Chris Pine’s ‘Poolman’ Has a Singular Message: Joy

The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

What do you do when Hollywood wants you to be one thing, but you have a wholly different outlook about yourself? For Chris Pine, breaking the mold of expectations meant creating the new film Poolman (May 10). “Believe it or not, it’s probably the most personal thing I’ve ever made.” And it should be, considering he not only stars in it as Darren Barrenman, a colorful pool man on a mission to protect the city—and the pool—he loves, but Pine also co-wrote and directed the film. The idea for it is rooted in Pine’s own search for joy. “It was COVID and I was going through a lot of personal stuff and feeling a lot, and I said, ‘Why not just lead from the heart instead? Lead from instinct and joy and giggling and catharsis in a kind of positive, joyful way? [That’s] all I really wanted to do.” You can feel that watching the movie, and for Pine, that’s all that matters. “There’s a bunch of yelling in the world and if we can just shut up for just the briefest of seconds and allow the other person their moment, maybe there would be more, I don’t know, joy—who knows?”

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