In this video, Chris Pine breaks down the biggest roles of his career. From 'Star Trek' to 'Wonder Woman,' from 'Dungeons & Dragons' to 'Don't Worry Darling,' the decorated actor gives us the scoop behind each role.
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00:00My hair in Princess Aries II is large, very, very large.
00:03I think I had a hairstylist
00:04that worked on Starsky and Hutch.
00:06My hair is still quite full in this,
00:07but a little bit lankier.
00:09Thankfully, I still have my hair,
00:10because my father is bald.
00:12Ladies and gentlemen, Entertainment Weekly presents
00:14Chris Pine's Ouvres, which is a fancy way of saying
00:17all the shit I've made over the years.
00:19Ah, Star Trek, incredible.
00:31Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them.
00:36Captain.
00:36I got the audition for it, went out for it,
00:38didn't get it, didn't think anything of it.
00:41Three, four, five months had passed,
00:43so I'd like completely forgotten about it.
00:45And then I went off and did this film,
00:46and my agent said, do you want to go in for Star Trek again?
00:49And I said, didn't I already go in?
00:51I didn't get the part, I didn't think it was any good.
00:53And he said, they want you to come back in
00:56and audition for J.J.
00:58I remember going in, and J.J. was really fun.
01:01And you know, it's ridiculous.
01:02You're sitting, standing, acting in an office in Hollywood,
01:07and you're talking about phasers and thrusters,
01:10and the battleships going down,
01:12and Klingons are coming after you.
01:14It's acting with a capital A.
01:18Kirk, what are you doing here?
01:19Transmission from the Klingon prison planet.
01:21What exactly is this?
01:21Oh my god, what's wrong with your hands?
01:23Look, who is responsible for the Klingon attack,
01:25and what's the clip on you?
01:27J.J.'s very giggly, so he's very reactive.
01:29He's what an actor loves.
01:31It's like, we perform for people,
01:32so he's giving you a lot, right?
01:34And so I did that, and then I went out,
01:36and then he said, Spock's here,
01:38the guy that's playing Spock, who's Zachary Quinto.
01:40And I knew that Zach was Spock,
01:41and I'd known Zach because we worked out at the same gym
01:45with the same trainer, very Hollywood,
01:48same nutritionist and acupuncturist.
01:50Auditioning is a very, I found it very fun.
01:53It's very disheartening, and you kind of work your way up,
01:55and you're doing TV, and it was much more the case, I think,
01:58back then than it is now, where it's like,
02:01to be in a film was like a big, big effing deal.
02:04Let's name him after your dad. Let's call him Jim.
02:08Hemsworth is just so beautiful.
02:10He's such a beautiful Australian man.
02:14I'm very happy that he's my father.
02:17I didn't get the depth of his voice, maybe.
02:19I like the baritone, that Aussie-ness.
02:24I like Chris a lot.
02:26You and your castmates were at one point
02:27rumored to come back for a fourth.
02:29You may have more information than I do.
02:31I don't.
02:32So I don't know.
02:34I just read in the trades that someone
02:35got hired to write a new script.
02:37I was under the impression that there was already a script,
02:40but I have no idea.
02:40I'd love to do it.
02:41And if they want to do it, fantastic.
02:43OK.
02:44Oh, Wonder Woman, another hero look.
02:47Off to the side.
02:48I'm one of the good guys, and those are the bad guys.
02:52What?
02:53The Germans.
02:53Come on, we need to get out of here.
02:55The Germans?
02:55I had gotten pitched Wonder Woman probably like a year or two
02:58before Patty had gotten involved,
03:00and it didn't really speak to me.
03:02And I was like, I don't want to play the boyfriend of.
03:05That sounds pretty boring.
03:07And then the way that Patty pitched it was like,
03:09oh, this is the world's biggest love story.
03:11It's like it's got nothing to do with superheroes.
03:13It's a love story.
03:18The first thing she ever really described to me,
03:20she's like, you're going to come back,
03:21and it's this whole thing.
03:21And the wisenware force of the monkey paw that does the thing.
03:26I don't really care.
03:27I was like, what the fuck am I doing in the film?
03:30What am I doing?
03:31She was so enamored and so alive to this idea.
03:36And again, it's like the story is this epic tragic love story
03:42of this thing that can never be.
03:43I just thought how powerful that there's like,
03:45there's a superhero film that has nothing actually to do
03:49with destroying New York.
03:51Like we love telling the revenge story.
03:52And Patty was like flipping the script on the whole thing
03:55and saying, whoa, wait a minute.
