Poolman Star Defends Chris Pine's Derided Directorial Debut

Summary

Despite poor critical reception, DeWanda Wise defends Chris Pine’s directorial debut Poolman with enthusiasm and pride.
Wise praises Pine’s direction in the specific genre of film noir, highlighting his technical and emotional proficiency.
Wise believes that Pine’s different appearance in Poolman may have contributed to its negative reception, but she finds him always attractive.

While Chris Pine is beloved for his roles in Wonder Woman, The Princess Diaries, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, his directorial debut didn’t earn a lot of fans. Premiering at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Pine’s Poolman follows pool cleaner Darren (Pine), who uncovers a conspiracy and sets out to do whatever he must to protect his precious LA. Despite a talented cast that also features Annette Bening, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito, and DeWanda Wise, the film bombed with critics. It currently holds a 23% Rotten Tomatoes rating, one of the worst scores of Pine’s career.

However, Wise is ready to defend the film and Pine with all her heart. During a recent interview with MovieWeb discussing her new Blumhouse horror film Imaginary, Wise discussed working with Pine for Poolman:

“I am president of the Chris Pine fan club, shoutout to Chris. He was extraordinarily specific… There are projects you work on like this that are very collaborative, you kind of like do your own thing and you kind of play around. The thing about ‘
Poolman’
is, we were playing in such a specific genre. It’s a genre I love. I’m obsessed with film noir. I always have been. I grew up on film noir. I trained as an actor in film noir, randomly, so I know the conceits in my body. I know how to find the light. I know everything about it. And being directed by him with that degree of both technical and emotional proficiency. I just relished it. I loved it so much.”

Despite its poor critical reception, Wise says she is “super proud” of the film and can’t wait for people to see it:

It’s a very quirky and fun movie. And he’s [Pine] great.

In the film, Pine’s character wears a long beard and long hair and looks more disheveled than audiences are accustomed to seeing him, which leads Wise to offer up a creative reason why the film may not have been well-received:

“I think that people don’t like to see Chris Pine be unattractive. But he’s always attractive to me.”

DeWanda Wise Leads Blumhouse’s Latest Horror Outing

Lionsgate

Along with starring in and directing Poolman, Pine wrote and produced the film. While there’s no news on when (or whether) Pine will helm another feature, fans remain eager for his reprisal of Captain James T. Kirk in an untitled Star Trek: Beyond sequel.

Wise’s next feature, Blumhouse’s supernatural horror Imaginary, hits theaters on March 8. The film follows Wise’s character as she returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him. Imaginary is directed by Jeff Wadlow, who co-wrote the film alongside Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. Wadlow produces alongside Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner and Tower of Babble. Check out the trailer below.

Wise is also set to star in Killing Faith. Set in 1859, the supernatural thriller will center around a recently freed slave who believes her daughter is possessed due to everything she touches dying and convinces a widowed physician to take them on a journey to find a distant faith healer.