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Simon Pegg Talks to Us About MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, Tom Cruise, STAR WARS, and More

Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and you totally will): watch our interview from Nerdist News Talks Back with Simon Pegg where he told us about Mission: Impossible – Fallout, how a $40 dollar investment got Tom Cruise to do the impossible, the future of Star Trek, and why he was known as the “Star Wars Squatter.”

Guest host Dan Casey welcomed Mission: Impossible‘s Benji to the show today to talk to ask about the newest installment in the franchise, Fallout. Why did Pegg tell us he “couldn’t sleep after I watched it?” What did he say are the pros and cons of driving a speedboat? Why does this movie lean more towards the team aspect than the technology side?

He also told us how a single email from J.J. Abrams can either lead to a life-changing role, or show an inappropriate picture of the Bad Robot staff goofing around with his Benji doll that didn’t make it into Ghost Protocol. But why is Fallout so good it has him calling Tom Cruise–who unsurprisingly is fond of visiting places and finding the most dangerous place he can jump from–and director Chris McQuarrie “fools,” and how did a $40 gift he got for his co-star lead to Cruise doing the most impossible thing of all: taking a nap?

We also asked him about Henry Cavill’s reloading arms, which other Simon Pegg character would last the longest in a Mission: Impossible movie, if he’s aware of Ethan and Benji fanfic, and more. He talked to us about the future of Star Trek, including why he’s so excited to work with the franchise’s first female director, S.J. Clarkson, and why he thinks Quentin Tarantino will do something amazing with the final frontier. And while he was a little less forthcoming with what he knows about Episode IX, he did tell us about how being in The Force Awakens closed the book on his fandom in a meaningful way, and also why he was called the “Star Wars Squatter” on set.

Nerdist News Talks Back airs live on our YouTube and Alpha channels at 11 AM PT every Monday through Thursday, and we end the week in pop culture with our hour-long Nerdist News What the Friday at 1PM PT, exclusively at Alpha. Which is why your daily mission is to join us and be a part of the conversation. You should defnitely accept it.

What are you most excited about for the newest Mission: Impossible? Talk back to us in the comments below.

Image: Lucasfilm

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