03:56What about like forgiveness and compassion?
03:58And people bash the movie.
03:59And I think it's because it didn't play the part
04:01of what people wanted, which is like, kill him, kill him.
04:04And I love the film.
04:06So there.
04:07Anyway, next one, blind dating?
04:09No, it's Pullman.
04:11It's the film we're here to talk about.
04:12Isn't this an incredible poster?
04:15I'm so proud of that.
04:16I look so tired.
04:18Hey there, Los Angeles, you've reached Awesome Aquatics.
04:21Have an awesome aquatical day.
04:23This started like, my God, four or five years ago,
04:27I had this idea of Darren Bearman and he's a Pullman.
04:31I had the name of the character and the name of the film
04:33and it really made me giggle a lot.
04:35I kept on thinking about it and it caromed in my brain
04:37and caromed in my brain and then a year passed
04:39and I'm still thinking about it.
04:40I had this idea of this guy who really takes
04:43pool cleaning seriously.
04:44Like it's, you know, Tai Chi and Bruce Lee stuff, you know,
04:47like Kung Fu Water Ninja.
04:49I had this whole idea of like how he cleans the pool
04:51and it's like ballet.
04:52And then I was like thinking about it and writing about it.
04:54And then I think about the music for it.
04:55It became seemingly inevitable that I would,
04:58I would direct the masterpiece that is Pullman
05:00that's coming out May 10th.
05:02Learning about being a Pullman was difficult.
05:04It's something that I trained endlessly for.
05:06I lost weight.
05:07I gained weight, lived with my own Pullman for months.
05:12It was worth it.
05:13Living with my Pullman, training as a Pullman,
05:15dancing as a Pullman, kissing as a Pullman,
05:19making love as a Pullman.
05:21I learned that from my Pullman.
05:24Yeah.
05:24I'm spacious!
05:26He's spacious for crying out loud.
05:27I'm spacious!
05:29I think this is like a case of life definitely imitating art.
05:35I had these pair of shorts that I loved by Banks Journal,
05:38which I don't think is even around anymore.
05:40But they're these blue corduroy shorts
05:42that I've now patched up so many times
05:44that they're almost rigid like cardboard
05:46because I've worn through them.
05:49I loved the shorts.
05:50It was summer.
05:50Felt like the right thing to do.
05:51So I wore those.
05:55I was in Joshua Tree and I was trying to think about like,
05:57what does this guy look like?
06:00And I was standing in line for a coffee
06:02and I saw this rock climber and I was like,
06:04that's the guy.
06:06And he looked like this 70s dirtbag hippie.
06:09And I was like, ugh, everything about this guy.
06:12The t-shirt, the shorts, these weird fucking boots
06:15with the weird socks.
06:17So that was the genesis of that,
06:19like a 70s dirtbag rock climbing hippie.
06:21And then all the clothes that he wears in the thing
06:23are from films that I love.
06:25He wears Capizio dance shoes
06:27because I remember my sister always went to Capizio
06:30to get her ballet slippers
06:31and somehow that seemed to make sense and make me laugh.
06:34He has his own Jake Gittes detective suit.
06:37Jake Gittes is from Chinatown.
06:39I had this great floppy Japanese straw hat
06:42that I bought once and loved.
06:44Little Red Shorts, just like the Prince song, right?
06:53Princess Diaries 2.
06:54Who are these three dudes?
06:55Who the hell are these three guys?
06:57I've never seen this one.
06:58I'm not even on the fucking poster.
07:00What is similar about Princess Diaries 2 in Pullman?
07:02Whoa!
07:03Well, they're two stories.
07:05This is kind of like a weird love story.
07:07It's about a boy man trying to find love
07:09in a complicated world.
07:11He's searching for love.
07:12Just like in Princess Diaries,
07:14Anne Hathaway is searching for love.
07:16We are perfect for each other.
07:17He understands me.
07:19He understands you?
07:20Wow.
07:20What passion.
07:21I didn't hear you mention love.
07:23You're so jealous.
07:26Why would I be jealous of Andrew?
07:27He's got to spend the rest of his life married to you.
07:30Prince's Diaries 3, where is it?
07:32Have you been reading my diary?
07:33I don't know, I haven't heard anything about it.
07:35If it were me, it would take place,
07:37they'd have a time machine, and they go back to the 50s,
07:41and it would be like 1955 in Rome.
07:44You know what it would be?
07:45It would be like a Luca Guadagnino film.
07:47Drex, Princess Diaries 3.
