What does Chris Pine do when life gets a little uncomfortable? According to the Hollywood leading man, he cracks a joke.

“We all have our own s***,” the “People Like Us” star tells Zap2It. “You learn early on what your defense mechanisms are, and I love humor. I love joking around, and deflecting is always fun and easy. And we all do it.”

“Go to any cocktail party that’s what everybody’s doing,” he points out. “No one’s talking about anything real. But that’s human nature. What are we gonna do just go cry together and have cathartic words? It’s not gonna happen.”

The movie hits theaters July 29, and teams Pine with stars Elizabeth Banks and Michelle Pfeiffer in a drama about a complex, non-conventional family that seems to match the description of most relationships these days.

Addressing the flaws of his character, the actor says, in many ways, he’s similar to his alter-ego, particularly when all those shortcomings “hit the fan.”

“The fun of it is, these people, who’ve learned to go through life with humor and wit and sarcasm and jabs, finally all that is stripped away,” he says. “All those tools are taken away and what they’re left with is something they’re not very good at. Certainly, I’ve learned to be better about it for sure. Being absolutely present and authentic and real and just absolutely there for the other person.”

“The question actors [get asked] a lot of times – why do you like to play whatever damaged character?” he says. “Damaged characters reflect who we all our in real life, I think. I mean no one’s perfect, there’s the defining feature of growing up and maturing and becoming a better person.”

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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

I’ve added 5 photos of Chris and ‘People Like Us’ director Alex Kurtzman in-studio with Roe & Roeper of WLS 890.

Gallery Link:
– 2012 > 06/01/2012 – In-studio with Roe & Roeper WLS 890 AM

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.”