Chris Pine calls out ‘The OC’ casting director who claimed actor lost role due to his ‘bad skin’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Chris Pine seemed not happy with the casting director of ‘The OC’ after he revealed what cost his role in the 2003 teen drama.
In the 2023 book ‘Welcome to the OC: The Oral History’, Patrick Rush claimed that Pine was considered to play Ryan Atwood’s character but ultimately, he was not cast because of his “bad skin problems.”
Patrick Rush said his heart ‘broke’ for Chris Pine
As reported by the AV Club, Rush noted, “I hate saying this, but it’s the truth: Chris Pine was at the age where he was experiencing really bad skin problems.”
He continued, “And it was at that point where it looked insurmountable. And as a kid who grew up with horrible skin, it just broke my heart.”
“But Chris Pine’s fine now. He’s all right,” the casting director added.
Chris Pine remembers toll acne took
Pine reacted to the claims made by Rush during a recent episode of the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast.
The 43-year-old actor said, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, “No — I mean, it’s a part of my life. Look, do I wish…? The man didn’t have to talk about it. I mean, it’s his prerogative.”
“I had awful skin as a teenager, and then after college, my skin started breaking out again. I was going out for The OC, which is a teenage melodrama,” ‘The Princess Diaries’ star shared.
He continued, “I can understand that they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things, and bad acne is not a key [to that].”
Chris Pine called ‘bad skin’ phase ‘one of the most traumatic points' of life
Pine also noted that he did not “want to say, ‘I’m grateful for not having landed [the part].’ I’m alright, but it is a little PTSD.’”
He stated, “It’s no fun having bad skin. It's no fun going to auditions when you have bad skin. It was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story.”
Elsewhere during the podcast, the ‘Star Trek’ actor mentioned, “It's so strange. People talk about obesity — and obviously I understand the difficulty of that — or they talk about any sorts of things, and I feel like acne is regarded as this thing of like, 'Oh, it's just like, what you go through as a teenager.'"
“And it can be kind of just like you get a pimple on your forehead, [but] it can also be tremendously debilitating and really, seriously, emotionally incapacitating, which it was for me.”
“So, for anyone out there that is experiencing that: I get you, I hear you, I’ve been there, I know it. I know how depressing it can be and the kind of depths of sorrow it can drag you to, but there is a brighter day,” Pine added.