07:49Now that is fucking fire.
07:53Don't worry, darling.
08:00Delusions, memory problems, hysteria.
08:03We saw these issues with Margaret
08:05and know that it's completely curable.
08:08Dr. Collins prescribed you a suite of medications,
08:11which you were clearly not taking.
08:12The question is why?
08:13He's lying to us.
08:14He's lying to all of us.
08:16Fellow after director Olivia,
08:17did she give you any advice going into Pullman?
08:20I sought out all the kind of advice for Pullman that I could.
08:23I talked to Olivia.
08:24I talked to John Krasinski.
08:25I talked to Ben Stiller.
08:26I talked to Jason Bateman.
08:29I talked to a bunch of people.
08:31I forgot all of their advice.
08:33Because the moment you're on set, you're like,
08:36oh, fuck.
08:37Oh, my God.
08:39What am I doing?
08:40So you just have to go.
08:42You just, like, start running and you don't stop for,
08:44in our case, 21 days.
08:46We had a 21-day shoot.
08:47You're like, red, white, blue, uh-huh, no, yes, tomorrow.
08:52You just don't have any time to think.
08:55End of the woods.
08:56Look at that.
08:58That jest.
08:59Never heard of such a thing.
09:02I speak the truth.
09:03She's as true as your maiden.
09:04A maiden running from a prince.
09:07None would run from us.
09:12Yet one has.
09:13And doing Agony, I mean, first of all, it's like we got to shoot, I think, at one of the
09:18queen's forests or something.
09:21And they had this actual waterfall.
09:24And we had these gorgeous horses that we were riding.
09:27And, um, I think with him it was all about body posture and dramatic head tilts.
09:34It was always like, and he knew when he was on, like, he would feel the spotlight.
09:38And then he'd start singing.
09:39I just had an absolute blast with that part.
09:42Musicals are so hard.
09:44And I'd never done one before.
09:46And I'd always thought, like, how difficult to, like, be talking and then break into song.
09:49I don't understand how it happens.
09:51I don't know why it happens.
09:52It didn't seem to make any sense to me.
09:54So how great to have a character who's, like, very clearly, like, in a meta way,
09:59living inside of a fantasy, inside of a musical.
10:02So that is kind of what he does.
10:04And I love that idea of that guy, that kind of guy.
10:10Hell or high water, yet another hero look.
10:15And this makes you the executive.
10:18No matter what they charge us with, they can't take it away.
10:21There's no way to trace funds from a casino, right?
10:24Once you get the checks to the bank, trust is untouchable.
10:27Hell or high water is one of maybe three scripts I've ever read where I finished it.
10:32And I was like, that's a perfect film.
10:34And if they don't mess it up, that is a perfect film.
10:36That was cowboy poetry from the first letter of the script to the last.
10:42And I knew I wanted to do it immediately.
10:44I'd never done a Western before.
10:45And so I had a meeting with Taylor before.
10:48I'm not even sure if there was a director attached to it at that point.
10:50But I said I really loved it.
10:52And they said, well, Taylor has to meet you.
10:54And I think basically, ultimately, Taylor had to give the okay.
10:58So we met for pizza and had a chat.
11:02And then I got it.
11:03And then it all kind of fell together.
11:05I'd just seen Start Up, which was David McKenzie's film about a father and son in prison,
11:10which was incredible, incredible film.
11:12And then I just worked with Ben Foster on a film.
11:15And Ben was cast as my brother.
11:16And it was like alchemy was just perfect.
11:19Taylor obviously is behind Yellowstone as well, a little watched series on Paramount Plus.
11:25But if he came knocking for a part, I'd want to play, you know, the bad boy.
11:30You're making the face too.
11:31There, she's like this.
11:33Outlaw country guy, you know, like Waylon.
11:37Unstoppable.
11:40Excuse me, I'm looking for Frank Barnes.
11:44I'm Will Coulson.
11:45We're working together today.
11:46I trained 1206.
11:48Well, before talking about Denzel, I have to talk about Tony Scott, who directed it.
11:51Tony was a legend.
11:52And for, you know, kids of my age, growing up in the 80s, Tony was like a god, you know?
12:00Days of Thunder and Top Gun and Last Boy Scout.
12:04And like, he's just the tops.
12:07I loved him so deeply.
12:09And like getting hired by Tony, who's like this little cinema elf.
12:14He was like very excited about creating.
12:15He was like jumping up and down and highly caffeinated.
12:18Just give me that four.
12:19Ah!
12:21All right, take it easy.
