Simon Pegg weighs in on ‘Mission: Impossible' stint and its impact on his drinking

Simon Pegg, a cast member for the Mission: Impossible franchise has just shed light into what he thinks was the best part.

The conversation happened with Variety and saw the actor gushing not only on the franchise, but on Tom Cruise as well.

It began when the actor took a trip down memory lane and recalled the early days, when he showed up in Paramount, and was handed “an eight-page f****** monologue” for which he “only had the morning to learn.”

He even noted in that moment that “the apotheosis of my life ambitions, my dreams as a kid, a situation I’d never even thought I’d find myself in … being in Hollywood, where they made the films that I grew up loving.”

But still there was a “deep unhappiness” and admits he only later realized “what I was ultimately dealing with was depression, which I was trying to manage by anaesthetising myself. It was less of being alcoholic, more being dependent on the sensation.”

That first day also saw him “slightly hungover and feeling a little bit wired …” and Pegg added, “I remember not being particularly present, because I was so inside my own head that it was hard to actually relax and enjoy it.”

After the shoot he succumbed to something he calls a “nihilistic, self-destructive impulse” and ended up at the bar too. But the moment the team learned of Pegg’s issues “They had a sober companion for me — and just really looked after me,” and “I felt very taken care of and felt valued, because they bothered to do that,” he admitted.

At one point even remembered Cruise saying, “You’re going to get in shape for this film — you’re an agent now!”

But before concluding the chat though Pegg added, “I kind of found this joy in looking after myself and just realizing that if I ate well and went to the gym I could actually feel good. So I credit ‘Mission’ with rescuing me — because it gave me real focus at a time when I needed focus. And I just had the best time on ‘Ghost Protocol.’”