British actor Tom Hardy and Star Trek hunk Chris Pine play secret agents and best friends who fight over the blonde beauty – but not even the trio knew the plot’s outcome as they filmed different scenarios for director Mcg.

Witherspoon tells Empire magazine, “We shot endings where I could end up with Tom, or I could end up with Chris, or I could end up alone… “, while Pine jokes, “Or the one where Tom and I could end up together. It’s a very progressive film.”

Pine also admits there was plenty of rivalry on the set as he and Hardy competed with one another to impress Witherspoon.

He explains, “It’s like being in the schoolyard: a beautiful girl and two red-blooded guys. It was basically a constant flirt-off – who could charm Reese and make her laugh the most… Tom won on the accent and lips front. I won on eyebrows and self-deprecation…

“Ladies love the accent and I’m not packing any heat in that department. There’d be no shame losing to Tom. If I had to lose to anyone, it’s fine if I lose to Tom Hardy. Of course, that would never happen. Ever.”

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Credit for the scans goes to avenging-warrior via Tumblr.

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- Magazines / Publications > Empire Magazine ( March 2012 )

Pine explained, “I don’t know. I look forward to his development and bringing to light all his idiosyncrasies and thinking up new ways to surprise people with this character. I just trust Damon Lindelof and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams and everybody behind it to create another good story, because they’ve already done it.”

He added, “I appreciate Kirk’s humor and I think that’s a legacy from Shatner’s Kirk, from the original and only Kirk, which I would love to bring into the future incarnation.” Star Trek 2 is expected to be released on August 16, 2012 but this could yet change.

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Unstoppable looks an insurance company’s nightmare – how many stunts did you take on yourself? As many as I could. There’s a point where I’m riding between two cars in a pretty precarious position, and I was proud that I actually said yes to that. It was a thrill – it’s certainly pretty scary looking at a two-tonne train that’s going 40mph and realising that, even if the director yells ‘Cut!’, it’s doing its own thing.

Did they let you drive a real train?
No, thank God. LA is so crowded, I’d be worried I’d be the breaking story on the news.

Did Denzel show you which lever did what?
I tried to soak in as much as I could. You know, I have the best job in the world because I get paid to go to graduate acting school, and this was like having a seminar with one of the best. Is the US as full of train nerds as the UK? I’m not sure it’s as big as in the UK – I actually lived in Leeds in my year abroad at university. I lived on Brudenell Road and loved getting fat off pints of bitter – but there is definitely a ‘trainspotter’ community in the US.

What was your childhood obsession?
I told Tony [Scott] this, I was like six or seven when Top Gun came out and all I ever wanted to do was be a fighter pilot. I read books about aircraft carriers, knew the payload of a Tomcat… all sorts of stuff. But I’ve never been in a plane. My publicist told me that one of her other clients got a chance to fly with the Blue Angels and he puked everywhere. I don’t know if I’d have the balls to do it. But I have flown in a simulator when I was much younger.

Is there any update on the Star Trek sequel other than ‘sometime next year’?
I wish I had news – I feel like I’ll be the last person to know, given the amount of secrecy that JJ and company like to shroud their projects in. Us actors are low on the totem pole of information. All of us go through mini email bursts – something will happen and we’ll mail one another for a little bit, then go incommunicado. I stayed in touch with Simon [Pegg], but we haven’t talked in a while.

What are you doing in the meantime?
This week I have rehearsals with guns and stunt guys [for upcoming action rom-com This Means War], I’m just working on prolonging childhood for as long as possible. I’m really excited as I’m starring with Tom Hardy, who is a rare talent. I loved him in Inception. My competitive edge is at an all-time high, it’s going to be an acting-off. And then I get to do some brain ninja moves and get my Jack Ryan on. I’ve always loved spy fiction, so to get a chance to play one of my favourite characters is a dream come true.

As, presumably, was going gun-crazy in Smokin’ Aces?
That was, and always will be, one of my favourite experiences. Our tech guy was former SAS, and a fucking blast. I got to use a World War II greaser gun, a machete – I wish my nine-year-old self got to do the stuff I get to do now.

Speaking of which, we are obsessed here with Victoria’s Secret models, are you a fan of their work?
Oh God! I think that’s a rhetorical question… Yes I am. Big, big, loving fan. I’ve never been invited to any of their parties, though, so can you get me an invite?

We’ll see what we can do. As an appreciator of the female form, if you were editing FHM, what girl would you put on the cover?
Good question. I’m a huge Jessica Biel fan, but I don’t want to offend Justin [Timberlake], who I know. He’s a hell of a good guy, but goddamn if his girlfriend isn’t beautiful. I think we all should be in agreement on that one.

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The film, somewhat of a reboot of the franchise that kicked off in 1990 with Red October, will be directed by Lost alum Jack Bender. It was reportedly going to shoot as early as February this year. Seems not.

