Simon Pegg has revealed that he was dealing with depressive alcoholism before he was ‘rescued’ by the Mission: Impossible franchise.
The comedy actor first joined the Hollywood franchise in 2006 as Benji Dunn in the third instalment of the Mission: Impossible movie series.
The actor has gone on to star in five additional films, with the final film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, set to release at the end of this month.
Speaking to Variety in a new interview, the actor revealed that he was masking his depression with alcohol when he joined the series 19 years ago.
‘What I was ultimately dealing with was depression, which I was trying to manage by anaesthetising myself. It was less of being an alcoholic, more being dependent on the sensation,’ he said.
He revealed that this event meant he was ‘slightly hungover and feeling a little bit weird’ on his first day on set.
‘I remember not being particularly present, because I was so inside my own head that it was hard to actually relax and enjoy it,’ he said, adding that after the shoot he went straight to the bar inwhat he said was a ‘nihilistic, self-destructive impulse.’
The actor then added that the film director J. J. Abrams and incoming director Brad Bird, took care him.
‘They had a sober companion for me — and just really looked after me,’ he said. ‘I felt very taken care of and felt valued, because they bothered to do that.’
He added that co-star Tom Cruise also encouraged him to get in shape and look after himself during the filming process.
‘I kind of found this joy in looking after myself and just realising that if I ate well and went to the gym, I could actually feel good,’ he said. ‘So I credit “Mission” with rescuing me — because it gave me real focus at a time when I needed focus.’
The actor has now been sober since 2010, and has spoken about the importance of his sobriety on several occasions.
He told The Guardian in 2018 that when he watches back his first-ever Mission film, Mission: Impossible III, he can tell that he was struggling.
‘When I watch that film back, I can see where I was then, which was fairly lost, and unhappy, and an alcoholic, he said, saying filming that movie was the start of his ‘crisis years’.
He added that he hid his alcoholism: ‘I’m an actor, so I acted … all the f*****g time.’
In 2023, said while chatting to Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: ‘You become very sneaky when you have something like that in your life.
‘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.’
He added that he went to rehab just before Ghost Protocol began filming in October 2010.
‘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.’
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