Star Trek: Simon Pegg told to be ‘less Scottish’

Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the JJ Abrams movie versions of Star Trek, has been told by the director to make the character sound less Scottish in order to make it easy for Americans to understand.

English actor Pegg, 43, is reprising his role as the iconic Scottish character in the upcoming film Star Trek Into Darkness when it is released in May, taking over the part made famous by Canada’s James Doohan.

However, Pegg used his Scottish family links as inspiration for the role but was warned to tone it down as it could prove too much for US audiences.

Speaking to a Star Trek fan magazine, Pegg said: “Because I’ve got Scottish family, JJ lets me put Scotishisms into the script. But one day he came up to me on the set and said, ‘Simon, we have to understand what you are saying.’ So I pulled it back a little bit.”

The character has previously been the subject of fierce debate after fans and local authorities argued over the birthplace of USS Enterprise engineer Montgomery Scott.

After extensive debate it was agreed that Linlithgow in West Lothian would have the bragging rights to the fan favourite.