Chris Pine, Vol. II

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That's audiobooks.com podcast. F r E E. You probably don't. Get misidentified for anybody at this point, but, yeah, last celebrity you were mistaken for. I do.

Chris Pine

Everybody, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Matt Damon, George Hamilton, which was really great. George Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. George Hamilton shows you how well I'm aging. Yeah.

Josh Horowitz

It's the tan. Oh. Joey Lawrence. And most recently, Jeff Daniels. Okay, the things.

Chris Pine

Yeah, that's what's happening in my life. No one knows who I am. No one likes my film, and they think I'm Jeff Daniels. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

Josh Horowitz

I'm Josh Horowitz, and today on happy sag and fused, Mister Chris Pine is back. But this time, he's not fighting dragons or kleons. He's just trying to make his beloved Los Angeles a better place. Or at least his character in pool man is. It's a big moment for Chris.

Not only is he the star of this film, but he co wrote it. This is his directing debut. It is the one and only pool man himself. It's the great Chris Pine. Welcome back, sir.

Yes, that's all I needed. You know, the weight of my heart. Long and prosper. Josh. It's good to see you, buddy.

Am I visiting you in Casa Pine? Is this the homestead? This is the homestead. I'm eating a tremendous bagel. I have my spirit animal, Pablo Picasso, in his giant underwear with his giant dog, just blissfully not giving a fucking.

This is exactly what I had in my fanfic about you. This is what your house would seem to be. Yeah. Perfect.

Chris Pine

I guess I maybe have a not so safe for work.

Yeah

What is it? What is it? Now I'm intrigued. What was wrong with that? That was just flat.

Chris Pine

Very beautiful zoftig woman. I see her behind.

Josh Horowitz

Well, that happened so canceled in the first 90 seconds. Oh, it was a good run. Which part of the house is there? A bungalow with my name on it. When I'm staying at your place.

Is there a room or a particular part that you would recommend I stay in? Well, Josh, great question.

Chris Pine

I have a nice garden out front. We could certainly get you pitched on a tent out there. I have a little trailer in the front, which is quite cozy. Love it. I have an eight person sauna if you want to.

Yeah

Wow. Sweat it out. Sweat it out on the daily. There are options. There are options.

Chris Pine

There are not too many options because I'm quite specific, but you can take a gander at the household and see what. See what works for you. All right. We're building to that in our long, illustrious relationship. We'll see if we get there.

Exactly. Ten pals in all earnestness. Congrats on this. This is a moment, man. I mean, look, you've been doing this a while, and I know this.

Josh Horowitz

This is a passion project. Cool, man is wild. I always talk about on the show. I want to see wild swings. I want to see people go for it.

And you went for it in this. And the people that love this are really going to fucking dig it. So I hope you're feeling good about it. I appreciate it.

Chris Pine

It's been a wild year, man. I'll tell you what. Having done it for so long now and been around it for so long with my dad and whatnot, you know, there's like the. You get inured really fast to criticism as an actor, it's like, it's just a part of the game, right? But there's a lot of stuff to hide behind.

There's the director and there's the writer, and it's the release pattern. It's the. And as an actor, you get to. You come on set and you do your dance, and then you go off, and by the time the film comes out, you've done x amount of other projects. So I've been.

I think the closest thing I would imagine this is, like, co writing and directing and starring in something is what, like, I guess a stand up comedian must feel like kind of standing on stage and feeling utterly naked. So it's been a real come to Jesus moment for me in terms of seeing how resilient I am. And certainly, like, when the film came out and Toronto just got fucking panned. Yeah. Like, I guess I wasn't totally surprised.

I wasn't totally surprised, because even in making it, I was like, well, God, you know, I wanted to make a. I made a. Tried to make a joyful film that I thought very much. I was not trying to make some sort of niche film, albeit there's a lot of, like, la deep la references to it, but with so much joy behind it to then be met with, like, this kind of cavalry, you know, this fusillade of not so joyous stuff was like, oh, my God. So the cognitive dissonance, there was quite something, but it's been really ultimately kind of the, kind of the best thing that's ever happened to me because it's forced me to, like, double down on joy and really double down on what it is I love most about my job, which you kind of forget as an actor sometimes, which is fundamentally, it's about play, right?