Asked by the lovely Neala Johnson whether or not he was prepared to be ’stacked up against those who have come before’, Pine replies assuredly “Look, at the end of the day, people will obviously prefer one version over the other, whether it be Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford or Ben Affleck. I feel the same way about Star Trek – the only thing I can do is the best version of myself. I can only bring who I am to bear on the part and people either like that or not. Again, I don’t have much control over that, so all I can ask of myself is to do my best, try my hardest and to make sure that we have a really good story to tell, and then it to the hands of fate.”

Pine doesn’t know whether or not he’ll be doing anything as physical in the film as he did on Tony Scott’s Unstoppable.

“I dunno if any trains are gonna be involved”, the actor laughs. “I dunno what’s involved quite yet, I haven’t really seen the finished script, but some assorted running, for sure”.

In a recent interview with the delightful Katey Rich at Cinema Blend, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura mentioned that the script for the film is currently undergoing a rewrite and as yet, there’s no set date for filming.

“We’re going to shoot in the spring. There’s no set date. It’s a slow process of figuring out how much it’s going to cost and all that stuff. [It's] the same story– [Anthony Peckham] is going to bring his own particular flair to it. It is the origin story of Jack Ryan. Where you pick him up in his career is very true to what Clancy had as his backstory. You can explore some of the backstory you never had in previous movie. That will be fun for Clancy fan, and for an audience that hasn’t seen [the previous films], or seen them all in theaters. Chris Pine is going to make a great Jack Ryan. We really lucked out there.”

In Moscow, Ryan (Pine) will be fresh out of the Marines and gets himself involved in some sort of financial scandal in Russia. Apparently Wall Street plays a big part in the movie.

I had one casting director stop me and say, ‘All right, now do it again and make me believe you’,” he recalls with a traumatised laugh.

“That was half of what she said, but also the tone that I can’t really recreate. It was just about the most miserable feeling on the planet.

“I just interpreted that as like, ‘OK, stop sucking, and try to be talented’.

“At that point you’ve lost, at that point it becomes not about the material at all, it becomes about your personal beef, and that’s never what it should be.

“The audition room is one of the most awkward, uncomfortable places to be, period. I don’t even know how producers do it, quite honestly.”

But an actor’s gotta do what an actor’s gotta do.

“Yup,” agrees Pine, “par for the course. Born masochist.”

And yet, if an actor does it well enough, or gets lucky enough, auditions can become obsolete. And that’s where the Los Angeles-born and bred Pine finds himself right now.

After fighting for roles in films such as teen-ish rom-coms The Princess Diaries 2 and Just My Luck and offbeat indies Smokin’ Aces and Bottle Shock, in 2009 he struck gold playing Captain Kirk in J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.

Everything about the sci-fi blockbuster was huge – from its box-office gross to the impact it had on Pine’s career.

Pine sums up the Star Trek effect in succinct terms – “I can say ‘No’ more easily. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been offered stuff. And that’s really nice.”

But Star Trek may not have happened for Pine – before it he was so unhappy with the direction his career was going that he had told his agents not to bother (or bother with) him for a couple of years.

“Really what it was, like any actor you don’t have much … maybe this is not entirely true – you always have choice – but in terms of the breadth of choice and the opportunity and the luxury of being able to say ‘No’, and really truly cherry-picking, that I didn’t have at all.

“Like any actor I would go on an audition and hope to get the part, and if you get the part it’s very hard to say ‘No’ – it’s very hard to turn down work and the pay cheque and the opportunity to work on your, not to sound too artsy-fartsy, your craft, what you do for a living.

“But shoot, the summer before I worked on Trek I did a movie (Bottle Shock) with Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman and Dennis Farina and Freddy Rodriguez and Rachael Taylor – I worked with really talented actors.

“And at the end of the day, I was working – that alone separates you from a large swathe of the acting community.”

So now, post-Trek, Pine reckons he’s “won the lottery, so I’m going to try to enjoy my time with my winnings”.

That means relishing the ability to say ‘No’ and knowing the days of hellish auditions are over.

“I don’t know for how long, but for the time being it seems that way,” he says. “I just don’t know for how long … ”

Those winnings this year will bring a Star Trek sequel his way, the rom-com This Means War with Reese Witherspoon and sharing a locomotive cabin with Denzel Washington for much of his latest movie, the Tony Scott-directed, runaway-train thriller Unstoppable.

“I spent as much time as I could just watching and observing and asking as many questions as possible ‘cos it was like going to grad school,” Pine says of working with Washington.

“There were certain times when I think anybody, no matter how nice, would have shrunk away and avoided my persistent pestiness, but he was really kind about it.”

In the film, Pine is the newbie sent to learn from Washington’s grumpy and intimidating freight train driving veteran. And intimidated the newbie was.

