Chris Pine was recently asked what the early days of his acting career were like before his “earth-shattering” role in the 2004 sequel to Princess Diaries.
The movie star, 43, told a story about working as a host at a restaurant, an experience he “hated.”
‘Don’t be a waiter. Actually, I was a host at a restaurant and I hated it,” the Star Trek actor admitted Business insider.
‘I couldn’t hate it anymore. I wasn’t a people person. It was just about getting a job.’
And the Poolman director didn’t even want to be an actor growing up.
Chris Pine was recently asked what the early days of his acting career were like before his ‘earth-shattering’ role in the 2004 sequel to Princess Diaries; seen in 2024
His parents and grandparents were actors and he was determined to pursue a career path outside the family business.
Instead, Pine wanted to become a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees, like his hero Don Mattingly.
That phase passed – “Kids started pitching faster,” Pine gave as a reason – and he studied abroad for a while, in Britain, where he dabbled in theater.
“It wasn’t passion,” Pine explained. “It’s something I found.”
Pine recently talked about what it was like growing up with actors as parents. Both his father Robert, who starred in CHiPs, and his mother Gwynne were actors for a time.
“Things got rougher and rougher in the ’80s,” Chris told Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.
He explained that his father kept the family afloat with money he earned from gig to gig.
“My dad, the work got scarcer and scarcer, and then the real estate crash in ’87 or ’88 pretty much wiped out my family.
“Then it was a very difficult few years, and then my mother went back to school. I have so much respect for what she did. She went back to UCLA and got her BA. She went back and got her master’s degree at Antioch,” he explained.
The movie star, 43, told a story about working as a restaurant host, an experience he “hated,” before making it big in Hollywood; seen in 2004
‘Don’t be a waiter. Actually, I was a host at a restaurant and I hated it,” the Star Trek actor admitted to Business Insider; seen in 2024
He continued, “I couldn’t have hated it more. I wasn’t a people person. It was all about finding work’; seen in 2022
He also explained that as a child, his mother worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“They put two kids through college and private school, put my mom through college and paid off their debt,” Chris said.
“I understand very well how quickly it can happen, how good it can be and how quickly people don’t call back,” he said.
“The kind of deep respect I have for my father now, becoming a man – because I think I’m still becoming a man – to know what he had to do for his family – requires strength and humility. I don’t know if I would have the same strength.’
In a recent interview with Sunday Today, Pine reflected on his big break in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in which he played Anne Hathaway’s love interest.
“I was driving on the highway and I was sitting in my 1972 BMW that I’ve had since I was 16, no air conditioning, it was the middle of summer… and I was on my little Verizon little flip phone, my silver one, and I got a phone call from my agents saying I had booked the job,” he recalled.
“I pulled over to the side of the highway and they said, ‘You’re getting paid $65,000.’
“It was like they had just told me I had made $50 million.” he said. “It was absolutely earth-shattering.”
The handsome star was hired to play Nicholas Devereaux, a young man who plans to use an outdated and sexist law to take over the throne from Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis.
In a recent interview with Sunday Today, Pine reflected on his big break in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) starring Anne Hathaway.
The handsome star was hired to play Nicholas Devereaux, a young man who plans to use an outdated and sexist law to take over the throne from Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis
At the time, the struggling actor’s bank account was $400 overdrawn and he would have to ask his parents for money; seen in 2004
At the time, the struggling actor’s bank account was $400 overdrawn and he would have to ask his parents for money.
“I remember it well, I knew at that moment that my life had changed somehow.”
He later admitted that the staggering $65,000 figure “turned out to be about $15,000 at the end of the day,” after expenses were paid.
Those fond memories could be why the Wonder Woman star has said he would be interested in joining The Princess Diaries 3, if it ever gets off the ground.
‘Yes, I’m here! I’m here for it,” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2023. ‘Call me or send an email.’