Like, do is essentially, like, become children for hours a day and make believe. And there's a spirit in a, the word that I've been thinking about is impish. There's, like, an impish quality to it that, that I don't ever want to lose. And. And so that's kind of my, my five minute answer to the no no process of the, the art of having made it.

Yeah

Well, I will. I will say, look, I, by the way, I was at Toronto. It was such a weird experience. I'm sure sorry I wasn't even there. I was, I was on a plane flight or.

Chris Pine

I couldn't have gone. Anyway, I guess because of the strike. The strike. Well, that's what I was going to say. What a weird circumstance for a premiere where I got to go to your premiere and you, and you didn't.

Josh Horowitz

And, yeah, look, I mean, I think it sounds like you've kind of reconciled, sort of like, the importance which you knew in your heart of hearts in any actor does, which is like, you didn't make this for the box office or the critics. You made it because you felt passionate about it and it connected with you and you had something to say. And it's easy to say, like, that's all that matters. But there's also the reality of, like, seeing the stone cold, like, review come in and be like, oh, you're human. Oh, my God.

Yeah

Yeah.

Chris Pine

I've been talking about it to my therapist. I think in my mind, I have this, like, this vision of some sort of artist samurai that's able to, like, neo in the matrix, just sort of like, as, like, you know, piles of thorn shit get thrown at you. You're like, somehow nothing like phases. You water for ducks back. But no, I fully own the deep kind of hurt of that process.

But again, like I said, I guess in the reframing of it, one of my favorite quotes, it's in Latin, and I forget the Latin, but its vigor grows from the wound. Right? I love that idea of that, and it's been true in every part of my life. Is that in everything that feels like a setback? Yes.

There's the hurt of the cut, there's the hurt of the moment. But as the scar tissue forms, as the healing process happens, you do benefit from a growth and resilience, a growth in sitting in your own, sitting in your being of what you're trying to say. And are you going to be taken off course by people that don't understand or whatever? But it's been a wild process. Like, I watched my film.

I've seen it so much now, and every time, you know, like, after the reviews in Toronto, I was like, maybe I did make just a pile of shit. So I went back and I watched it and I was like this. I fucking love this film. I love this film so much. Like, it actually, like, when I set out, I was like, you know, you asked yourself these questions as a creator.

You're like, well, what do I want? What do I want people to feel at the end? I knew exactly in this contextual was happening during COVID and it was happening a lot of kind of global, socio cultural, like, weight. I was like, I want people to walk in and feel lighter than when they walked in. And it's not a Lol movie.

It's not like a gag movie. It's supposed to be like a delight. It's just supposed to tickle the back of your cheeks, kind of. Yeah, it's a vibe movie. And honestly, like, you know, I've seen it a couple times, and, and you have to, key into it, you kind of have to, like, let yourself go with it.

Josh Horowitz

If you resist, if you bring in the cynicism, it's gonna. Yeah, it's not gonna be for you. That's 100%. And, you know, it's. It's, you know, there are two brains at work, right?

Chris Pine

Making something, and there's the analytical brain and the structuralist brain and the cognitive brain and the brain that's like, well, how do I achieve x and y? And what is story structure and what's the correct narrative path, and what's the hero's journey, and what's the, you know, save the cat and what's the Joseph Campbell, what's all of, and certainly you, and certainly certain techniques and parts of the craft that you bring to it. Having done it so much, I think I was just at a certain point, having used that brain to create this, I just basically threw it out the window. And I was like, I just want to feel good. Like, I want to follow the instinct in my body of, like, well, this delights me.

Yeah

Right? This makes me feel lighter. This is. This is where I instinctually want to go. Despite whatever anybody's saying about, like, should you really have a scene with your three characters talking about the.

