The role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek movies was one of the turning points of Chris Pine’s career, but it was almost played by someone else. The Emmy-nominated actor Timothy Olyphant recently revealed he was almost cast as Captain Kirk, but he harbors no hard feelings toward Pine after losing the role.
Olyphant recalled the time when he auditioned for J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek revival in a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He was initially auditioning for Dr. Leonard McCoy before reading for Kirk, but the studio eventually wanted to go with a younger actor for this role.
Despite not being cast as Kirk, Olyphant said he had a great experience with J.J. Abrams and described him as “a lovely guy”. He also had nothing but words of praise for Chris Pine, and said he’s a huge fan of the Dungeons & Dragons actor, both on and off screen.
“I have since then met Chris Pine and I am a huge fan of him both on and off screen… I had the honor, we’re going to say honor, to go to the Golden Globes one year…and I spent most of the evening at the bar with Chris Pine. Just really adored him. What a good guy,” said Olyphant.
