Chris Pine Says He 'Hated' Pre-Fame Job as Restaurant Host: 'I Was Not a People Person'

"It was all about just getting work," Pine told 'Business Insider' of his time working in the food-service industry

The food-service industry wasn't for Chris Pine.

In a conversation with Business Insider published Wednesday, May 8, the Poolman filmmaker and star recalled balancing his early roles with a job at a restaurant.

"Don't be a waiter. Actually, I was a host at a restaurant and just hated it," said Pine, 43. "Could not have hated it any more. I was not a people person. It was all about just getting work."

The actor made his film debut in 2004's The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and has since gone on to star in box-office hits like Star Trek (2009), Into the Woods (2014), the Wonder Woman films and more in the two decades since.

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Pine, who makes his directorial debut with Poolman, recalled getting his big break with The Princess Diaries 2 opposite Anne Hathaway during an interview for a recent episode of Sunday TODAY.

"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," recalled the actor in the chat with host Willie Geist, which aired Sunday, May 5. “I pulled over onto the side of the freeway and they said, ‘You’re getting paid $65,000.’ "

For Pine, who was 23 when the rom-com sequel hit theaters, "It was like they had just told me I’d made $50 million," he told Geist, 49, adding, "It was absolutely earth-shattering.”

"I just remember distinctly knowing in that moment that my life had changed somehow, even though [$65,000] at the end of the day turned out to be about $15,000,” he continued, laughing.

Now, 20 years later, Pine directed, co-wrote and stars in Poolman as Darren, "a native Los Angeleno who spends his days looking after the pool of the Tahitian Tiki apartment block and fighting to make his hometown a better place to live," according to a synopsis.

Related: Why Chris Pine Loves Taking Ballet Even Though 'It's Hard' and the Lessons Are Taught in French (Exclusive)

Poolman is in theaters Friday, May 10.

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