Chris Pine's Dad Robert Shares What People Would Be Surprised to Know About His Son (Exclusive)

Chris Pine's Poolman premiere was a family affair, with his proud parents on hand to sing his praises.

Robert Pine and Gwynne Gilford hit the red carpet for their son's big night, with the former CHiPs star stopping for a chat with ET's Denny Directo.

"I'm very proud," Robert gushed.

"I've been doing this, this May it will be 60 years I've been doing this," he said of his own storied career, "and I've never done something like this. I've directed a couple things, but not my own thing that I helped write, direct, star in and produce."

Chris stars as pool cleaner Darren Barrenmen in the zany comedy-mystery, which marks his directorial debut and is set to hit theaters on May 10.  Danny DeVito, Annette Bening, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and DeWanda Wise also star in the film.

Poolman comes amid a full circle moment for the Star Trek alum, who made his feature film acting debut in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement 20 years ago.

"He's incredibly intelligent," Robert said of Chris. "I think of all four of us in the family, he's the smartest. Not taking away from my wife or daughter, 'cause they're pretty smart, too. I'm the dummy!"

Robert and Gwynne tied the knot in 1969 and welcomed their daughter, Katie Pine, on Sept. 24, 1972. Chris was born on Aug. 26, 1980.

"There were two seeds in there that made him and the brains came from her," Robert praised his wife.

Beyond Chris' Hollywood success, Robert said there's something deeper that fills him with pride.

"Anybody, anytime they say, 'Oh, you're Chris Pine's father,' I say, 'Yes,' they say, 'I worked with him, what a wonderful guy he is to work with,'" Robert shared.

"That means more to me than anything," he continued. "More than his films, and everything he presents himself, he's a wonderful addition to this business just because he's very inclusive."

Chris told ET that Poolman was born from an idea involving his own relationship with his parents.

"When you grow up, you have these ideals of who your parents are and then you get to know them as adults, so I think that this was partly making sense of that," Pine told ET at Wednesday's premiere. "... We wrote it in the pandemic, so there was a lot about being alone. I know what it's like to feel alone -- aside from COVID -- and that feeling of being uncomfortable in your skin and searching for love and not knowing really how to find it."

"I guess there are two ways to go about that: you can either make a really sad sack movie that has a lot of string quartets, or you can just go as fast as possible into silly," he shared. "I just decided to go as fast as possible into silly and make my experimental film."

Poolman is out May 10.

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