Smokin' Aces Allowed Chris Pine To Break Out Of The Rom-Com Mold
Ahead of its 2006 release, "Smokin' Aces" was being touted as an evolutionary sort of offering in the realm of action-comedy cinema, though the deliriously over-the-top actioner didn't quite change the game as some anticipated. Still, the bananas bullet fest has become a bit of a cult hit for viewers who prefer a little bombast and bloodshed over brains.
Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, "Smokin' Aces" went before cameras with a seriously stacked ensemble, fronting names like Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, and Jason Bateman, among others. Folks tend to forget, but "Star Trek" headliner Chris Pine was also in the mix, playing the chaos-loving contract killer Darwin Tremor. The beyond-gritty role served in stark contrast to much of Pine's prior work, which mostly came in romantic comedies like "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," and the Lindsay Lohan vehicle "Just My Luck."
During an interview with Den of Geek, the actor was quick to name Carnahan as the first filmmaker that cast him for his acting skills rather than his chiseled features. "I think the first person that took me seriously as someone that could act or do different things was probably Joe Carnahan in the film 'Smokin' Aces,'" Pine declared. And one look at Chris Pine's post-"Smokin' Aces" oeuvre confirms the film appears to have played a big role in helping him break free from the shackles of the rom-com game.
Pine says playing roles like Darwin Tremor in Smokin' Aces is essentially why he started acting
If you've yet to check out "Smokin' Aces," the film follows disparate crews of hitmen and bondsmen out to lay claim to a lucrative bounty on the head of a washed-up magician turned mob informant. Chris Pine's crusty killer Darwin Tremor enters the high-stakes fray with his equally demented brothers Jeeves (Kevin Durand) and Lester (Maury Sterling) in tow. If you've seen Pine at work in "Smokin' Aces," you know he more than flexed his acting chops in the film, playing the middle Tremor brother with an edgy mix of unhinged menace and introspective intellect, neither of which had been glimpsed in his rom-com days.
As it was, Pine was clearly aware of what it meant to his career for Joe Carnahan to cast him in "Smokin' Aces," telling Showbiz Junkies during a red carpet event for the film that getting roughed up to play Darwin Tremor was beyond liberating. "It was great to come in in the morning, be able to look like crap, to do what you do and to not have it [his work] be about that [his looks] is really nice ... You're allowed to just act, ya know?" Pine said.
As Pine told Den of Geek, that's exactly what he wanted when he started acting. "I just got to play what I always thought I'd be playing when I got involved in the business," he said, continuing, "which is wacky, fun, creative characters instead of the more bland milquetoast version of a human being." And that's exactly what Chris Pine has been doing ever since.