“There’s no way not to be!” Pine exclaims.

“Denzel’s an intimidating character, just because he’s so talented and he has so much charisma that it can be kind of blinding. But I just looked at it as a way to step up my game.”

Pine may fake it pretty well in the movie, but don’t count on him to handle a locomotive in real life.

“If you were on the train, I’d tell you not to trust me. ‘Cos I’m an actor,” he laughs. “I don’t actually drive trains, I’m an actor.”

While he says he knows “for sure” that he wants longevity as an actor, the way he talks also suggests Pine wants something more – directing, perhaps?

“Yeah, I could see myself heading there at some point,” he says.

“I don’t know when but … especially after seeing how good Ben Affleck has succeeded in transitioning in his career. I think it’d be a lot of fun; it’d definitely take a lot of the onus off the acting, which can be petrifying sometimes.”

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- Screen Captures > Guest Appearances > 11/10/2010 – Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Now in his first movie since becoming a much sought-after Hollywood commodity, Pine has chosen to star opposite a high speed train in filmmaker Tony Scott’s adrenaline-fueled flick, “Unstoppable.”

But it was less the movie and more his chance to work with two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and director Scott that Pine said was the real catalyst to climb aboard the thriller about a runaway train.

“No matter what I was doing, I was constantly overwhelmed by the fact that I was working with two people who for so long seemed out of my reach,” Pine told Reuters. “That, for me, trumped everything else.”

Due in theaters on Friday, “Unstoppable” sees Washington play a veteran engineer and Pine a rookie conductor who are paired together on the latter’s first day on the job.

When an unmanned, out-of-control train carrying hazardous material heads toward a populated area at 150 miles per hour, the duo must race against the clock to stop it.

Pine holds his own opposite the powerful Washington, but he knows he is still considered a newcomer when cast against a veteran. He also is aware that the opportunity to star in “Unstoppable” came his way because of “Star Trek.”

“It’s a business, and the bottom line is money,” Pine said, matter-of-factly, about Hollywood moviemaking. “‘Star Trek’ made a lot of money for people, and I just happened to be part of an ensemble that made it work. I’m still riding the wave.”

After wrapping “Star Trek,” Pine took a year off “because I was so burned out.” Not only was the four-month shoot physically grueling, also heaped on his shoulders was the stress of satisfying legions of “Star Trek” fans while still appealing to mass audiences.

“BLUE COLLAR WORKING ACTOR”

With ticket sales of more than $385 million at worldwide box offices, it’s clear “Star Trek” accomplished both and luckily, Pine said, he was prepared for the stardom and massive following of new fans, thanks to his upbringing.

“My dad is a blue collar working actor,” explained Pine. “He goes out and auditions. Sometimes he gets them, sometimes he doesn’t. There are dry years; there are flush years. I knew very clearly what I was getting into.”

One might think acting was something Pine would have fallen into naturally. His mother, Gwynne Gilford, was also an actress and his grandmother, Anne Gwynne, was one of the original ‘scream queens’ working in horror movies.

Yet, acting as a career didn’t occur to Pine until after he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley.

“I didn’t join a frat, so I was trying to find a social group,” recalled Pine. “Theater seemed like an interesting thing. In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense.”

It took a few years to get the ball rolling. Small breaks came in films like “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” with Anne Hathaway and “Just My Luck” with Lindsay Lohan.

At the time, Pine was clearly second fiddle to two actresses who had more box office clout than he. But today, he is keenly aware of how Hathaway grew up to become an Oscar nominated star while Lohan’s career sank under the weight of drug and alcohol abuse from which she has yet to rebound.

“It reminds you of that saying, ‘you never know who you’ll see on the way up or down,’” said Pine, adding that because he grew up in L.A. “there was never that rush of excitement” to hit the Sunset Strip or Hollywood Boulevard clubs to party.

In the meantime, Pine’s focus is on work.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in two years. But right now, I’m going to enjoy it and do my best to create a career of longevity.”

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Also, don’t forget Chris will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live! later tonight.

Return to The Chris Pine Network Video Archive

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Audiences met your Kirk in the first Star Trek movie. As you move forward now and make the character your own, in what ways do you hope to see the character evolve?

Pine: I don’t know. I look forward to his development and bringing to light all his idiosyncrasies and thinking up new ways to surprise people with this character. I just trust Damon (Lindelof) and Bob (Orci) and Alex (Kurtzman) and J.J. (Abrams) and everybody behind it to create (another) good story, because they’ve already done it. I appreciate Kirk’s humor and I think that’s a legacy from Shatner’s Kirk, from the original and only Kirk, which I would love to bring into the future incarnation.

Zachary Quinto got his shot at working with Leonard Nimoy in the first film. What are your thoughts on having Shatner on board for the next film? Is it a great idea or too much of a stretch since they’d just done something similar with Nimoy?