Chris Pine

The pros and cons of frozen meat in a japanese takeout meal? Like, that's just what I wanted to do and to have the liberty to do it. And I have a financier that said, go make your film was incredibly liberating and, in fact, was probably the most joyful I've been in the entirety of my career. So for those. To answer your question, yeah, there's certain sacrifices I think you make of, like, it is a.

It's. It's a. It is my vibe film. So it's like, you either get on the train of that energy or you don't. And there is a story and a plot, but really, it's all kind of a macguffin to hang out with these people, to follow the journey of this oddball.

Josh Horowitz

Well, and as people will see when they see the movie, it owes a lot to a lot of the classic movies that are, like, in my DNA, I'm sure, in your DNA. And, of course, Chinatown is, like, the granddaddy of them all. And like you said, kind of plot wise, like, if you ask me, like, what happens in Chinatown, I would bail that term paper like, it doesn't really matter, right? This is the. I mean, it's Chinatown insofar as, like, my character watches the film in order to learn, ostensibly, how to be a good detective.

Yeah

Right. Ostensibly because it's about water, ostensibly because it's about Los Angeles and water, et cetera, et cetera. But I think my spirit animal deeply was, strangely enough, was being there. Okay. Yeah, I saw being there in this beautiful film about an innocent walking through this insanely jaded, cynical, corrupt world, just remaining innocent the whole time.

Chris Pine

And in the end, walking on water and disappearing as they're having some weird, you know, masonic temple ritual for the burial of the rich guy. That was. That was my spirit animal. What's up, doc? Was.

I was watching a lot of films over the COVID to up my AFI cinephile brain. So the kind of. The screwball comedy aspect to it, I wanted to play with tones and see how broad and small I could go. Um, there's certainly, like, lynching aspects to it. There's like, um.

It's like all of the films I've ever seen kind of collided into one, into this crazy. This crazy soup. Obviously, there's a little, um. Um. Oh, my God.

Yeah

How were you gonna say Lebowski? Yep, it is Lebowski. But I think. I think that's actually the easy way. Cause Darren is actually, like.

Chris Pine

It's a misnomer. It's a. Well, Lebowski is not motivated. A. Darren is motivated.

First of all, he's determinedly passive.

And obviously, I love the dude, but I find there's a cynical edge to that film. Oh, yeah, my film is, like, not trying. My film is trying to be like, basically as if an eight year old boy named Darren Berriman made a film with all of his friends. That's kind of the vibe of the whole. So that mine is like.

Not. Mine's trying to own the heart of the innocent. Yeah. Try to be like the wide eyed Buster Keaton through and through, you know? Yeah, but I can understand with the beard and the.

Josh Horowitz

Oh, yeah, it's a. I get all. Of it, you know, I understand. I certainly, you know, didn't walk straight into that battle.

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Josh Horowitz

Can we talk a little bit about your amazing cast? Because any first filmmaker would kill for the folks you gathered. They're not even necessarily people you've worked with for the most part. Like, I mean, you know, I mean. I knew Annette a little bit.

Chris Pine

Annette bening. I'd met Warren years ago, and so I knew her a bit socially.

Danny's kids went to my high school and were like a year. Like Gracie, I think, was three years younger than me. Um, the great Jennifer Jason Leigh. I mean, I grew up obsessed with Jennifer Jason Leigh. Come on, you didn't.

I mean, everybody has their own version of Jennifer. I loved her in Hudsucker proxy, and. You'Re speaking my language. I love that fucking movie. There are definitely shades of sucker in this for sure.

So, yeah, she was. I mean, she's an La native. And Dewanda Wise, who's incredible and just stunning. And I guess apparently at film school, studied noir and was like, that was her focus, which was wild. Clancy Brown is one of my favorite character actors.

