl Urban as Bones — infused respectful nods to the cadence of speech and mannerisms of the actors who played the roles before them, there was very little of original Scotty, James Doohan, in Pegg's performance, something that many die-hard Star Trek fans were vocally critical about after the movie opened.
In a recent interview with TrekMovie in support of his new book, Nerd Do Well, Pegg said he understands why some fans are critical of the new Star Trek, but that he hopes they "understand our intentions are utterly honorable." He also said that he never intended his Scotty to come off as comical in the first movie and that he hopes to get the chance to infuse more "depth and seriousness" into the role in Star Trek 2.
When I took the role on, I never saw Scotty as particularly a comic character as such. Scotty has always been a whimsical character, because of his background and he's almost like an ethnic minority on board the ship, in a way, you know. There is something quite lyrical and fanciful about him. There is something about him which has whimsy — which they all have at times, even Spock. But I always thought that was what was in the script, he was pissed off, he had been marooned on that planet for a long time and he got on the ship and everything was kicking off and his reaction was almost like our reaction to it all. ... I would like to think in future adventures he can find the sort of depth and seriousness that James Doohan often had to tackle in the series.
Paramount Pictures gave the untitled Star Trek sequel a release date of June 29, 2012, but that date now appears overly optimistic. As of last month, the screenwriters — Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof — had only completed a 70-page outline that they were waiting for Abrams to approve. Abrams said earlier this month that he didn't "want to rush anything" and that the "worst thing we could possibly do is to put something into production to make a release date instead of a great movie." This type of talk shows the kind of "honorable" intentions Pegg was talking about, but it remains to be seen whether Paramount will adjust thhe release date accordingly.