Chris Pine arrives to attend the Chaplin Award honoring Jeff Bridges at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City
Credit: Reuters Photo
Los Angeles: Actor Chris Pine has confirmed he lost out on the role of Ryan Atwood in the popular teenage drama The O.C. as he was suffering from 'bad acne' at the time.
Recently, the show's casting director Patrick Rush shared that Pine didn't get the lead part in the Fox show because of his skin problems. Ben McKenzie eventually played Ryan Atwood on The O.C.
''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," the actor said about Rush's revelation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with host Josh Horowitz.
Pine, who went on to star in hit films like The Princess Diaries 2 and Star Trek reboot, said he had "awful skin" as a teenager.
"And then after college, my skin started breaking out again. I was going out for The O.C., which is a teenage melodrama. I can understand that they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things, and bad acne is not a key (to that)," he said.
The actor said he might still have a little bit of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after failing to bag the role.
"I don't want to say, "I"m grateful for not having landed (the part)."I'm alright, but it is a little PTSD. It's no fun having bad skin… It was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story, man. 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, "Oh, it's just like, what you go through as a teenager." And it can be. 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," he added.
Pine gave a shout-out to anyone experiencing acne or similar problems in their teenage years.
"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," said the actor, who is looking forward to the release of his directorial debut Poolman.