Timothy Olyphant Knew He Lost ‘Star Trek’ Role to Chris Pine When J.J. Abrams Told Him ‘I Found a Guy, Younger, Who’s Really Good’
Christian Zilko
Timothy Olyphant is currently revisiting his beloved role as Raylan Givens in “Justified: City Primeval,” but he recently took a trip down memory lane to reflect on an iconic character that he missed out on playing.
In a new appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Olyphant revealed that he auditioned for the role of Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” trilogy — and may well have landed it if Chris Pine hadn’t been around.
“Here’s what I can tell you about ‘Star Trek’: I went in and auditioned not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with J.J. Abrams and he’s just a lovely, lovely guy. And just a lovely, lovely audition process,” Olyphant said. “Somewhere in there, I was auditioning for Doc, he’s like, ‘I already got a guy for Doc, so I don’t need you for that, but I don’t have a Kirk.’”
Olyphant explained that he eventually emerged as an unlikely frontrunner for the role of Captain Kirk. The actor knew that Abrams would have preferred a younger star, but no serious candidates emerged until he found Pine.
“I believe it was one of those things where it’s like they might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and [Abrams] was having a hard time finding somebody younger,” Olyphant said. “And somewhere along the line, J.J. called and said, ‘I found a guy, younger, who’s really good.’”
Still, Olyphant isn’t bitter about losing the role to Pine because he considers the “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” star a friend.
“I have since then met Chris Pine and I am a huge fan of him both on and off screen. I love that guy,” he said. “He’s a good dude. This sounds very show business-y, but 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. I really like his work. He’s one of those guys who makes it look simple and easy.”
Olyphant also praised Abrams for handling the process graciously and rejecting him in a way that didn’t leave a bad taste in his mouth.
“Auditioning sucks,” Olyphant said, “and the fact that I remember the audition process fondly says a lot about J.J. Abrams and what a wonderful man that guy is.”
