Actor Simon Pegg has revealed he hid his alcohol addiction from his Mission: Impossible co-stars during filming.

Pegg, 52, started suffering from depression again in 2006 while shooting Mission: Impossible III, having first battled it as a teenager.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs how he used alcohol to cope – and things got so bad that he would go to any lengths to hide his addiction from colleagues, friends and family.

“You become very sneaky when you have something like that in your life,” he told presenter Lauren Laverne.

“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.”

Pegg also worked on Hot Fuzz and Run Fatboy Run before the birth of his daughter Matilda forced him to come clean and get help in 2009.

When he first spoke of his alcoholism in a 2018 interview with The Guardian, he revealed he entered rehab just before he began filming Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

“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,” he said on this Sunday’s episode of Desert Island Discs.

The father-of-one attended Alcoholics Anonymous and has been sober ever since.

Subscribe to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

In his conversation with Laverne, Pegg also spoke of his friendship with Mission: Impossible co-star Tom Cruise – and how he “makes fun of him” for being so famous.

“We joke about it. I mean I always make fun of him for it, you know, about the things he can access,” he said.

“He kind of appreciates the ridiculousness of it sometimes.”

Read more from Sky News:
Seven stand-out moments from Eurovision
Full list of BAFTA nominations
Taylor Swift not behind best-selling memoir

He described his friendship with the Hollywood star as “simple and amiable”.

When asked about Cruise’s personal life, he added that he “doesn’t ask him about stuff like that” as it “would be abusing my privileged access that I get to him”.

Cruise and Pegg are currently filming the second part of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, due out in 2024.

Related posts:

History made, a good day for Brits, and the snubs: The Oscar nominations key talking points The Crown leads showbiz tributes to Prince Philip Cuba Gooding Jr admits forcibly touching a woman at nightclub Prince William says he is a ‘stubborn optimist’ when it comes to climate change Amber Heard’s sister says she saw Johnny Depp and actress hit each other Chariots Of Fire and Blade Runner composer Vangelis dies Virtual ‘robot rapper’ dropped by major label over racial stereotyping Emily Maitlis refers to ‘Tory cronyism at heart of the BBC’ in Edinburgh TV Festival lecture Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty to sexual assault charges Cate Blanchett says playing conductor Lydia Tar was ‘once in a career’ moment O2 Academy in Brixton staying shut for three months after fatal crush Louis and Charlotte shine in newly-released behind the scenes coronation day footage