Wild Card with Rachel Martin: NPR

Chris Pine says he has “fantastic anxiety dreams.”

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Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Chris Pine says he has “fantastic anxiety dreams.”

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

A note of Joker host Rachel Martin: The other day I was talking to It’s been a minute host Brittany Luse. I was asking him some of our Wild Card questions and one of them was about what it means to live a good life. She said a good life is one in which you can be exactly who you are – a life where you don’t have to fake the way you present yourself in the world.

I keep thinking about this answer. I think we all find ourselves doing things that don’t feel authentic to us: to please our parents, to impress our friends, or to meet certain societal standards of success. But as someone who recently took a big step forward, I can tell you it’s pretty liberating. It can also be scary, because creating something new and personal means that when people don’t like it, well, that’s up to you.

And that’s where Chris Pine is right now in his life. By most accounts, he succeeded. He played Captain Kirk in a few Star Trek movies. He was Wonder Woman’s boyfriend and played the role of the hero in Dungeons and Dragons movie. He could have just ridden this handsome hero into the sunset. But it turns out that Pine is a lot more than that (and frankly, he’s a lot weirder than any of those roles let him be.)

His recent film, Pool man, is his way of showing himself to the world in his true skin, so to speak. Pine wrote the film with his friend Ian Gotler, and Pine directs and stars in the film. It’s his baby from start to finish. So when critics trashed the film, it was tough, as you’ll hear in our conversation. But he didn’t shy away from that, because he created something he loved and that felt true to his creative brain. And you can see in the movie, he’s just having the best time. That sounds like the good life to me.

This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests questions randomly selected from a deck of cards. Press Play above to listen to the full podcast or read an excerpt below.

Question 1: What was your recurring dream growing up?

Chris Pine: I grew up with this beautiful sycamore tree in my garden. And I dreamed that this elf lived in this sort of underground lodge that had a connection with the tree in my garden and this little door next to my garage.

And I remember going in and having tea with the elf. This was probably fathered by my mother. She told this fantastic recurring story about this family of mice that lived in the sycamore tree. So I think that’s probably what entered my brain and seeped out and blossomed in that dream.

Rachel Martin: I love it because it was mostly positive.

Pine: I don’t have nightmares, thank God. I have anxiety dreams, I have fantastic anxiety dreams. But no, it’s the one I remember most growing up.

Martin: Did you have anxiety dreams when you were young or is this mostly an adult experience?

Pine: I’m sure I did. I was a very anxious child and a pretty anxious young man and I still am, but I’ve struggled with this demon for long enough that I think we’re at an impasse, at least for the most part now. But no, my most interesting anxiety dreams are happening now.

Question 2: What’s one goal you’re glad you gave up?

Pine: Perfection. My film was completely decimated when it premiered in Toronto, just like erased. I haven’t read any (of the reviews). Thank God. But I’ve heard enough to know that people really didn’t like it. What makes me think of one of my main triggers, or whatever, is not being loved or this idea of ​​perfection, of not creating something that is perceived as (perfect).

So in many ways this journey so far has been such a wonderful thing to remember: I have had joy. I felt joy. It always gives me joy. That’s it. That’s enough. There is no perfect. It’s perfect. There’s nothing more perfect than that.

Question 3: Is there anything in your life that seems predestined to you?

Pine: Pool man felt predestined. I call it a snowball. A snowball begins to grow and at some point the snowball is so big that it simply falls downhill. There is nothing you can do to make the snowball fall. Just step aside and let the snowball fall down the hill.

This is what taking action looks like. This is what the writing, directing and acting of this film is like. This idea that it is destined, I completely agree with.

Martin: Eh. And that abandon – I mean, you had complete freedom of action on this film. You made this movie, but somehow it got to a point where it took on a life of its own and then you let it happen?

Pine: One of my defense mechanisms is to be cerebral, to use words to block out emotion. And so this process of making this film was a way for me to just follow my instincts, just follow my emotions. So this idea was born – this is what my brain and body collectively wanted to do together. It was the most harmonious in that respect.