12:22Yeah.
12:22Hold that dynamic out of four.
12:24Four.
12:24Integrate it with the throttle if you have to.
12:25Hold it out of four.
12:26To make a film with Denzel, where it was basically just a two-hander, me and him in the cab of this,
12:31this train, I got to learn a lot by osmosis, just by being around him and seeing how he
12:37handled the camera and handled his work and handled story structure.
12:42And I remember really what comes up now for me about Denzel is Mark Baumbach had written this
12:47beautiful script.
12:48And there was a lot of backstory stuff in there and not enough backstory stuff for me.
12:52And I kept on fighting to have more kind of story about my character.
12:55And I remember Denzel in the script process was just cutting all the stuff about his family.
13:03He's like, I don't have to say that.
13:05I don't have to say that.
13:05I don't have to say that.
13:06I can do that.
13:07I can do that.
13:08And that is the power, I think, of a really skilled cinema actor is knowing how powerful
13:15and emotive he is just by being him and how much he's able to carry on to the film just
13:22by simply being in the film.
13:24So that was a great lesson from that.
13:28Wish.
13:29Great goatee.
13:30This is the things I get.
13:35This is the things I get.
13:37Animated for me allows your imagination to go wild because it's not real.
13:41So there's a part of your imagination that has to open up even more.
13:44And I think that's why it connects with children and the child and all of us,
13:48because you're engaged more with the thing.
13:50I'm passionate.
13:52I'm not petulant.
13:53Someone praise me for my benevolence.
13:56Singing for that was really, really, really hard.
13:58I remember having to really learn how to use the mic and how to breathe and aspirate
14:04through syllables and words.
14:06The art form is so fascinating.
14:09Firstly, to sing.
14:10Secondly, to sing to a microphone, which is a completely different beast.
14:14And you have to learn, much like a camera, what it can handle and what it can't handle,
14:19when you can pull back and when you want to be on top of it.
14:22I will protect you at all costs.
14:28Yeah, for me, at all costs is like, when I heard that, I cried.
14:34And I was like, oh my God, that's going to win you an Academy Award.
14:37I think it's stunning.
14:40Stunning.
14:42I was convinced when I heard that.
14:44I was like, get ready to get your tuxes out.
14:46This is going to be, you know, you should get nominated for this.
14:49And that was the one I was actually more worried about doing justice to.
14:52And no one talks about it.
14:54And I'm kind of stunned about it.
14:55I find it tremendously moving.
15:00Dungeons and Dragons.
15:01Only answer when I talk to you, okay?
15:05Yes.
15:06Why did you say okay at the end of that?
15:08I didn't.
15:09Fantastic.
15:12Where's the shovel?
15:13This felt faded.
15:15I had no interest in it.
15:17But it was one of these things that is like synchronicity and cosmic stuff.
15:22I finished the script and I put it down.
15:24And then within 20 minutes, my nephew, I'd forgotten,
15:27my nephew was coming over to play Dungeons and Dragons at my house with his friends.
15:31And I was like, that, that's odd.
15:35And then I was like, you know what?
15:36I'm going to do a little reconnaissance.
15:38I went outside.
15:38I watched them play.
15:39And it was like, it reminded me of improv class.
15:43An improv class where everybody's like a little carbonated and a little like,
15:47oh, what's going to happen?
15:48And you're a little nervous.
15:49And then people start popping off.
15:50And it's like pop rocks.
15:52It's like, ah, people get really excited and running around.
15:54And the story keeps on going.
15:55And I was like, oh man, there is definitely something to this thing.
16:00Look, Simon may not have my wit or holy strength,
16:04but when it counts, this young man delivers.
16:06It's why I chose him.
16:07He's also the only sorcerer you know.
16:09Well, good night health.
16:10I find it strange to this day that people are casting me,
16:13this awkward teenager, as these leaders.
16:18So maybe I bring a sense of humanity to it that like,
16:22if I can do it, maybe you can too.
16:25Because really ultimately, you know,
16:27leading men and leading women, they're aspirational, right?
16:31They're like the audience standing.
16:32You go and watch these people kill dragons and stuff,
16:35because it teaches you how to be the best in yourself.
16:38And I don't know if I'm necessarily the aspirational type of,
16:41you know, like a Tom Cruise.
16:42I'm much, I'm more of a, your next door neighbor, John.
16:47You know, like you see every morning picking up the paper,
16:51like, hey, John, maybe John has some pretty interesting things
16:55going on for him.
16:56Maybe he slays dragons.