By Rebecca Jamieson
SIMON Pegg has revealed the secret behind his Scottish accent for the new Star Trek film – a little help from his wife.
Maureen, from East Kilbride, was on set in Los Angeles with him to act as his dialogue coach and to ensure his Scotty really did sound like a genuine Scot.
He also received a few tips from Tommy Gormley, the film’s Glaswegian first assistant director.
And the English actor said it was really important for him to try and get the accent right.
He said: “Obviously it’s important to me that the Scottish audience accept me as Scottish.
“Also half my family are Scottish and I want to be able to go there now and again without being booed.”
He even attempted to improvise the film script to add an extra layer of authenticity to his character.
In one scene he managed to slip a mention of a few Scottish culinary favourites into the script.
He said: “I included square sausage. Unfortunately it got cut. But neeps and tatties made it.”
And Pegg is proud that one of the first things Scotty says in the film is “Get tae f…” – a phrase most of the film’s Scottish audience will immediately understand.
It was important to him that Scotty was done right, and this meant not just perfecting the accent but understanding the background of the character too.
Pegg said: “He’s a really smart guy. This is the thing about Scotty – he’s super, super intelligent, but at the same time he’s a bit of a drinker and a bit of a brawler.
“He’s a Scot, you know.
“I like the fact that the chief engineer of the Enterprise is Scottish.
“Because so many great engineers and great innovators came out of Scotland it seems very fitting, culturally, that he should be from there.”
And although the character adds humour to the film Pegg insists there is no laughing at Scotty’s expense.
He said: “The humour comes from his outlook, which is fairly sunny and ironic.
“It’s not, ‘Look at this quaint Scottish guy, he’s ever so ethnically amusing!’
