Chris fine 'ABSOLUTELY EARTH-SHATTERING'

THE STAR REVEALS WHEN HE KNEW HIS LIFE HAD CHANGED

- Jennie Noonan

Two decades ago, Chris Pine was an aspiring actor driving around Los Angeles with a bank account that was overdrawn by $600-when he received a call from his agent on his tiny flip-phone that would change his life.

"I pulled over onto the side of the freeway, and they said, 'You're getting paid $65,000 [AUD$97,000],” he recalled during an interview on the US Sunday Today show of learning he'd landed the love interest opposite Anne Hathaway in the 2004 sequel to The Princess Diaries. "And it was like they had just told me that I'd made $50 million. It was absolutely Earth-shattering."

The call came after he had booked a few commercials and landed a handful of TV guest spots, having been passed over for another potential big break - the role of Ryan Atwood on the eventual hit teen drama The O.C.

"I hate saying this, but it's the truth: Chris Pine was at the age where he was experiencing really bad skin problems.