Simon Pegg, who plays IMF technical field agent Benji Dunn in the Mission Impossible movies, has recently revealed that he kept his alcohol addiction a secret from co-stars during the filming of Mission Impossible III in 2006.
Speaking with BBC’s Desert Island Discs, Pegg shared that he went through an episode of mental illness during the filming of the third part of Mission Impossible movies, which made him turn to alcohol.
“You become very sneaky when you have something like that in your life,” he said.
The actor continued, “You learn how to do it without anyone noticing because it takes over. It wants to sustain itself and it will do everything it can to not be stopped. But eventually it just gets to a point when it can’t be hidden, and that’s when, thankfully, I was able to pull out of the dive.”
The English actor, who is now in recovery, also commented on his friendship with Tom Cruise saying, “My relationship with him is just very simple and amiable. It’s always been a very easy relationship. I think you realize, when you meet the person rather than the thicket of mythology that’s built up around them, it’s a different experience.”
Although the two actors are good friends, one subject remains off-bounds between them. When asked if he ever talks about Tom’s faith in the Church of Scientology, Pegg replied in the negative, saying it would “abuse my privileged access that I get to him.”
