Quentin Tarantino Didn’t Think ‘Star Trek’ Was What Made Favorite Actor Chris Pine a Movie Star

Quentin Tarantino once ranked actor Chris Pine as one of his favorite modern actors in the film industry. And although Pine achieved superstardom thanks to Star Trek, Star Trek wasn’t the movie that made him who he was.

Quentin Tarantino felt this movie made Chris Pine a movie star

Star Trek did a lot to boost Pine’s celebrity status in the film industry. Since doing the JJ Abrams series, he’s starred in several hit projects and solidified himself as an A-lister. Pine also caught the eye of Tarantino, who was more than impressed by his performances and presence.

“Now, to me, of the actors of his age, he’s hands down my favorite — of that group, of that era, of those guys. Hands down, my favorite. When I saw him in the Star Trek movie as Captain Kirk I thought he was making this movie. I mean I’m all aboard,” Tarantino once said on The Rewatchables podcast.

After Star Trek, Tarantino believed that Pine reached another level by doing his 2010 action film Unstoppable with Denzel Washington.

“And then it was so exciting to see him in Unstoppable to get the Tony Scott treatment. He needed that to make him a movie star in my eyes. He’s filmed like a movie star and he looks it. He soaks in those colors, that lighting, those costumes. He completely holds his own against Denzel. That’s what he needed to make himself a movie star,” Tarantino said.

Quentin Tarantino gave Chris Pine’s family a brief shout-out in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’

Tarantino might not have just been a fan of Pine, but a fan of Pine’s grandmother as well. Pine’s mother, Anne Gwynne, was an actor with notable credits to her name. Tarantino, who was already familiar with Pine and his family, paid subtle tribute to Gwynne in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Pine noted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he and his mother would meet Tarantino over the years.

“And every time we ran into Quentin, he was so lovely with my mother and spoke with her about her mom, who was an actress,” Pine said. “And he, of course, knew everything about my grandmother. And then in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he had one of my grandmother’s B movies [1958’s Teenage Monster] on the television screen that [the Manson family is watching] in Bruce Dern’s scene. So he’s a gem, man. I’m very, very grateful and kind of blown away that he thinks so highly of me. It feels nice.”

Pine also caught wind of Tarantino’s comments about him.

“Of course, I’m extremely flattered,” he said.

Quentin Tarantino would work with Chris Pine if he had the right part

As much as Tarantino has enjoyed Pine’s work, he felt that the actor hasn’t had many opportunities to display his movie star qualities lately.

“I think a case can be made that Pine hasn’t taken the next big leap from Unstoppable,” Tarantino said. “Frankly, to tell you the truth, he’s been good in other movies [but] he hasn’t had that.”

The filmmaker himself would be more than happy to work with Pine, but he’d have to write a role that fits the actor.

“So if I had the right part, I would – I’d like to,” he said.

Tarantino has been working on his last film which will be based on a film reviewer.

“He wrote like he was 55 but he was only in his early to mid-30s. He died in his late thirties. It wasn’t clear for a while but now I’ve done some more research and I think it was it was complications due to alcoholism,” Tarantino told Deadline not too long ago.

If The Movie Critic turns out to be Tarantino’s last feature, it would be the last chance Pine and Tarantino have to collaborate onscreen.