HIS STORY Simon Pegg, 44, actor

I first met Ros in the lobby of the Soho Grand in New York. I was there with my wife Maureen and Martin Freeman and his wife Amanda Abbington. We bumped into Joe Wright, who Rosamund was with at the time. She was very nice, but it was a cursory meeting. We were all on a New Year’s tip; 2005 into 2006.

We next met years later when she played Sam in The World’s End. She was super studious preparing for the part. She hung out with an ex-girlfriend of Edgar Wright’s to research the role, which I thought was brilliant.

Ros and I ended up doing two films back-to-back. She’s a very positive presence to have on set. Paddy Considine and I had a running joke on The World’s End about the rivalry between our characters over Ros’s character. So when Ros and I were doing Hector we had a picture of ourselves in a clinch and sent it to Paddy saying: “Here! Look at this!”

For someone who’s so delicately beautiful, and slightly otherworldly because of that, she’s really normal. She’s at pains to ensure that she’s not a conundrum. I don’t see enough of her really, but it’s always a treat when I do.

I have an ongoing hashtag on Twitter called RosWatch. It started during reshoots for The World’s End. We were sitting in a tent in Elstree Studios. She had just got in from LA and she was so tired she fell asleep on the floor. I decided to live tweet her nap, which was basically: “She hasn’t moved.” Now whenever I see her I’ll take a photograph and hashtag it RosWatch. She’s in on it all; there aren’t any sneaky RosWatch pictures. That would be unethical.

HER STORY Rosamund Pike, 35, actor

Simon genuinely looks for the positive in people. I’ve never heard him be mean about anyone. I love how his mind works and how much he makes me laugh. I hope to occasionally make him laugh, too. Last week we both happened to be in LA. One night he sent me a picture of him and Joan Rivers, saying: “This was my evening, how was yours?”

He has this chair that he carries around with him – a zero-gravity garden lounger. Jeff Bridges gave it to him. Quite pretentious, but very comfortable. I only know that because he gave me one, too. When everyone else is in a director’s chair you do feel like an idiot, but it’s bloody comfortable – though I’m not quite prepared to have a nap in it on Fleet Street, which Simon did when we were filming Hector and the Search for Happiness.

Simon and his wife have come to our house for dinner. I cooked beef bourguignon; you can only do a good stew when you like who you’re cooking for. We wanted to introduce him to a psychiatrist friend when he was researching Hector. And Simon’s daughter was the only guest at my son’s first birthday.

I love working with him. We can run the whole gamut from silly to serious. I respect his abilities as a writer and creator. Even when you know him and you rewatch the old stuff like Spaced, you think: “Oh my God, he was doing this more than 10 years ago and it’s brilliant.”

Hector and the Search for Happiness is in cinemas now