Chris Pine recalls ‘trauma’ of losing OC role because he had ‘bad skin’

Actor Chris Pine has opened up about the “traumatic” experience of losing out on the starring role in hit US series, The OC because of his acne.

Casting director Patrick Rush first revealed the Star Trek actor auditioned for the part of troubled teen Ryan Atwood in the 2023 book, Welcome to the OC: The Oral History.

The director said Pine was “really good” but was “experiencing really bad skin problems” that “looked insurmountable”. Ben McKenzie was eventually chosen for the role starring alongside Mischa Barton, who played Atwood’s love interest Marissa Cooper.

Pine, 43, responded to Rush’s revelation in an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and shared the emotional toil the period had taken on him.

“It’s a part of my life. The man didn’t have to talk about it. I mean, it’s his prerogative,” he said.

“Look, I was going out for The OC, like a teenage melodrama,” he said. “I can understand why they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things. And bad acne is not a key to [success].”

While host Josh Horowitz joked that his “career might have worked out” if he’d scored the role, Pine replied diplomatically, “I don’t want to say I’m grateful for not having landed the job, but I’m all right.”

However, he added that the breakouts causing him to lose opportunities left him with “a little bit of PTSD”.

“It’s no fun having bad skin. It’s no fun going to auditions when you have bad skin,” he said.

“It was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story.”

Speaking about the lack of understanding around the skin condition, the Don’t Worry Darling star emphasised the “debilitating” effects of the experience and how it dragged him to the “depths of sorrow”.

“I feel like acne is just regarded as this thing of like, ‘Oh it’s just like what you go through as a teenager’, and it’s like it can be. It can be kind of just like you just get a pimple on your forehead,” he said.

“But it can also be tremendously debilitating and like seriously emotionally incapacitating, which it was for me... I know how depressing it can be and the kind of depths of sorrow it can drag you to but you know, there is a brighter day.”

The actor was praised for his joyful response to his directorial debut in Poolman, as he described it as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.