Chris Pine Used to Be So Broke, His ‘Princess Diaries 2’ Pay ‘Was Absolutely Earth Shattering’

By Emma Chance | Film | May 6, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Film | May 6, 2024 |

In a recent appearance on the “Sunday Sitdown With Willie Geist,” Chris Pine talked about his role as Nicholas Devereaux in 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which he says “jumpstarted his career and turned his finances around.”

“It was the height of summer and I was getting off at Magnolia,” the actor said of when he got the call about the part while driving in his old car with no air conditioning, “And I was on my little Verizon tiny flip phone, my silver one, and I got a call from my agents that I booked the job. I pulled over onto the side of the freeway and they said, ‘You’re getting paid $65,000,’ and it was like they had just told me I’d made $50 million. It was absolutely earth-shattering.”

Up to that point he’d done some commercials and had small parts on ER, where he said he “had a few lines with Sally Field,” The Guardian and CSI: Miami, so money was tight.

“I had an overdraft in my bank account, it was like $400 over. I was gonna have to ask my parents for money, and I got that $65,000 and I just remember distinctly knowing at that moment that my life had changed somehow,” he said, joking that after deductions it was of course closer to $15,000 than $65,000, so that security “lasted no time at all” and he owed his “parents rent money.” But it was still a “wild feeling” and one that he’ll “never forget.”

Now he’s directing movies like Poolman and dressing like a “non-binary, lesbian aunt” (his words!), so, you know, never give up on your dreams, kids!