Pine: It just isn’t, quite honestly, my decision to make. I think Mr. Shatner will forever be Captain Kirk. I think it would be, certainly, an interesting thing to bring him back. I don’t know if he necessarily wants to at this point or not. But it’s not my decision.

Shatner, on his website, has footage of the two of you meeting for the very first time. How did you enjoy that moment?

Pine: It was great. It was a very brief moment. It was at his charity event, so it had nothing to do with us meeting. It was more about raising money for his charity. But he was a lovely guy, really complimentary and very nice.

Let’s talk about Unstoppable. It is, in many ways, a two-hander between you and Denzel Washington. What impressed you most about him as an actor and as a man?

Pine: Well, he’s just an impressive kind of guy. He fits every part of the definition of a movie star. He’s handsome and charismatic and intelligent and sharp and quick and the whole deal. He’s a giving actor and gives you just as much off screen as he does on screen. And he’s got an ability to change it up all the time. So, on the written page a scene would look like one thing and then, in the hands of Denzel, who for the most part really drove the scenes that he and I were in, it becomes something else entirely – or it can. And that’s where the fun and excitement and the discoveries come from.

Having seen the movie, it’s obvious that Tony Scott cared as much about the characters as he did the action. On set, how did he go about doing that, especially when he was dealing with trains zipping by at 50 miles an hour?

Pine: That’s what makes this movie a great feat, in many ways. And it goes to show you Tony’s abilities with a movie like this, in this particular genre, which isn’t always known for good character work. He really paid attention to the complexities and the depths of these characters because he realizes – as J.J. does with Star Trek – that if you don’t care about the characters, it doesn’t matter how many trains you have exploding. So we all did a lot of work and spent a lot of time talking about who these guys were, where they came from, how they started the day. That let us, when we got to the action, know the emotional underpinning of who these guys were.

We’re sure a stuntman came in handy on this set, but considering all the close-ups, you must have done a lot of your own stunts. So, how much of it is you we’re seeing on screen, going from train to train?

Pine: The whole thing was pretty much me. Any time you see me jumping on or off a moving vehicle you can pretty much bet your ass it wasn’t me. But, for the most part, it was me. Strangely enough, it seems like there are more stunts in this movie than there actually were. I think maybe it’s because there’s a large train moving very fast, which makes it seem like everything is a stunt, when really, in fact, I only have about two stunts in it. And those were really fun. It’s like a roller coaster ride, a powerful moving vehicle. That just raises the stakes.

You’re shooting This Means War right now with McG directing and Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy joining you in front of the camera. Have you and Tom Hardy shared Star Trek stories yet?

Pine: You know, we haven’t, actually. We just talked about it briefly for the first time the other day. But, man, is he a hell of an actor. I don’t need to tell anyone this, but he’s going to be around for a long time. He’s already been around for a long time, but he’s going to explode. He’s just tremendous.

We keep hearing that you’re attached to Welcome to People, which (Star Trek co-writer) Alex Kurtzman scripted and with which he’ll make his directorial debut. What’s happening on that front?

Pine: It’s not a go yet, but it’s certainly something I’m interested in. I love Alex’s script. It’s just a beautiful script. It’s a story that should be told and I think people would really, really like it, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Both your mom and your dad are actors. What’s the best bit of advice one of them gave you that’s really come into play, especially now that things are really taking off for you?

Pine: My mom always said — and it’s great note, I think – that there’s no asterisk or ticker tape on the bottom of the screen when a movie plays. If you’re having a bad day or a long day and you’ve got to be in love with a woman or, whatever the scene calls for, it’s best just to bring it. It’s best just to do your job as well as possible and not try to blame anything or anyone or be the victim of anything because no one cares. At the end of the day, it’s on celluloid, and there it is.

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A combination of Scott’s filmmaking style and the lack of CGI, in favor of practical sets and real action, contributes to the urgency of the situation from start to finish, taking the audience on an intense, gripping ride. During the film’s press day, co-stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson, along with Tony Scott, talked about the challenges of making a film like Unstoppable, doing many of their own stunts while on a train going 50 or 60 mph, and getting to meet their real-life heroic counterparts. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Denzel, can you talk about playing average guys who get pushed into doing heroic things?

WASHINGTON: What’s a not average guy? He’s like most people in the world. I don’t know what “average guy” means, so I don’t worry about that. There’s nothing average about someone who can control a 100,000-ton machine or make it stop or risk his life to do it. I’m the average guy. What they did was not average. I don’t look at it that way. I don’t put characters in a slot before I start.

Tony, was it more challenging to shoot this film or edit it?

