Chris Pine reflected on the career opportunities he’s gained for being born to two actor parents — and it turns out, there aren’t many.
The “Star Trek” star and “Poolman” filmmaker told Marc Maron on his “WTF” podcast Monday that he gets “such a kick out of the ‘nepo baby’ thing” because his parents, journeyman actor Robert Pine and former actress Gwynne Gilford, hardly gave him a leg-up in the industry. Instead, Pine said, his father’s work ethic since starting professionally in 1964 gave him a respect and understanding for what it takes to be a lifelong “auditioning actor.”
“I get such a kick out of the ‘nepo baby’ thing. My family has such a laugh about it as if people are like, ‘You’ve got to, you have to hire Robert Pine’s son!’” Pine said, adding that he’s sure “that stuff” exists, but it’s not his experience.
The actor added later in the podcast interview that he landed an early career audition for “Gilmore Girls” thanks to his dad’s relationship with the series’ casting directors — but that he ultimately lost out on the role.
“This is what I will say, it definitely, like, I got an audition very, very early on for ‘Gilmore Girls.’ My father was in an audition that he didn’t book, but the casting directors loved him and he loved the casting directors and he said, ‘My son’s an actor and he’s just coming back from Williamstown, this theater festival back east. Would you see him?’ They said sure. I came in, auditioned, I didn’t get the part,” Pine shared. “So I got a leg in. Like, yeah, I got an audition, but you’ve got to show your chops.”
Pine said that his father started his career under contract at Universal — “which I think had the last contract system in town” — and that today he’s 83 years old and “f–king doing fantastically.”
“He has his wits about him and god, knock on wood, he’s healthy and spry and cute as can be,” Pine said. He agreed with Maron’s summation that his father “100%” has a “working class” understanding of what acting is thanks to his time in the studio system — and it’s a set of values that Pine carries with him today.
Sharing his own opinion on the ongoing “nepo baby” conversation in Hollywood, Maron admitted he doesn’t see a problem with it.
“The nepo baby thing for me has always been like, why do people get upset? There’s, like, a million sort of plumbers and sons — Bill & Sons Plumbers, Bill & Sons Contractors,” he said. “It’s like, nepotism is just sort of like, why wouldn’t you step into the thing you grew up with in the house?”
“That makes a lot of sense because it’s like, what you talk about at the dinner table,” Pine agreed. But he clarified that people get “upset” because “it’s this idea that people are going to give you jobs.”
Listen to Pine’s full “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast in promotion of his directorial debut “Poolman,” which hits theaters Friday, here.
