Star Trek’s Simon Pegg Was ‘Almost Annoyed’ When Offered Scotty Role

Simon Pegg was “irked” by how J.J. Abrams offered him the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the 2009 reboot of Star Trek. Pegg and Abrams have a long working relationship dating back to Mission: Impossible III in 2006. Pegg looked back on the roles of his career during a video interview with Vanity Fair. He shared how Abrams offered him a spot on the Enterprise, admitting he was a little put off by how forward and casual Abrams was about it. “I got off an airplane, a flight from New York back to London, and opened my phone, and there was an email from J.J., and it said, ‘Do you want to play Scotty?’ And I was almost annoyed by that. The tenacity of it irked me,” Pegg recalls. “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.”

Pegg says Abrams improved his pitch technique by the time the director offered a role in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “Oddly, when he offered me the role in Star Wars, he did take me out to dinner and offer me over dinner,” Pegg says. “So, he’s learning.”

Pegg played Scotty in Star Trek and returned for its two sequels, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond. He’s not sure if he’ll be back for any more films in Star Trek‘s Kelvin timeline.

“We’re all still in contact, we were emailing with each other the other day, just checking in, ‘how are we,’ and stuff,” he said in May. “But it’s not like any of us have been banging on the door at Paramount saying, ‘Hey, when are we doing this?’ If they say, ‘We’d like to do another movie,’ I’m sure we’ll all jump at the chance. I miss those guys, and I love making those films. But I just don’t know. Noah Hawley’s project has been mentioned, and maybe that will happen. I don’t know anything about that. So yeah, I’m as in the dark as everyone else, I’m in the same boat as you guys.”

In the past, Pegg said that he believes Star Trek may be better suited for television than for film. Noah Hawley’s Star Trek project is in development. The script for the Star Trek movie pitched by Quentin Tarantino also still exists.