Interview: Hot Fuzz’s Edgar Wright and Nick Frost

Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 27, 2007

The Rejects are in Hollywood, and at The Four Seasons Hotel to be exact. As if getting off the elevator and running Elizabeth Berkley (aka Jessie Spano) wasn’t enough to get us excited, we just got an awesome taste of Hot Fuzz to top off our first day on the west coast. I know what you are thinking, but I am talking about the new hit comedy from the guys who brought us Shaun of the Dead. We sat with director Edgar Wright and one of the film’s stars, Nick Frost. If Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were any indication, we knew that sitting with these guys was only going to amount to laughs and Nick Frost calling Edgar Wright a dirty British word that rhymes with “bunt”.

Director Edgar Wright is serious about his action movies, and serious about his action stars. When asked who is the greatest action hero of all time, Edgar was quick to answer Chow Yun-Fat. However, from an American action film standpoint, Edgar thinks that Clint Eastwood deserves the throne and a thrust. “Every time I watch a Clint Eastwood film, I’m in touch with my feminine side, I’ve developed a searing man-crush on Clint Eastwood.” We even argued who could win in a fight featuring Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. Edgar and Nick easily chose a much faster Bruce Lee over the all powerful Chuck Norris. Nick even went as far to say that he could “beat Bruce Lee in a fight”, and “do it with his own Femur.” Nick was sure of this because Bruce Lee is dead. The chemistry between these two guys was crazy, and we really wanted to know who is the biggest prankster on set. Nick said, “I think it’s up to Simon and I really, because Edgar is a massive cunt on set.” Nick went on to get a bit more serious and said “because we are friends and have worked together so long, we have come to know what our particular roles are.” We talked about alot of things, even other movies. We let the two of them argue about which movie is better between Point Break and Bad Boys II. While Edgar argued the merits of Bad Boys II being one of those “over the top, hundreds of millions of dollars-big budget type films”, Nick eloquently finished the argument by simply saying that “Bad Boys II is what happens in the middle of The Superbowl, whereas Point Break is The Superbowl itself.”

What we gathered to talk about though, was the July 31st release of Hot Fuzz on DVD. According to Nick and Edgar, many questions about the film (such as ‘What is on the other side of Danny’s flipbook?’) will be answered. We have also heard about some of the surprises in store for whomever purchases the title. In the special feature titled The Fuzzball Rally, Simon Pegg, Nick and Edgar are followed on their US publicity tour which includes footage from interviews much like the one we conducted. The only difference is that during their phone interviews, they are “naked and pretending to be terribly physically handicapped” according to Nick. Edgar said that it isn’t that you get tired of doing the interviews, “you more so get tired of your own voice.” Also, when you are “with the same three people all day around a phone, the temptation to make each other laugh is really high.” Edgar went further to say that “once you see our documentary, you will be wondering ‘what the hell is the other person doing on the other end of the line’. Are they half naked? Are they masturbating? Are they taking heroin…or making love to an underage groupie?” I won’t ever feel safe during a phone interview again, ever.

If you have seen the film than you would know why I’d want to ask the film’s director and star, “what is your perfect Sunday?” Edgar gave us a very colorful list that included “maybe cruise around and pick up some transients, bring them back to my house and kill them…eat their soul through their balls.” When we asked Nick what he’d do, he simply just said “same.” Nick did mention cooking, and especially jambalaya. When Nick’s pronunciation was corrected by Edgar, he jokingly told him to “get the fuck out, I’ve never hated you more than I do right now.” We talked about other special features like Hot Funk, which is alot like my favorite feature from the Shaun of the Dead DVD release. Hot Funk is a montage of clean-language scenes that was pieced together for use on airlines and broadcast television. What other feature that is sure to get fans excited would be The Man Who Would Be Fuzz, where Simon and Nick are at their best while performing the film’s dialog as Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

For more Interviews and News from our SoCal adventures, make sure to keep up with our Comic-Con Homepage.

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