EXCLUSIVE: Star Trek’s Chris Pine is beaming his voice into high school debate documentary This Is Not A Club, the coming-of-age film about high schoolers performing in two-person speech competitions leading up to the annual National Speech and Debate tournament in Las Vegas.
Pine will narrate the indie documentary feature, which is directed by Ari Levinson and produced by Erica Dasher (Jane By Design) and Sami Kriegstein. Levinson shot the film over the course of 12 months in seven states, capturing the highs and lows in the lives of his teenage participants – four teams of two each – who grapple with issues from sexual identity, race and gender, parental pressures, and falling in love while competing in the world of “DUO” performance, in which partners cannot touch, make eye contact, use props or wear costumes.
Filmmakers showed Pine a cut of This Is Not A Club and brought him onboard when he responded enthusiastically to the material. His narration is being edited in to the film. The actor is currently shooting The Finest Hours for Disney and will next be seen in the studio’s musical Into the Woods this Christmas. He also stars in post-apocalyptic indie Z For Zacharia, which will premiere at Sundance in January. He’s repped by CAA, John Carrabino and attorney Michael Gendler.
Jen Yamato