“My only rebuttal to George Takei — no matter what kind of creative differences he had about Sulu being gay, and I can understand his creative differences — is the fact that our job is to make people feel less alone. If there’s one kid in Middle America who feels any amount of self-loathing because he feels different, or is being bullied because he feels different or looks different or sounds different, if our film can give him solace and make him or her feel less alone, then abso-effin-lutely we should do it all the time, every day of the week.”
I was researching Chris for Cleaving for science, and came across this quote, which I’d never seen:
[2009] “I’ve seen what can happen to an actor when he’s just working for
the sake of working. All of a sudden it’s ten years later, your career’s
happened, and you haven’t had any control. I still assume that, any
day, I’m going to be exposed as a fraud. That, like I once heard Gene Hackman say, the acting police are going to burst in and take away my card.”
The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don’t have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it.
Happy 36th Birthday, Chris Pine!(August 26, 1980)♥
He’s the highest-grossing A-lister you’ve possibly never heard of, but as Kirk, he’s about to hit the big screen all over again in the new Star Trek movie. Chris Pine reveals how he stays under the radar
In an era when you can’t take a bite of your avo toast without someone recording it on social media, it takes forensic deliberateness to live your life unseen, even if you are a normal person. If you are a celebrity, it’s nigh on impossible.
Or is it? “I’m going to interview Chris Pine,” I tell my husband and a couple of my friends. “Who?” they say. I tell them he’s a famous actor, and list some of the films and television series he has starred in: Into the Woods, Horrible Bosses 2, This Means War, Star Trek…
“I’ve seen some of those,” says one friend. “Haven’t a clue who he is, though.” I Google him and hand her my phone. Her eyes widen. “OMG, he’s gorgeous. Like a young Brad Pitt before the dye job.”
That Chris Pine is the highest-grossing A-lister you’ve possibly never heard of tells you all you need to know about Chris Pine. He’s discreet, as both an actor and a person — a Los Angeles version of a well-bred Englishman who doesn’t have anything to prove. Pine, 35, is third-generation Hollywood: his maternal grandmother was an actor, as were his mother, father and sister, though only his dad, Robert, is still in the business (fans of late-1970s cop shows may remember he played Sergeant Joseph Getraer in CHiPs). The accoutrements of fame hold little allure for someone who grew up with them. Fame isn’t something “other” that you seek, like a private jet or 1m Instagram followers. Fame just is.
Or isn’t, if you studiously avoid its trappings.
I tell Pine I admire how he manages to fly under the radar. “Thank you. I appreciate that,” he says. “I walk around and, for the most part, I’m not really noticed. Maybe a bit more now [since Star Trek], but it’s still pretty low on the Richter scale. Which I really love. I’m grateful for the success I’ve had, but I’m grateful that if I want to go sit in a park or walk down the street and get a coffee, I can.
“I don’t know what it is,” he muses. “Maybe people haven’t seen my movies, or maybe it’s an energy that you put out. The moment that you feel their eyes watching you, it can change your demeanour and your walk. But you have to be mindful of what it means, and what it means is that you’re successful at your job.”
Pine almost didn’t take the part of Kirk in Star Trek, the two instalments of which — Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness (2013), directed by JJ Abrams — have earned $853m worldwide. “I’d never really been interested in the series, or in science fiction,” he explains. “I had also been thinking of Kirk as just a generic leading-man part. I remember talking to my sister, and she said, ‘Well, is there any way to look at it as a more difficult part?’ Once she spun it that way, I realised there is so much there. She was completely right. There’s no hiding behind anything — no tics, no mannerisms, no ‘deep dark’.”
The third part of the franchise, Star Trek Beyond, has Justin Lin replacing JJ Abrams as director, and a co-writing credit for Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty. “To have Simon behind it, who’s a geek and a lover of Trek-dom, as well as funny, means we protect what’s old and great about it, but also invite a new energy into the space,” Pine says. “The whole cast has had so much fun.”
Shortly after we meet, Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov in all three Star Trek films, dies in a car accident at the age of 27. I contact Pine’s rep and am told he is unavailable for comment. While his co-stars Zachary Quinto (who plays Spock) and Zoe Saldana (who plays Uhura) have expressed their condolences on Twitter, this isn’t Pine’s style. He doesn’t do Twitter, or use any social media. It would be wrong, in the era of the grief tweet, to equate not commenting with not caring. More likely, Pine cares too much to say anything trite.
