One of the benefits of the resurgence of Star Wars is the opportunities that it affords the nerdier celebrities to cameo in one of the most popular franchises ever. A number of famous people have gotten to appear in various Star Wars films in roles both big and small, and that includes Simon Pegg. A longtime Star Wars fans, Pegg got to cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as Unkar Plutt, Rey's junk boss and near Wookie murder victim, but it turns out that wearing a rubber suit in the middle of the desert can get extremely hot, according to Pegg (and science).
Unkar Plutt. He was a junk dealer on the planet Jakku and I was wearing that in 50-degree heat [122 degrees Fahrenheit] and I had these big rubber-like silicone gauntlets on my fingers and when I took them off I could pour the sweat out.
Simon Pegg appeared on The Graham Norton Show to help promote the upcoming release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, but the conversation, as all conversations eventually do, turned to Star Wars. Simon Pegg was among the celebrities who got to cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and he was unrecognizable as Unkar Plutt. Pegg was under heavy makeup for the part (no mo-cap suit for him!), and as you can imagine, being trapped in a rubber suit for extended periods of time gets hot. The Jakku scenes, however, were filmed in the deserts of Abu Dhabi, so the temperature was closer to 122 degrees. Not exactly the most delightful of filming conditions.
As Simon Pegg explained, when he took off his costume, he had sweat so much that he could pour it all out of the suit. The color of sweat, according to Pegg, is a "sort of milky color," for those who are curious. They certainly sound like unenviable working conditions, but Pegg also got to be in a Star Wars film, so, worth it?
The Shaun of the Dead creator wasn't just an actor in The Force Awakens either. Simon Pegg was something of a consultant on the movie, thanks to his previous working relationship with director J.J. Abrams. Pegg would weigh in on the story and provide ideas, himself being an experienced screenwriter. Plus, his input as a fan of the series was a valuable input for the process. Pegg's critics of the prequels have become somewhat infamous thanks to his old TV show, Spaced.
Even though it was hot as hell, Simon Pegg still gets to say that he was an alien in a Star Wars movies. We'll see if another cameo is in the actors future now that J.J. Abrams is leading Star Wars Episode IX, which is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 20, 2019.
