So Captain Kirk was a lit nerd at Cal.
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.”
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