Stephen Tobalowski, who plays councilman Stephen Pornkowski. We wrote it for Tobolowski because I did a film with him years ago and fell in love with him. Just thinks, I think he's the sweetest John Ortiz. He's one of those guys owes money in the bank. You haven't lived until you've seen Chris pine cry over losing a woman to John Ortiz.

Josh Horowitz

That's my vibe. That's what I like in a movie. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he's, look, he's moving to Palm Springs and getting a food cart.

Yeah

Yeah. Can't blame her. So, yeah, I mean, I've seen watch John Ortiz forever, but specifically in american hustle. I kind of fell madly in love with them.

Chris Pine

We just have a. We had a great cast and we really had a great time. And everybody asked, like, well, what's it like directing? What's it like directing Annette bening and DeVito? And I think because we had no, we shot it in 21 days in LA on film.

So it's not, you know, as easy as digital.

You have to be a gamer to, like, want to do that, and no one's getting paid. And everybody showed up as if it were like, you know, a major, major motion picture. So it was. I just got, I really got really lucky me. Talk about talking about the reception with your therapist.

Josh Horowitz

How much time would the therapist has been spent talking about casting your dad as the voice of a lizard. I feel like that's a whole fucking.

Chris Pine

That was a no brainer. Maybe we talked about other people, but it seemed perfect. I'm sure there's some. There's some deep psychoanalysis to be done on why that's the case. We had so much fun.

We had so much fun doing that. I mean, everybody came out to play. My buddy Will Greenberg is in there, and he plays the secretary to one of the main baddies, and he's wearing this ridiculous outfit. And then my buddy Robert Baker plays an FBI agent. Another one of my friends plays the waiter at the restaurant.

Our other friend plays my mother as a voiceover in a thing. So we had all the friends come out. You mentioned clothing. Look, I feel like all our conversations go back to the unique Chris Pine style and certainly your character in this. Like, where does it.

Josh Horowitz

Where does Chris end and Darren begin? It's a little fuzzy for me. Yeah. Darren is emotionally, certainly deeply a part of me. I think getting back to what I was saying before, there's an innocence to Darren that I find incredibly appealing.

Chris Pine

In an age where I just saw this movie the other night, it was so violent. It's just, like, overwhelmingly violent. Revenge, revenge, revenge. And I totally get it. And, you know, it's part of the.

It's part of our DNA. And I'm not saying violent movies shouldn't be made, but I don't know, maybe I'm just emotional and sensitive to the world today. So there's a part of me that really wanted to live in Darren's shoes of, like, nothing can get this guy down. He's, like, never through and through. He hits a guy in the film, and he feels incredibly depressed about it.

And that's not cool. Like, it's not. It's really not a cool look. There's no, like, smoking cigarettes and deep, stoic looks into bad guys eyes before you take them down. You know, there's none of that stuff.

So a lot of him is me. The shorts, for me, like, his corduroy shorts are like, these shorts I've had forever.

What else?

When he gets dressed up to go be a detective, he's wearing Cary Grant's outfit from to catch a thief. To catch a thief is one of my favorite films. Then he dresses as. As giddes from Chinatown and his version of Guinness. He's wearing capezio dance shoes because I remember Capizio growing up.

That's where my sister got all her ballet stuff off of Kuenga. Diane. I dressed Diane Esplanade, who is Annette Bening, who's my best friend and jungian analyst in the film and surrogate mother. She's an amalgam of my high school english teacher, Lynn Cohen. And my mother, she wears these bangles that my mother always wore as a kid.

And I have this burned in my memory, this picture of Jackie Onassis Kennedy wearing what I call the Jacky O's. So that was that Devito, who plays Jack Denisof, he's partly my father, partly this father of a kid I grew up with. He used to make horror movies for Universal. There's my production designer was incredible, Aaron McGill. So in the deep background of this apartment that they live in, you can see all of these old posters for these b movie horror films that Jack made.

And the whole time he's wearing a Victorville film festival hat.

And, yeah, every single thing is a reflection of either an interest of mine or, you know. Yeah, it's also like. I mean, yes, it's teeming with everything. LA and everything. Yeah.

