Simon Pegg Opens Up About Struggles With Alcoholism While Filming Mission: Impossible III

Simon Pegg is opening about about his struggles with alcoholism, back in the 2000s when he was filming Mission: Impossible III (2006). In a new episode of the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, Pegg (now in recovery for some years) was ready to speak about what his life was when he first took on the role of Benjamin “Benji” Dunn in Mission: Impossible III, the character’s debut in the franchise and a run that continues all the way up to Mission: Impossible 7 hits theaters this summer. 

“You become very sneaky when you have something like that [alcoholism] in your life,” Pegg explained, going on to elaborate that “You learn how to do it without anyone noticing because it takes over. It wants to sustain itself and it will do everything it can to not be stopped. But eventually, it just gets to a point when it can’t be hidden, and that’s when, thankfully, I was able to pull out of the dive.”

Pegg credits that time in the mid-2000s making Mission: Impossible III as being a particularly bad bout of depression in his life. He credits the birth of his daughter Matilda for being the “pull out of the dive” he spoke of, which allowed him to pursue sobriety and better mental health. 

As stated, Mission: Impossible III was just the beginning of Simon Pegg’s run with Tom Cruise: he has been featured in every subsequent Mission: Impossible movie to follow III (Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, Fallout) and will be a starring member of the returning ensemble for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Pegg’s performance as Benji would also secure him a place in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) reboot franchise, where he plays The Enterprise’s iconic engineer, Scotty. Pegg would also head into the 2010s as a franchise headliner in his “Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy” which was three-for-three in generating beloved cult hits Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). His life and career certainly seemed to take off in perfect conjunction with his strides toward self-improvement. 

What Is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One About? 

There’s been no official story synopsis for Mission: Impossible 7, as director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are pulling out all kinds of stops for this first part of the final Mission: Impossible saga story. 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, alongside franchise co-stars Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg. Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby also return as ex-MI6 agent Ilsa Faust and black-market arms dealer Alanna “White Widow” Mitsopolis, respectively. New cast members include Hayley Atwell, Cary Elwes, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Greg Davis, Marcin Dorociński, Lampros Kalfuntzos, Mariela Garriga, and Antonio Bustorff in undisclosed roles. Two actors from the first Mission: Impossible (Henry Czerny, Rolf Saxon) are also returning; Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff will play the new villains of the film. 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will be in theaters on July 12th.