Hitting theaters Friday is Paul, the new film from Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, who previously starred in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. In the film, the comedy duo plays British nerds road tripping across the US after attending Comic-Con. But, when they come across a wisecracking, chain-smoking, dirty-talking alien named Paul, their cross-country trek becomes a run from government operatives who want to dissect their new friend. To promote the film Universal Pictures flew journalists out to Nevada to visit the infamous Area 51 and talk to Pegg, Frost, and director Greg Mottola about their raucous, geeky comedy.Today we have a video of our visit to Area 51 and a 10-minute video interview with Frost and Pegg where they give us additional details on Collider editor Steve Weintraub’s cameo in the film, Xenu’s thoughts on the production, discuss atheism as it relates to cursing, give us a quick tidbit on the sexual preferences of their characters in Spielberg’s upcoming Tintin movie, and much more. Hit the jump for the video and more of my adventures in the desert.
This was a fun little adventure for me. As you will hear me talk about in the videos, Steve got a spider bite and consequently could not drink alcohol or go in the sun for several days. Obviously, this meant that going to the middle of the desert in a town where the only social center of any type is a bar would be out of the question.So, Wednesday morning I got on an airplane and flew out to Vegas. From there, Universal put about 25 of us Journalists in RVs stocked with snacks and beer drove us out to Rachel, Nevada, a town just on the edge of Area 51.We stayed at the famous Little Ale-Inn, an extra-terrestrial themed RV park with a charming little diner/bar. As only 37 people were living in town at the time, we pretty much had the run of the place, drinking, playing darts, and getting to meet some of the locals, all of whom were friendly, some of whom were a bit too friendly, resulting in more than one licked face.After a night of fun, a bit of stargazing, and a campfire, we all retired to our respective RVs in order to prepare to, you know, do the job part of our jobs.The next day, I got up, did my interviews and then visited the gate of Area 51, where I filmed the standup you’ll see below. Excitingly, I also got to co-star in a short comedy sketch for www.break.com with Pegg, Frost, and Mottola.I would like to say that it was because I have such a shining personality and that the stars demanded I be included, but really it was because I was the only guy around skinny enough to fit in the Tuskin Raider costume. On the bright side, it was the first time in my life that an actor has run up to me and requested to take a picture with me. A picture he later tweeted.All in all, it was a pretty good 48 hours. Oh, and the interviews went well too. I stumbled over my words a bit because I’m not used to doing them outside with a light pointed directly into my eyes, (Pegg seemed to be having some trouble with the light too), but I did manage to out-geek a guy who just made a movie with scenes film at comic-con. So it kind of evens out. Here's the interview. Further down is my stand up.Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
- Pegg and Frost discuss the difficulties of working with Weintraub.
- :55 – Pegg talks about how he attempted to murder Weintraub, but failed.
- 1:10 – I out geek Pegg on comic trivia.
- 1:28 – The duo explains how Xenu gave them the idea and funding for the film.
- 1:47 – The duo hint towards hidden Pineapple Express and American Beauty nods within the film.
- 2:10 – Hypothesizing about a shared, Askewniverse type world for their films.
- 2:45 – A surprisingly serious discussion about the Mayan calendar devolves into Jeff Goldblum impressions.
- 3:50 – Pegg explains how themes of atheism in the movie came out of wanting to write a lot of curse words for an innocent girl to say.
- 5:20 - How the film isn't anti faith
- 5:50 - They talk about the alien sex in the movie
- 6:30 - How come Frost doesn't get laid in the movies. Pegg explains all the movies and the relationships.
- 7:25 - Do slackers in England not smoke weed
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