Josh Horowitz

Like, this genre is. And it tickled me when you mentioned that you, like, you knew Annette through Warren, who is like the living epitome of the Hollywood history of the last 60 years, right. And so have you, like, you know, you grew up there. Obviously, you were born and bred and you're part of this world to a degree, though, like, your parents were working actors, not like the Nicholson, Warren Beatty level, but like, have those run ins with Warren. I don't know if you've.

Have you ever run into Nicholson over the years? Like, what does that do to you as someone that is just so steeped in this? And it's just so, like, obviously he loves this shit.

Chris Pine

This is just the first thing that came out of my mind when my father was shooting chips. He shot at the old MGM studios, which is now Sony, which we should all just call MGM because it sounds sexier. And he was taking a leak in this urinal and he's like, God damn it, this is exactly where Cary Grant could have peed. That's La in a nutshell, basically, right? Yeah.

That's why going to all the old studios is really fun, especially like Warner Brothers, where, you know, as a seed of the industry, I don't know if Hollywood has the same kind of as it did back then. Films were made everywhere and all over the place and whatever. But, yeah, to, like, walk at certain points in Warner Brothers on the lot and know that, like, Jack Warner, that's where his tennis court was, right? Like, to go into the cafeteria and know, like, I don't know. This thing's always turned me on.

I just think it sounds more like theater or summer stock than it does what it is now, which is like. Yeah, collection of corporate. Yeah, corporate. And, you know, but Warren. I met Warren years ago after I did Star Trek, because he wanted to meet me.

And I went over to his house and I sat in the foyer and. Or in the living room waiting for him, and he came out like 20 minutes later. And Warren and I just sat for like 4 hours. This is the warm Beatty experience, apparently. I've heard this.

Josh Horowitz

It's like, yeah, and so unbelievable. Yeah. So I super chuffed thinking I was like this fucking. I was the shining anomaly of like, no, he really wanted to meet me. And then, you know, I think we may have actually talked about this before, but he meets everybody and has done this.

Chris Pine

But what I love about that with Warren is that, like, we are an oral tradition, right? A lot of this is like shit that you learn on set from the older actors that then had worked with so and so. And then it worked with so and so and on down the line. On down the line. So, yeah, when Warren's telling you about working with Ilya Kazan and Splinter in the grass, or when Warren talking to you about having met Marilyn Monroe, or when Warren's talking, you're getting stuff that is because the man's probably never going to write a memoir.

It's like gold dust in the air. Like, I'm reading the Hollywood oral history right now, this tremendous book that I forget who compiled it, but it's all of these interviews that AFI did, collected into a narrative form, beginning with the beginning of the industry all the way until now. And it's delicious, man. It's like to hear about what it was like to work for Daryl Zanuck or Harry Cohn or Warner, and the difference between Warner and Louis B. Mayer.

Yeah

Right. I don't know it. I don't know why I love it so much. But to your initial question, I really met Warren. I never met Jack.

Chris Pine

I had a Harrison Ford moment.

That is really. That's really it. That's a good amount. Yeah. I always say I warranted the podcast a few years ago, and I've never been more.

Josh Horowitz

I mean, I had an hour, and that was like. I. I think I might have the only Ishtar poster ever signed by Warren Beatty. I have it proudly, which I unironically love. That movie, by the way.

Not gonna lie. A great movie. Lane May. Come on, people. I know.

Chris Pine

How about that? Another one? Yeah. Some random stuff for you, if you'll indulge me. How are the dogs?

Josh Horowitz

We bonded over dogs last time. You got two. How many got great. They're not here right now. Wednesday, Walden.

Chris Pine

Babs. Wednesday is great. She's seven and a half. She's getting a little slower. It's kind of making me sad.

She's got a bit more gray hairs, but she's as elegant as ever. Babs is absolutely adorable. I've never met a happier dog. Wednesday's a bit mercurial. She's a bit moody in a very sexy, sort of poetic way, you know?

