Pegg Goes For Originality With Scotty Character

For Simon Pegg, merely emulating James Doohan's portrayal of Scotty would have been disrespectful.

As reported by The Deadbolt.com, Pegg chose to make the character of Montgomery Scott his own in lieu of following in Doohan's footsteps.

"Well, I tried to make it brand new because I think it would be a disrespectful thing to James Doohan to go and just impersonate his Scotty," said Pegg. "He took on the role as this physics genius and engineer in the great tradition of the Scottish because, of course, they invented a lot of important things in contemporary industrial society. I thought I'd go and approach it the same way he did, which was to start from scratch."

Starting from scratch meant avoiding watching the episodes for Pegg. "I tried not to watch, as much as I love the original series, I tried not to watch too much of it, because I wanted my performance to be a tribute to him and what he did with the character and not be an impression. It's a dangerous line you tread, really, because if I started doing an impression of Mr. Doohan then that might look like I was making fun of him, and that is the absolute last thing I would ever want. He's a legendary character and as an actor he genuinely created one of the most significant characters in modern sci-fi. It was daunting. It was like, 'S--t, I’m going to be Scotty.' And I had to approach it very carefully."

Working in a Star Trek film means attention from the Star Trek fandom. "It’s [reaction to Pegg getting the role] been mixed, actually, and I understand why," said Pegg. "I've noticed some people have been like, 'Great!' and some people have been like, 'I don’t get it. Why is he playing that part?' And I completely understand because Star Trek is very precious to a lot of people and they want it to be right. But, as I've said, my kind of party line on it is, obviously I can't reveal anything about the film itself, but as a Star Trek fan, if I wasn't in the film I would want a Star Trek fan to be making a film and it is being made by a Star Trek fan. J.J. is that person. He's exactly the person that those people should want and the decisions that he makes are in accordance with that love. So, you know, relax."

To read more, head to the article located here.

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