TONY SCOTT: To shoot it. I love the challenge, and this was the biggest adventure of my life. We didn’t do what are called major stunts, if you look at movies today, but it was a very dangerous movie to shoot. My goal was to not be inhibited by shooting on a train at 50 or 60 mph. I wanted to take my trade and craft that I use on a stage and apply it to a circle track at 60 mph with three cameras. At the same time, you have to watch that you don’t get in the way of the performance of the actors. But, shooting in real-life situations helps actors because they’re competing against the noise and the wind. Out of that comes things that shift and change, in terms of tone, but not in terms of re-honing the whole sequence.

Chris, what’s the most helpful thing you learned from the real people you talked to?

CHRIS PINE: What was interesting and frightening was that, when we went to the rail yard in L.A., they said the most dangerous place for trains is actually not really out on the track, but it’s in the yard. The trains can be so quiet and so seemingly innocuous, but they’re 100,000-ton beasts. This one guy told the story about this guy who got surprised on the track in the yard. The train was only going 3 or 4 mph, but it pinned the guy and they had to call the family out because the guy was still alive while he was pinned. They said their goodbyes, the train separated from the guy and then he passed away. That’s how dangerous these things are. Also, for pretty much everyone we talked to, everyone had an experience – whether it be a conductor or an engineer – with life and death stuff, like people trying to cross the tracks, and there’s no emergency stop button on a train. A lot of people experienced traumatic events, so there were counselors.

Denzel, did you get to drive a train at all?

WASHINGTON: Yes, getting to drive a train was great. Everything on them hurts. You can step on something or hit your knee. It was dangerous all the time. I was always more nervous because Chris and I were looking forward, and you had all these guys and women around us on this platform going 50 mph, so we could see what was coming, but they couldn’t. It was trippy. But, I couldn’t imagine making this movie on green screen. It wouldn’t work. You wouldn’t know what getting hit by puffed wheat cereal was like.

PINE: When I read the script, it said, “And cue cereal action sequence.” Who knew that cereal could be such a pain in the ass? But, it’s a credit to Tony, too. Everything was practical, so not only were we on train that were moving on tracks, but we had two trains. One train was the regular train, and then another was chopped up so that the cab could be circled by this 360-degree camera. We could run scenes over and over and over again, and feel like we were driving the train, and not be hindered by worrying about the coverage. We could just run the scene, and there was such a freedom and liberty to be able to do that.

Denzel and Chris, how much of the stunts were actually you?

PINE: I didn’t have a stuntman.

WASHINGTON: I had seven.

PINE: He had one for every day of the week.

WASHINGTON: I remember, early on, I was reading the script going, “Why does the other guy get to be the hero? I want to be that guy.” As we kept working on the material, I was like, “Maybe I shouldn’t be the guy jumping. Chris should be the guy. I can see why he’s the guy.” We had very experienced stunt men. They did Casino Royale and they knew how to jump. Chris pissed me off because he was doing a lot of his own stunts. Punk!

SCOTT: D’s got a fear of heights, and I had him up at 25 feet on a 50 mph train, which was no easy task. We mixed and matched stunt guys with the real guys. Chris was really down there between the two trains and the grain was really sugar puffs cereal. They’re hard-coated, so they travel better and they hurt more. They were mixed with potato flakes. I wanted a snow storm, but I couldn’t do it at that time of year, so we came up with the idea of a grain car and the seal breaking. We recreated a grain storm with sugar puffs and potato flakes.

Tony, what was the hardest scene for you to shoot?

SCOTT: It’s when I’m doing the performances, to tell you the honest truth. I look at the guys and hope that I’m covering it and handling it in the right way. Especially when you’re on a train, going at that speed, you have to make sure that, all of a sudden, the logistics don’t take over from the performance. This is about two guys resolving their differences through the course of this journey, which is great, and you’ve got the guys having to come to terms with who they are. It’s a great vehicle for me, in terms of the drama of putting together these two different worlds.

Was all of the trade lingo in the script or did the actors come up with some of that through their own research?

SCOTT: We always do a lot of research and I like to give a validation with the lingo, or the trade craft, as we call it. We put that in the script and sometimes we embelish it and sometimes we tune it back. You don’t want the audience to get confused.

How much time did you guys get to spend with the actual people you were portraying in the film?

PINE: (Conductor) Terry [Forson] and (engineer) Jess [Knowlton] came out here and we went to the Pig ‘N Whistle and had a couple of beers and talked. It was great. In real life, they say that they were married to one another for awhile, in the sense that they were conductor and engineer together. They were a couple. What was really interested from talking to them was learning that that hierarchy in the train is very real. Those guys that are old heads and have been around for a long time demand a certain level of respect. Just because the newbie has gone to school and learned to do his job doesn’t mean that he knows all the ins and outs of the job itself, in practicality. They told a lot of stories about, if a newbie came in and was pressing his luck, in terms of trying to show the old guys how it was done, he was in for a world of hurt.