Yeah

Yeah. Just like her dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's very chekovian. I can just hear just, like, I don't know if I should go back to the city or just stay in the country.

Chris Pine

It's just so hard, you know? And Babs just wants to cuddle 24/7 so I get the best of both worlds. I was very happy. Our last conversation, part of it that went viral. I know you don't visit the interwebs too much, but was your talking about how pits are awesome?

Josh Horowitz

So I'm glad that, like, registered in the world. And here I remember, then I found out that you had a pit. I mean, I could talk about that forever. They are the sweetest creatures. And, you know, I've worked in England a lot, and I love being over there, but the fact that they banned this fucking breed because they think that the breed is like.

Chris Pine

And it has nothing to do with the people that are raising them. Yeah. Makes me angry. You know? Makes me really angry.

I met, as I said before, chihuahuas that are a billion times more dangerous than my. Than my dog. Yeah. We'll have a full on dog conversation one of these days.

Josh Horowitz

On a much sadder note, and I don't know if this might be touchy, the casting. The director of the OC talked in a book about your audition way back when. Oh, yeah. My bad skin. Yeah.

Yeah

Yeah. Is that PTSD? Is that more therapy? Am I bringing up a source point? No.

Chris Pine

I mean, it's a part of my. It's a part of my life. Look, do I wish the man didn't have to talk about it? I mean, he decided that's all. It's his prerogative.

No, I had awful skin as a teenager, and then when I came after college, my skin started breaking out again. And, look, I was going out for the OC like a teenage melodrama. It's like, I can understand that. They wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things, and bad acne is not a key to.

Josh Horowitz

It's a shame. If you had begun the OC, the career might have worked out. You might have amounted to something. I don't want to say I'm grateful for not having landed, but it's a different path. Different path.

Yeah

Different path. All right. But it is a little PTSD. It's no fun having bad skin. It's no fun going when you have bad skin.

Chris Pine

And it was one of the most traumatic points of my life, and.

But it is my story, man. Yeah. I mean, on the flip side, I mean, again, being earnest for a second, people, young people hearing about that and that, like, big time movie star Chris Pine had that and went through that. Like, it's actually very. You know, it's probably helps people.

I really talked about this on.

Yeah

I. Think, on a podcast, but, yeah, it's so strange. Like, people talk about obesity, and obviously, I understand the difficulty of that, or they talk about any sorts of things, and I feel like acne is regarded as this thing of, like, oh, it's just like what you go through as a teenager, and it's like, it can be. And it can be kind of just like, you get a pimple on your forehead. It can also be, like, tremendously debilitating and, like, really, seriously, emotionally incapacitating, which it was for me.

Chris Pine

So for anyone out there that is experiencing that, I get you. I hear you. I've been there. I know it. I know how depressing it can be and the kind of depths of sorrow it can.

It can drag you to. But there, you know, there is a brighter day, and, you know, I know. You think that I enjoy asking you about Star Trek after all these years. I don't. This is trying my patience at this time, Chris.

Josh Horowitz

I mean, it must be trying yours. Like, it's like, do it or don't do it. Let's just. What's going on? Come on.

How many directors? How many scripts? First of all, it's not. It's not trying. I mean, it's like, it was one of those opportunities that gave me an incredible.

No, no, I don't mean that. I just mean, like, doing another one at this point. That's what all I'm talking. No, that same answer. I know.

Chris Pine

I literally, for our costume designers that have found out that know more about what's going on than I do, I have no idea. Uh uh. What I. Oh, yeah. There we go.

Josh Horowitz

This is. This is what I've been waiting for.

Chris Pine

Yeah.

Yeah, that's.

Josh Horowitz

This is what the Internet wants, Chris. Come on. These guys need some meat. Look, we just made. We just had our viral moment.

That's a good way to go viral. I would say that's a great way to go viral.

All the scripts, all the directors. Only stuff I know about is the same as you do. I heard that they're making a show, a movie for a younger cast, and then, I don't know. Madness. It's madness.

