Question: How is the new Star Trek film?
CHRIS PINE: Oh, it’s good! What am I going to tell you? Those big films are scary things. There’s so much money behind those things. There’s that hype. You enter a machine. I’m just happy that the people behind it were such good, welcoming types. J.J. [Abrams] runs that ship. J.J. is a wonderful guy. What they bring to this kind of film is a small character-driven story, matched with robots or aliens or spaceships. That’s a very hard thing to do, and a lot of people don’t pay attention to that. It’s really interesting that, in The Avengers, the character that people relate to is The Hulk, and I think the reason why they relate to The Hulk is because he’s fragile and human and faulty.

Do you feel pressure for the sequel with Star Trek because it is so highly anticipated now?
PINE: Generally speaking, the more money that’s involved in anything, the more people are expecting and hoping that it’s not going to fail. If you’re a part of that process of whether it’s going to fail or succeed, you’re only human and you hope that it does well. But, there’s only so much, as an actor, that you can do. People are either going to respond to it or not, and I would drive myself crazy if I tried to control it anymore than that, other than a really fervent desire that people come and watch it and like it. We at least tried to do a really good job. Critics think we try to make bad films. They think we want to spend five months of our lives making something bad. We always go out with the best of intentions, whether it’s fluffy comedy or a drama. It’s always in the effort of, “Please come, like it, enjoy it, take something away!”

I’ve chosen bits and pieces from the review of ‘People Like Us’ that LivinginCinema.com recently posted, and I must say it’s worth a read, but while your here check out the snippets below.

People Like Us is the surprisingly moving story of two wayward strangers who are drawn together by a shared secret. Finding each other, it turns out, may also be the key to finding themselves. Yes, the story is about as conventional a drama as it sounds, but it’s reasonably intelligent and adult, it’s got a couple of winning performances at its core and it adds just enough narrative wrinkles to keep it fresh as it builds to a satisfyingly emotional finale. In other words, People Like Us is pretty much everything it sets out to be and everything you could want from the type.

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Pine, who was easily the best part of Star Trek and who has already established himself as a movie star even if he is not yet a household name, continues to expand his range. He’s demonstrated a knack for handsome, cocky, slightly roguish characters who don’t take themselves so seriously that they’re annoying and here he takes that character one step further. Sam is a man on the verge of succumbing to bitterness and of turning into the selfish jerk he’s always despised. His actions aren’t always noble, but he’s still very relatable and you find yourself hoping he does the right thing. Pine manages to be likable even when he’s being a bit of an asshole.

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What’s interesting here is that Pine and Banks have terrific chemistry together and in any other film they’d be convincing lovers. That’s not in the cards for People Like Us however because the characters are related. Instead, the story has to make the case for these two growing to love each other without being able to fall back on phony romantic tropes like love at first sight. They genuinely have to get to know each other.

Make sure you check out the full review over at LivinginCinema.com

Check out more videos under the cut!

RedEyeChicago.com has posted a ‘tease’ of their interview with Chris while promoting People Like Us. According to them, the full Q&A interview will be posted in a few weeks, most likely when the film is released. So, stay tuned!

“I have a feeling that story will haunt me for the rest of my life. It’s one of these things–sometimes you can leave your car in Burbank, Los Angeles and walk into a conference room and your back is sweating and you’re thinking about the laundry you have to do and somehow seamlessly you can then pretend to be a man in a loincloth standing in front of blue people saying lines like, “Come follow me, I’ll save you!” And sometimes you just can’t buy it. [Laughs] I walked into that room absolutely not believing myself. How dare I put that poor casting director through the experience of watching me. Halfway through I just kind of stopped; she was maybe smiling or laughing at me. I didn’t take offense to it because I realized I was probably pretty bad, and we just called it a day and I shook hands with her and out I walked.”

Also, Pine on rumors that he’ll play Brick in a Broadway adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” co-starring Scarlett Johansson:

“I’ve talked to Scarlett. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I haven’t made any final decision. It’s Tennessee Williams. It’s ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’ It’s Brick. It’s pretty seminal American theater. It’s an incredibly difficult part.” [So as of today it’s a maybe?] “Yeah, it’s still kind of up in the air. But I met Scarlett and she’s really intelligent and really passionate about this stuff and really savvy.”