SCOTT: Research is what drives me. When I get a script, I go to the real world and touch the real people. Chris’ character, Terry, was a pretty boy who got the job because of nepotism. That’s what turned me around. Originally, I was thinking “blue collar,” but then I met these two guys and we took from their lives and put it in the characters in the script. It was great. I get to educate and entertain myself by touching these worlds and these people.

ROSARIO DAWSON: That’s how Hooters came into the script.

WASHINGTON: Yeah, Jesse’s daughters really worked at Hooters.

DAWSON: I love that ‘cause it seems like one of those Hollywood things, but it’s true research.

Rosario, can you talk about developing the strength of your character?

DAWSON: I think that was something really amazing that we had an opportunity to create with her. We had a lot of choices to make about how we were going to express Connie. There are a lot of cliches about a woman in a man’s world, and there are a lot of cliches about a woman in a high position of power and how she should behave. I think we walked that line really well and were very clear about what we wanted Connie to come across as. She’s just someone very capable and sensible. At the end of the film, you’re not thinking about her being a woman in a man’s world, but just the right person for a very stressful situation. She’s someone who doesn’t get hysterical, but we wanted to express the frustration of being in this control room, miles away from where all the action is. We wanted to show, as calm and collected as she is, that if she could physically propel herself out a window and into that train and pull that lever herself, she would. That’s what makes the octopus arms come out and get on every phone and do anything that she could possibly do to make those blinking lights go the way she wants them to. That was something that we really played with, to show how her levels of emotion were and how much she showed to other people. It is a high-stress situation and she’s in charge, so you can’t freak everybody out or panic them. Your options disappear as the time goes by, so you don’t have time to freak out. You have to do the next thing, protocol wise, that’s going to save lives.

Denzel, now that you’ve worked with Tony five times, do you have a shorthand with each other?

WASHINGTON: Obviously, I think there’s a shorthand. He knows how I like to work, and I know what he likes to do. He knows I like research, so he’s going to have a ton of stuff, long before we start.

SCOTT: There’s never been a complacency with the work. Both of us are similar. We’re all researching for difference. We don’t want to repeat ourselves. That’s my goal. With every movie I do and every day I go to work, my goal is not just to reach for difference, but also figure out how to look at this world and these characters in a different way, and Denzel does the same. He reaches back inside himself and finds a different aspect of his personality. We’ve done five movies and every character is very different, from Crimson Tide to Man on Fire to this film.

Do you still learn about the craft of filmmaking from Tony?

WASHINGTON: I definitely know that I cannot do what he does. What he does is make films. I’ve directed a couple films. That has nothing to do with what he’s doing. I’ve learned so much from him.

Rosario, what was it like to work with Denzel again?

DAWSON: In the one scene that we had together, it was brilliant. It’s interesting because on the last movie that we did together (He Got Game), we also only had one scene together. Maybe we can figure out how to have a couple more scenes together in the next movie. That would be really, really nice. It’s an amazing, odd and interesting thing to watch how impressive it is, and it’s something that Tony is such a genius at, to have a great, fun ride in an action film where you actually care about everybody. The time is taken to really establish the different types of personalities there and give them time. Even if some of the conversation seems mundane or inane, it’s deeply connecting you to caring about these characters, as the story goes along, which is very unusual for an action film of this kind. I think it’s just amazing and remarkable that I feel there’s a chemistry between Frank and Connie, that was only brought together because of Tony being able to gauge our performances, in the weeks and months that were separated between them while we were in different cities. It’s magical to me that, in that one moment at the end of the movie, you can see chemistry and a comradery of spirit. They’re cut of the same cloth. They’re people of the same stock. They would appreciate each other and get what each other’s deep connection to doing life. You can see a hereafter after that, and that’s something really amazing. But, personally, I would like to flush that out on screen a little bit more next time.

Chris, you obviously must be dealing with offers on a different scale after Star Trek. How are you choosing roles now, at this point?

PINE: I’ve just been very blessed. It’s such a shock to me that people seem very interested in who I am and what I do, and that I get to work with people that I’ve watched since I was a kid. Star Trek has really afforded me the luxury of choice and being able to cherry pick, for I don’t know how long. I’m in a time right now where I can at least say yes and no to certain things. I think the guiding principal for me is working with people who I want to work with. Because I don’t know how long it’s going to last, I want to seize the moment. I’ve been very lucky.

Are you getting any input into the development of Star Trek 2?

PINE: Nope.

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Chris Pine, all dreamy intensity and blue, blue eyes, certainly sounds the part while discussing the links between “Star Trek,” in which he starred last year, and “Unstoppable,” his new film with Denzel Washington and Rosario Dawson. ”

“The stories couldn’t be any more different and any more alike,” he says at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. “The reluctant hero is a story that’s been told for ages and ages, and the reason why we always come back to it is we see reflected in the reluctant hero the worst and best parts of us. They’re faced with that great challenge and the question is: Are they going to take it on or not? Are they going to become the best versions of themselves or not?”