Okay, well, we'll figure it out one of these days. Other. Yeah. Last time we spoke on the podcast, actually, your comfort movie was gladiator. Did you ever get a chance that you go up for the sequel?

Sequel happens with no Chris. No. I think. I think maybe my days of. I think maybe I'm too old, quite honestly.

Chris Pine

I'm fucking 44 now, man. Yeah, it's such a trip. Is there something freeing about that? Like, we had a lot. We had a long conversation about kind of, like, the dissonance of being, like, pretty boy leading man, which were, like, you were never that inside growing up.

Josh Horowitz

And, like, you know, I would think part of you likes to be a character actor guy. I think there's something simultaneously freeing and at the same time, like, completely unmooring, because for so long, you've kind of occupied a certain space, right. And no matter you're discomfortable with it or not, it's like you. You occupy a certain space. And it's not that, like, I'm.

Chris Pine

It's just a different moment with, like, these young bucks coming up, like, you know, the Austin's other world and the whatever, the chalamet guys. You're having that kind of moment, albeit in a far kind of seemingly bigger way than I ever did. But. Yeah, it's kind of. I don't know.

It's. Yeah, it's unwarring. It's also exciting to see what comes up. I haven't really figured out what.

What's next or what I really care about, but it's all good. Yeah, it's all good. It's fine. So what is. Okay, we talked about some warnings at the outset of kind of, like, how you approach or how you receive material and receive reactions, et cetera.

Josh Horowitz

But, like, out of this, does it make you want to get back in the director's chair again? Like, are you writing? What are you thinking? Fuck, yes. Absolutely.

Chris Pine

As I said, like, look, only, like, 20 people have seen it. The more people see it, do I think it's going to be, like, a global hit? God willing, it will be. It should be. It's a beautiful, blissful film, and everyone should go out and watch and buy tickets for it multiple times.

That being said, I understand that's a little bit of a sisyphean task to, you know, move people maybe out of, you know, the turd cloud that the critics have launched up. But it's very freeing in that I can't do any much. The freedom of, like, a sophomore effort now, to me, is like, fuck it. Now maybe I will make that film about, you know, animated origami dinosaurs I've always wanted to make and see how that works out. So, see, I don't know if.

Josh Horowitz

I don't know if you're being serious or not. This is the beauty of having the Internet, too. Now God knows what's going to happen there and show up on my IMDb pro page. Untitled animated Origami picture. Yeah, that's funny, actually.

Chris Pine

Probably really well, so I probably won't like it. So, no. My writing partner and I have come up with an idea that we're working on that's totally different than full man, but really exciting and cool. Yeah. The joy of it, really.

It's like, it's the first time in my career where I. To be an actor for hire, where you shoot and then you wait for hours, and then you shoot, and then you wait for more hours. You spend the majority of your day waiting. But to make a phone with no money and no time, it's like you are in for 1213 hours a day. Absolute flow state.

Unbreakable, unfettered flow state, because that is what you need to be in in order to get the job done. So decisions are being made without thought. Acting is done without thought. You are moving, moving, moving, and it is like, it's the best high I've ever had. And then having watched, in prepping for this, I watched a lot of Chaplin and Keaton and a lot of the early guys that were writing and performing their own stuff.

Yeah

Yeah. And you can see it in the spirit of the film. It's like they have their imprimatur on the entirety of that cinematic visual piece of art is Keaton. And that is like, ah, that's so cool. It's so invigorating.

Chris Pine

Like, oh, my God, there's a whole new world for me to play in, you know? And maybe, you know, I make films that are more kind of commercially minded to fund this, like, fun little endeavor I have on the side of making whatever it is I want to make, which could be really cool, God willing. Do you think in looking at all the filmmakers you've worked with you either consciously or unconsciously emulated. Anyone in particular? I mean, I know Patti's a producer on this, and clearly you have no.

