Chris Pine opened up about the big role that he lost out on due to having acne.
While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the 43-year-old movie star addressed his history with having bad skin.
In the process, he described “one of the most traumatic points of my life,” which was when he was passed over for a big acting gig in the midst of a bad breakout.
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The role in question was Ryan Atwood in The O.C., which went to Ben McKenzie. Casting director Patrick Rush has previously revealed that Chris was overlooked for the role.
How did Chris feel about the casting director discussing his acne all these years later?
“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,” he reflected.
He continued, saying, “I had awful skin as a teenager, and then after college, my skin started breaking out again. I was going out for The O.C. – like a teenage melodrama. I can understand that they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things, and bad acne is not a key.”
“I don’t want to say, ‘I’m grateful for not having landed.’ I’m alright, but it is a little PTSD,” he reflected, adding that it was “no fun” to suffer from acne.
He said, “It was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story, man.”
Chris commiserated with others who struggle with bad skin.
“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,” the actor mused. “And it can be kind of just like you get a pimple on your forehead. 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,” he said.
If you missed it, Chris recently reacted to bad reviews for his newest movie.
Press play on Chris Pine’s interview below…