The heroism in question in director Tony Scott’s fifth collaboration with Washington involves a runaway train loaded with tons of hazardous chemicals. Pine’s Will Colson is a rookie conductor on his first day, bristling under the tutelage of three-decade veteran Frank Barnes (Washington) when the pending disaster becomes clear. Frank immediately decides to pursue the runaway with their engine. Will, carrying a freight train’s worth of his own issues, is not sold on the plan.

“Kirk is a selfish little (jerk) in the beginning of ‘Star Trek,’ and he ends up leading men into battle,” Pine says. “It’s a humongous arc from one version to the next, and he’s still growing because we have more films. Will is a selfish, angry, rageful (jerk) and he has to shed that and his foil is Frank, who lets him swing his arms like a tantrum to get it out and become the best version of himself. Those are very similar journeys.”

The Los Angeles native is increasingly becoming known for action roles – he’s signed to play Jack Ryan in that series’ reboot. His next project is the action-comedy “This Means War” with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy.

“Unstoppable” co-star Dawson says people called Pine “Kirk” on the set of their movie. But he asserts with conviction that he was a serious student while pursuing his English degree at UC Berkeley. Perhaps too serious.

“I studied a lot. If I could do college over again, I would probably try to have more fun,” he says, quick to dispel the myth that he walked on to the Cal baseball team. “I played sports all my life, and in a pipe dream, I thought, ‘Yeah, it would be cool to play sports at Berkeley.’ I was a rail-thin, gangly kid; there was no way I was going to be playing sports there.”

He comes from a family of actors, among them his father Robert Pine (a very familiar face with more than 180 credits, including a run on “CHiPs”), and served as a production assistant on Roger Corman’s “Black Scorpion” in his teens.

“I gripped and I gaffed, I was all over the place,” he says. “I locked up sets when we were shooting on location, prevented people from walking into the set. I was awful at that because I was a really nice guy, saying, ‘Please don’t walk …’ People steamrolled right ahead and did whatever they wanted.”

It seems funny for Pine to describe himself as a gangly kid and really nice guy who got blown by, because if people were trying to walk on a set past Will or Captain Kirk …

“Correct. That’s the magic of filmmaking and the greatest part of being an actor and probably why I chose it: You get to be people that you’re not. I’m definitely more interested in those hard-headed, everyday courageous guys – in many ways I’m a more than privileged kid who’s not all that working class. I’ve been very blessed in my life,” he admits.

Will is very much working class, as is the world of the railroads. But it wasn’t the jargon or protocols that stayed with Pine among the things he learned about the job.

“The one thing that every person who worked in a train yard said is, they’ve pretty much all had an experience with death or near-death,” he says. “These are thousands of tons of metal hurtling down the track. Conductors and engineers see people killing themselves all the time: Putting themselves across the tracks, bums who’ve fallen asleep or people who screw up and try to get across the train crossing … it happens a lot. So much so that they have counselors help them get through it.

“It was a shock that seemingly such an innocuous job – you’re transporting grain or coal or cars – that you’d have to deal with that whole other thing that’s traumatic.”

The kid who did not walk on at Cal was blown away to be picked for this team, though, as Washington has said he recommended Pine for the part.

“I heard about that recently. Denzel’s a very gracious guy, keeps things close to his vest and there’s a reason he didn’t tell me, I guess. But it’s so flattering, I can’t even begin to describe it to you. It’s a huge honor,” says Pine, who quickly names as his favorite scene the verbal confrontation between Will and Frank after the rookie makes a major mistake.

“He calls me on my s- and I get really angry about it. I go off on him and he laughs me off, which pisses me off more. I’m all coiled. I can’t land a shot because I have no traction in the scene: I screwed up, period. That was a lot of fun, because that’s sparring with one of the masters, with Bruce Lee or whatever.” {sbox}

Unstoppable (PG-13) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer for “Unstoppable,” go to www.unstoppablemovie.com.
Chris Pine
Born: Aug. 26, 1980, Los Angeles

Why we care: He’s Captain Kirk. That “Star Trek” reboot by J.J. Abrams was so great that expectations for the sequel in 2012 are somewhere beyond the Delta Quadrant. He’s going to be the next Jack Ryan, following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck into the Tom Clancy franchise.

Resume builders: Apart from blockbusters and the forthcoming “This Means War,” Pine has appeared in “Bottle Shock,” “Smokin’ Aces,” “Just My Luck” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” He got his start on a 2003 episode of “E.R.”

Quotable: On picking up leads in storied franchises: “I don’t know why it’s happened this way, but it just seems to be my journey. … It’s given me great opportunities and the ability to travel and explore and learn. Life is good.”

