Chris Pine says panned ‘Poolman’ is ‘the best thing’ to happen to him

Chris Pine’s movie Poolman hasn’t hit theaters yet, but it has already received dismal reviews.

The film received a score of 21 percent, based on 33 reviews so far, from movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. But Pine, the star of movies such as Star Trek, Wonder Woman, and Don’t Worry Darling, said the experience was a valuable one; in fact, he called it “the best thing to ever happen to me,” on Thursday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz.

Pine said the criticism was “a real come-to-Jesus moment for me, in terms of seeing how resilient I am.”

The film, which costars veteran actors Danny DeVito and Jennifer Jason Leigh, is about an optimistic pool man in Los Angeles who wants to improve the city. Not only does Pine star in the film, but he wrote, produced, and directed it.

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So it must have been especially painful for him to read reviews that called his movie “an inside joke that never let its audience inside” and “an unfunny spoof of neo-noir thrillers with hazy direction, even messier storytelling, and unbearable dialogue.”

Ouch.

“It’s forced me to double down on joy. As an actor…fundamentally it’s about play, right?” Pine said. “What we do is essentially become children for hours a day and make believe.”

He said there’s “an impish quality to it that I don’t ever want to lose.”

Pine premiered his film at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and he immediately heard negative feedback.

“After the reviews in Toronto,” he said, “I was like, maybe I did just make a pile of s—. So I went back and watched it, and I was like, I f—ing love this film. I love this film so much.”

He learned a lesson, too: “How resilient I am.”

Not that it’s been easy.

“The closest thing I would imagine that this is like — co-writing, directing, and starring in — is a stand-up comedian on stage feeling utterly naked,” Pine said.

He’s even talked about it with his therapist.

“In everything that feels like a setback, yes there is the hurt of the cut, but as the scar tissue forms and the healing process happens you do benefit from a growth in resilience,” the actor noted.

In a Role Call interview with Entertainment Weekly (above), Pine explains that he had the idea for the movie about five years ago. First came the movie title, followed by the details of the character, including his name, Darren Barrenman. He found his inspiration for the character’s look in California.

“I was in Joshua Tree, and I was trying to think about, like, ‘What does this guy look like?’ And I was standing in line for a coffee, and I saw this rock climber, and I was like, ‘That’s the guy,” Pine says. “And he looked like this ’70s dirtbag hippie, and I was like, ‘Ah, absolutely. Everything about this guy.'”

Poolman arrives in theaters Friday.