TO VICTORY!
If you’ve ever seen Spike Jonze’s Her, you may recall those moments when Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore mentally sinks into a place of comfort and safety that is derived from speaking to someone with whom one feels completely understood. I was reminded of this when I concluded my Zoom call with Chris Pine, a man after my own heart, it seems. We logged on at 9.30am in his time zone (in Los Angeles), and there he was, fully rigged up in suit and tie. “I wasn’t going to do a call with you and not bring my A game,” he said. I was in love. Before I knew it, much time had passed and we hadn’t quite finished talking about important matters, like double-breasted over single, or the capacity for wool to have as much breathability as linen if you know where to look. Safe to say, dear reader, that you’d have fallen for him, too.
Pine grew up in California, and didn’t see Hollywood as other actors do — as the land of milk and honey.
It is worth pointing out that this particular tryst was three years in the making, and neither of us could believe we had finally made it work. Explanation: the first email about this cover story was sent in November 2019; the shoot was scheduled for March 12, 2020, just days before the United States banned travel and lockdowns began. Studio executives were flummoxed by what to do about film releases, and decided to put a pin in all of them. The trickle-down effect was that P.R. opportunities ground to a halt, and so the Chris Pine x cover shoot 2020 was cancelled. This happened on two further occasions during the period of oscillating restrictions and relaxations we all experienced, and it felt at one point like it was a cursed ambition, has ever done.
