Chris Pine
VENICE, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 05: Gemma Chan and Chris Pine are seen arriving at the casino pier during the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 05, 2022 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Twitter has been flooded with new content today following the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling at Venice Film Festival. Florence Pugh showing up late with an Aperol in one hand? Main character behaviour. Gemma Chan just being an absolute rock? We don’t deserve her. Then there is Chris Pine who has just become the most relatable celebrity on the internet. Why? Well, he’s being dubbed the new “quiet quitter”.

For the uninitiated, quieting quitting is a new term from the Gen Z language that basically explains someone who quits their job, without actually quitting their job. Think, doing the work they need to do in a day, then shockingly, they go home. There is no overtime, no going above and beyond without being paid accordingly. Just… showing up.

Co-star Pugh could be labelled in this category of modern workers, however she has made her view on the film clear. Simply by refusing to promote it. Pine on the other hand clearly didn’t know what he was getting into.

His distaste for the entire event was apparent early on this week when he attended the press conference for Don’t Worry Darling on Monday. Sat in a tiny grey box with Styles and a journalist, a clip has gone viral of the actor completely zoning out, far from planet earth, as his co-star explained something about loving the movie because “it’s a movie” that you go and “watch at the movies”?

At the premiere it only seemed to get worse when at one point he was seemingly spat on by Styles. The investigation is ongoing. Soon after the incident as the lights were dimming and the film started, Pine did the ultimate quiet quitting stunt. He put his sunglasses on (inside) and looked as if he were going to take a long nap. Two hours and two minutes to be exact.

In a discussion with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Interview Magazine last week, director Olivia Wilde admitted while praising Pine that he had joined the film as a favour “to an old buddy” and “then he really took it and ran with it.” That, apparently is where his performance ended.