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Denzel must have had some really good experiences in transit (“mile-high club” on a train? Respect, Denzel) — and some really bad ones with fans. Though he doesn’t give us much in either category, Denzel seems shy about sharing his weirdest fan experience and insinuates he’s feared for his safety on more than one occasion. We’re not surprised. He is, after all, Denzel Washington.

He’s not tight-lipped about everything, though. Denzel tells us about his childhood life-changing experiences watching ‘Shaft’ and ‘Superfly.’ Don’t miss the story about Tony Scott, the “sensitive” director of ‘Unstoppable.’

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Captain Kirk vs Luke Skywalker

Embarrassing Moments

Impersonations

]]> http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/moviefone-unscripted-fans-trains-and-superfly/feed/ 0 http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/access-hollywood-video-interview-captures-added/ http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/access-hollywood-video-interview-captures-added/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:49:46 +0000 Carol http://chris-pine.org/?p=3348 I’ve added 186 captures of Chris from his Access Hollywood interview into the gallery. Be sure to check out the video below of the short interview and the extended one merged into one video for easy viewing.


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Gallery Link:
- Web Videos > Access Hollywood: Chris discusses His ‘Unstoppable’ Career

]]> http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/access-hollywood-video-interview-captures-added/feed/ 1 http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/hbos-exclusive-first-look-at-unstoppable/ http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/hbos-exclusive-first-look-at-unstoppable/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:53:15 +0000 Carol http://chris-pine.org/?p=3317 I happened to spot this on my TV last night and decided it was worth posting. It gives you a more in-depth look into the making of ‘Unstoppable’ which is out in theaters next Friday!

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]]> http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/hbos-exclusive-first-look-at-unstoppable/feed/ 0 http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-denzel-talk-unstoppable-with-storm-chasers/ http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-denzel-talk-unstoppable-with-storm-chasers/#comments Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:18:08 +0000 Carol http://chris-pine.org/?p=3313 Check out this short interview with Chris and Denzel who sit down to discuss their upcoming film ‘Unstoppable’ with Storm Chasers Reed and Sean.

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]]> http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-denzel-talk-unstoppable-with-storm-chasers/feed/ 0 http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-talks-shoes-buying-a-house-unstoppable/ http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-talks-shoes-buying-a-house-unstoppable/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:26:00 +0000 Carol http://chris-pine.org/?p=3266
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]]> http://chris-pine.org/2010/11/chris-talks-shoes-buying-a-house-unstoppable/feed/ 2 http://chris-pine.org/2010/10/chris-talks-about-his-unstoppable-career/ http://chris-pine.org/2010/10/chris-talks-about-his-unstoppable-career/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:24:20 +0000 Carol http://chris-pine.org/?p=3237 LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Chris Pine’s career is seemingly “Unstoppable.”

The handsome blond, who skyrocketed to stardom with 2009’s “Star Trek,” said landing a host of movie projects like the upcoming action thriller “Unstoppable” – opposite Denzel Washington – is something he still can’t quite believe.

“It seems very much to me like I’ve won the lottery,” Chris told Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson of his burgeoning career, at the junket for “Unstoppable” on Sunday. “I don’t know why it’s me, but I’m enjoying the hell out of it and it’s been a great ride so far.”

“Unstoppable” — inspired by real events — is the story of a runaway train carrying combustible toxic chemicals, and the railway workers who fight to get the locomotive under control before it derails (and decimates a nearby town).

To prepare for the role, the 30-year-old star met with the real life heroes who inspired the dramatic screenplay, and was shocked to learn of their minimal reward after they bravely risked their lives to protect others.

“[The workers] indeed stopped this train full of toxic chemicals and when they stopped it, what they got from their train company that they worked for was a T-shirt and a gift certificate,” Chris told Shaun. “So patronizing — I can’t stand it.

“God knows I don’t know if I would’ve had the will and the courage and the bravery like they did, and I think, especially in a time like now (where we see all of this economic downturn)… I think the story of the ordinary person… [is] a positive thing,” he added.

Although Chris was thrilled to work with two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, he attempted to keep his amazement at bay while working with the icon, gleaning what he could from the actor by watching him work.

“At the end of the day, it’s work. You’re getting paid to do a job,” Chris told Shaun. “So as much as I wanted it to be the ‘Chris Pine School of Education,’ it’s not.

“My job then as a young actor [is to] be open, and keep my eyes and ears alive to watching a master,” Chris continued. “[Watching Denzel] is like watching a great painter work… It was such a treat.”

As for Denzel, the veteran actor was equally as impressed with his younger co-star, saying, “I liked [Chris].”

“I suggested him [for the role]. You can’t say what that thing is, but he just had it,” Denzel told Shaun.

Catch Chris and Denzel in “Unstoppable” when it hits theater on November 12.

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