Chris Pine Takes Over Morning Show Control Booth

The 'Poolman' star and director took his producer role seriously on Wednesday morning.

It's clear that Chris Pine's new Poolman character, Darren Barrenman, fancies himself a TV producer. On Wednesday, the 43-year-old actor and director broke into the control room of the Today show to help produce the live morning show, while dressed in character. 

In a clip shared on the Today show's social media account, Pine is pacing in the control room as weatherman Al Roker can be heard in the background going, "Is Chris Pine directing?"

Pine says into a microphone, "Guys, I'm worried about this. Let's get back to Tiger [Woods] as soon as we can. Camera 3, go, go, go. Also Ted, I'm worried about Al, get the golf clubs off his shoulder, please. Guys, let's move, come on, energy!"

Chris Pine directs in the control room on the Today show on May 1, 2024. - 'Today' Show/Twitter

Later in the episode, Pine did a sit-down interview with Savannah Guthrie, joking, "I really got my kicks off in the directing room. There are so many cameras and screens in there. It's like Minority Report." 

In late April, Pine spoke with ET at the premiere of his directorial debut for Poolman. In the film, he portrays Darren Barrenman, an unwavering optimist and native to Los Angeles 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.

"I know what it's like to feel alone aside from COVID and that feeling of being uncomfortable in your skin and searching for love and not knowing where to find it," Pine told ET. "I guess there are two ways to go about that. You can either make a really sad sack movie that has a lot of string quartets or you can go as fast as possible into silly. So I just decided to go as fast as possible into silly."

Pine's poolman Darren has some basis in who he is as a person. 

"I would say it's a fair dose of 50/50," Pine told ET. "I think the character I came up with just for probably the sake of ease is a lot me, for sure."

Poolman hits theaters May 10.

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