Man, I honestly, I had no fucking. Again, just instant. Yeah, yeah. For as much as I could and had, you know, there was intellectual reasoning and logic behind the directorial choices I made. And just like act and I got a lot of advice from a lot of people and just like acting, you walk on set and you throw it all away, right?

You keep what you need to, you adapt and move. It's all about being as. As supple as possible. So the best ideas get thrown out and you end up with option C. Option C leads you in a whole different direction than you thought for scene twelve.

And in terms of talking to actors, I had a lot of ideas. And what comes out tends to be way more organic and in the moment and the bliss of, like, being off camera for Annette and knowing that I'm working with, like, the Ferrari of, like, of act actresses that I can. I can run a moment again and whisper a note and then she's right in it. Right in, right in it. Right in.

It is like, yeah, fire. Let me end. I don't think you've done the happy second fuse. Profoundly random questions, one of which is very apropos to what we're talking about. I always ask folks lately, what's the worst noted director has ever given you?

Josh Horowitz

Does anything jump out as, dear God, you can't be saying this to me. What does that even mean? I mean, I have plenty of those. I wouldn't. I couldn't bring up one now, but I did have a casting director tell me for a film, I did a reading of a scene and she said, that was wonderful.

Chris Pine

Now do it again and make me believe you.

That was. That was legit. That was legit. Fucking hardcore.

Josh Horowitz

Was that meant as constructive criticism? Exactly what you fucking think they meant. You get the job.

Chris Pine

And don't suck so hard. Try to lessen the suck factor and improve the quality factor. Um, do you collect anything?

I collect.

I do like cars. I like photography.

I'm in a real phase of. I love handmade suits. I love suits. General. Those are good.

Yeah

Yeah, that works. It's a. It's a. It's a life of luxury. I will say, I know we've had the back and forth on the phone situation, but what's the wallpaper on the phone?

Josh Horowitz

If there is a smartphone in your life? Hold on, we're gonna check it real time. Checking. Coming back to you. We're gonna corroborate this for real because we're not going to fake it.

There they are, babs and Wednesday. Wednesday. Well, love it. Love it. Oh, loves of my life.

Yeah

There you go.

Chris Pine

What more do you need? Nothing. That's all I need. Not that there's anything annoying about you, but what's the most annoying thing that your friends and loved ones would say about their beloved Chris?

Oh, that I'm an awful communicator text wise. Just the worst. That checks out. Yeah, it's all good. That's all good.

Josh Horowitz

You probably don't get misidentified for anybody at this point, but, yeah, last celebrity you were mistaken for. I do. I just had this happen to me. I mean, I think. I'm sure I've told you everybody, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Matt Damon, George Hamilton, which was really great.

Yeah

George Hamilton. Yeah. Yeah. George Hamilton shows you how well I'm aging. Yeah.

Josh Horowitz

It's the tan.

Chris Pine

Oh. Joey Lawrence, most recently. Take a guess. Just take a guess. I can't.

Josh Horowitz

Even after George Hamilton, it could be like Rupaul. I don't know. I don't know what I mean. Jeff Daniels. Okay.

Chris Pine

The things. Yeah. That's what's happening in my life. No one knows who I am. No one likes my film, and they think I'm Jeff Daniels.

But I have two dogs I love. And, you know, I feel like that's. A good place to end our session today, don't you? Yeah. Plenty of time.

Because, folks, this lovely man is doing the Q and A for my. For my film at the end of. The live in New York, come on out and support. Not support. Congratulations, man.

Josh Horowitz

Honestly, I'm happy to see you take this crazy ride with the film. And like I said, just people need to let themselves give themselves over to the joy. Go with the vibe. Let Chris Pine give you some joy in your life for 100 minutes. Thanks as always for the time, man.

And I'll see you in New York soon. Absolutely. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person.

Prepare your ears, humans

I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

Chris Pine, Vol. II

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction to Chris Pine and "Pool Man"

2: Reception and Reflections

3: Creative Process and Inspirations

4: The Cast and Collaborations

5: Looking Forward

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