AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Each week, a well-known guest draws a card from our WILD CARD deck and answers a big question about their life. This week we hear from actor and now-director Chris Pine. He's known for playing different versions of guys who save the day, including a young Captain Kirk in several "Star Trek" movies. But his directorial debut, "Poolman," is a much smaller, quirkier movie. It stars him as a pool cleaner at an apartment complex in LA. He spoke with WILD CARD host Rachel Martin.
RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: I am holding three cards in my hand - one, two, three.
CHRIS PINE: One.
MARTIN: One?
PINE: Yeah.
MARTIN: What's a lesson you have to keep learning over and over?
PINE: To be in awe, always. In reverentia semper - to be in awe, always. What's yours?
MARTIN: Whoa. I mean, I'll tell you mine, but that - I want to sit with that. That's beautiful, though. Mine's not as lofty, or, I mean, I just - I'm an innately impatient person.
PINE: I get that. Where does the impatience come from?
MARTIN: Where does it come from?
PINE: Are you a perfectionist?
MARTIN: No, absolutely not. Oh, my God. I wish I were more of a perfectionist.
PINE: You've never been a perfectionist.
MARTIN: Zero - never ever.
PINE: Ah, good for you. So what is the impatience from?
MARTIN: Time. I'm urgent about time. I want to use it well. I hate wasting time.
PINE: Interesting.
MARTIN: And I just want to get on with it. But - so it's a constant struggle of, like, I want to get on with things. But also, you need to sit and find reverence and awe and everything, right?
PINE: Well, again, you talk about need, need to. Need, to me, reminds me of the word should. One - I should, which - I detest the word should. So I don't think you need to do a f****** thing. I think, you know...
MARTIN: (Laughter).
PINE: ...Honestly, it's, like, what makes you happiest.
MARTIN: Do you find yourself in points when you can't recognize awe and reverence?
PINE: Of course I do. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm impatient as well and oftentimes feel this kind of, like, oblique background static energy of need, should, go, do. What's happening? Why isn't it this? Why isn't it that - all of these things that are saying, the present moment is not fulfilling X. I was talking to my therapist about this, and I was like, I want to be in flow state again. Like, making this movie was flow state, 24/7/365. Well, what is flow state other than a complete disappearance of the overwhelming reality of the march of time? We go into flow state to forget about our...
MARTIN: Right.
PINE: ...Mortality. There is...
MARTIN: No, but you can't live there forever.
PINE: Well, you can't...
MARTIN: Otherwise, it doesn't exist.
PINE: You can't live there forever. And take everything away. What are you left with? You're left with sitting here now. So you better get really good...
MARTIN: Yeah.
PINE: ...At dealing with - getting good with boredom, getting good with frustration, getting good with all of that.
CHANG: That is actor Chris Pine speaking with Rachel Martin. And there's plenty more to that conversation. Just follow the WILD CARD podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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