CHRIS PINE TALKS ABOUT BEING “JACK RYAN” AND STEPPING INTO THE SHOES OF HIS HOLLYWOOD HEROES

Following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine is the newest face of Tom Clancy’s famed hero, Jack Ryan, in the newest instalment starring the hero, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

While Pine has proven himself worthy of the title of Hollywood hero, he still had some massive shoes to fill in taking on a role which had previously been made famous by some of Hollywood’s most gifted actors. “I always thought about kind of marrying this kind of quiet intelligence that I thought that Harrison brought, [and] this kind of fierce confidence that Alec had, and somewhere in the middle is that relatable guy that could be your history professor, could be your best friend,” Pine told Entertainment Tonight.

Despite drawing inspiration from the other actors, Pine still brings his own spin to the beloved character. “ I can’t be Alec Baldwin, I can’t be Harrison Ford; I can only really do my own thing and stay true to the pillars of this character,” he told FilmNews.co.uk. And if anyone thinks that he’ll be recycling his portrayal of Captain Kirk for this role, he shuts down that worry as well. “Where Kirk’s a man of brawn, Ryan’s a quieter guy. He’s not Jason Bourne, he doesn’t have 50 kinds of kung fu. He figures it out like MacGyver.”

While Captain Kirk is a character recognized around the world and therefore difficult to change, Jack Ryan is a more flexible character, which forced Pine to make a decision about how he wanted to portray him. “I think the challenge with Jack is how do you make his smarts dynamic? His weapon is his brain. He thinks and moves with his mind faster than other people,” he told Screen Rant. “He’s comfortable with his books. He’s more comfortable putting a puzzle together. He’d rather spend a Sunday at home than go out. He’s a homebody. So it’s balancing that kind of Everyman with the thoughtfulness and the ability to be by himself and the comfort in isolation and then also that kind of intense confidence in his own abilities.”

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit tells the story of Jack Ryan’s youth as a young agent fighting against Russian Terrorist Viktor Cherevin, played by the film’s director, Kenneth Branagh. “What I would say about Ken is that he’s incredibly, incredibly focused,” Pine told Collider. “He knows what he wants, how he wants it and that’s not say that he’s not open to collaboration.”

Pine’s other co-stars include Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner (who plays Jack’s mentor) whom Pine was completely starstruck by. “You always have these out-of-body moments on the set where you’re like, ‘My God, I watched these people growing up, I’ve seen tons of their films and now I’ve got to work opposite them,” Pine revealed to the New York Daily News. “But what kicks in very quickly after the shock and awe is, ‘I have to do this job’ and I have to step up to the plate and be at the same level as these guys or they’re going to run me over.”

“But man, [Kevin Costner is] a cool cat. He’s just a really knowledgeable guy and he’s got his hands in so many different things,” Pine told Collider. “He’s writing all the time and the way he talks to Ken about a shot or how that’s going to move into the next sequence, I love listening to it, because watching my director, who’s, you know, Kenneth Branagh, and then I’m watching my fellow actor, who’s Kevin Costner, and I’m learning an incredible amount just by being there.”

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit opens in theatres on January 17 and stars Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh.

—By Sarah Khan