He says he has never been tempted to join Twitter or Instagram, because “it’s a proximity to people I don’t want to have. It’s inviting energy into my life that I have a hard time with as it is. To then invite an extra level of attention or scrutiny just doesn’t seem fitting for how I am. On Instagram, there’s also a curated sense of life that I don’t know if I agree with.” He pauses. “I’m probably thinking about it too much. Maybe I am missing out, but it gives me anxiety. There’s that wonderful Louis CK skit where he’s driving and constantly checking his phone, the idea being that this is an ego device. ‘How many people are liking you now?’ If it’s not buzzing, then you’re not existing. In that, I’m completely fallible — I Google myself and all sorts of weird, awful shit.”
I suggest that maybe everyone wants a type of fame now; that Warhol was right, though not possibly in the way that he predicted. It’s almost as though, collectively, people have decided they want the movie-star lifestyle, too, and so they post every signifier of wealth and success they can think of, such as the fancy meal, the foreign holiday, the duck face…
“Pfft, the duck face,” he grimaces. “I think you have to define ‘movie star’. In a way, we live in a post-movie-star world. I always loved the glamour of Hollywood. But it’s been so diffused. There’s no curator for anything now. This [he holds up his phone] is a democratic device: it’s one of the best things about it and also why I find it so overwhelming. It’s less the movie-star life and more this idea of celebrity life, that we’ve all been dulled down to this level of people that are known somehow. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stopped and asked, ‘Aren’t you a celebrity?’”
I ask whether we can discuss Donald Trump.
“Uh, probably not,” he says. “Suffice to say, I’m not a fan. Being xenophobic, racist and misogynistic has never gotten any society… It just doesn’t seem so modern,” he says. “It seems like some sort of bizarre throwback to a barbarian age. Look, to be born male, white, in Los Angeles, in upper-middle-class society with a great education, I’m fortunate beyond my wildest expectations. I didn’t do anything. I’m just immediately blessed. But also, I feel the need to make sure that I do something to give back.”
His charity work includes supporting the Rape Treatment Center in LA and the children’s charity Make-a-Wish. “It’s the easiest thing for me to say yes to: no one should ever have to go through what these children go through.”
With two minutes left on the clock, I tell him I’m going to ask the same questions I’m always told to ask female actors. You’re 35 — are you feeling broody?
“Am I feeling what?”
Broody.
“What does that mean?”
It means, do you feel the urge to start a family?
“I get it. No.”
What’s your approach to the ageing process?
“I’m kind of into it. I don’t know if I necessarily like the years attached to it, but I really am a fan of the grey hairs. The receding hairline, maybe not so much, but I’ll take it as long as it doesn’t creep up any further. And the parts get more interesting, I think.”
Are you a believer in ageing gracefully?
“Pffft. I mean, to each his own. Life is too hard and our business loves to beat up on people for any reason, so whatever anyone has to do to feel good…”
We live in the era of the squad. Who’s your squad?
“What is that?”
You know, “squad goals”.
“Squad what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Like an entourage,” explains his PR, who has been sitting quietly in a corner.
“So, squad, I understand. But what’s the goal?”
I try to explain the #squadgoals hashtag, in which scores of girls on social media crow about their friendship circle, imitating the way celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner show off about theirs.
“Holy mother.” He looks truly devastated. It’s probably time to beam him up, Scotty.
Oh man, there’s a plethora of examples to choose from here! I personally find his intellect quite obvious; he’s very self-deprecating and funny, which is a sign of intelligence in my book, and overall just has some insightful and (for want of a better word) deep stuff to say about a number of topics. Some ‘evidence’:
There’s the fact that he went to Berkeley, for starters, which according to most rankings is one of the best universities in the world.
There’s heaps more though. Just read, watch, or listen to any decent interview with him, and you’ll notice. Some particular favourites that spring to mind are his Off Camera conversation with Sam Jones, the way he turns a derogatory, stupid question into a really interesting point about our culture’s obsession with tropes and romance:
…. and how super pleased he is about being the Mr. Wonder Woman with 0 powers, and how basically women > men:
“I remember feeling, as I got to know Chris more, so impressed by his intelligence, which isn’t always the case with such a traditional leading man,” Quinto said. “I remember being pleasantly, not surprised, but …”
“You thought I was just a dumb blond,” Pine interrupted. “Actually, I have many more Spockian qualities than I do Kirkian qualities. We were two peas in a pod,” he said of Quinto, “in that we think about things way more than we should. We analyze.”
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