Open Post: Hosted By Chris Pine Losing The Role Of Ryan On “The O.C.” Because Of His Bad Skin
Thanks to my Photoshop job above, you can picture what it would have been like had Chris Pine been cast as the trouble bad boy from Chino, Ryan Atwood, from FOX’s early-aughts teen drama magnum opus, The O.C.. But that picture, or your dreams, is the only way you’re going to see Chris Pine as Ryan because of course he was never cast as Ryan. That went to Benjamin McKenzie, naturally. Well, the casting director of The O.C. decided to take a little trip down memory lane, and they revealed all the Teen People cover-worthy hunks who almost got to smolder for four seasons in a motorcycle jacket and leather choker (okay, technically the leather choker was gone by season 2). One of the actors who got the closest to showing up on Sandy and Kirsten Cohen’s doorstep was Chris Pine, but his pimply skin got in the way.
The show’s casting director Patrick Rush recently appeared on an episode of Welcome to the O.C., Bitches!, a podcast hosted by Rachel Bilson (aka Summer Roberts) and Melinda Clarke (aka Julie Cooper). That’s where Patrick revealed who was in the running to play Ryan. Garrett Hedlund and Justin Hartley were seen for auditions, but everyone loved Chris. His skin situation, not so much. via Metro UK:
“We saw Garett Hedlund for that part and we wanted to test him but he got Troy, the Brad Pitt movie, at the same time that we wanted to test him. There were a lot of kids kicking around auditions at the time, [This Is Us star] Justin Hartley auditioned too. We saw Chris Pine, he was really really really good but – this is painful. At the time Chris Pine’s skin was really really bad and that broke my heart because I was a kid with acne. I remember thinking he was so good.”
I’d expect that kind of shallow superficial judgment from Julie Cooper, not a Hollywood casting director whose job it is to shallowly judge an audition tape. After they pushed Chris Pine’s headshot aside, they saw Benjamin McKenzie, who they loved, and he was hired. Chris Pine didn’t languish in obscurity for long. I believe he’s done well since his rejection from The O.C. Although I wonder if they were being too hasty when they decided that Chris’ skin was a deal-breaker. Sure, it was FOX and not HBO – it’s not like they were going for hard-core realism. But I too had bad high school skin, and I know that my little part-time job paychecks weren’t enough to buy the good stuff for my zits. And Ryan Atwood was supposed to be down and out financially. At the very least, Ryan Atwood could have shown up in the O.C. with bad skin. If couldn’t afford a second white tank top, he definitely couldn’t afford a Proactiv subscription.
Pics: Wenn.com, FOX