I know Chris Pine’s new movie, The Finest Hours, is based on a true story. Did he get a chance to meet any of the men who were involved in the real-life rescue that the movie is about?

—Steve S., Newton, Mass.

A: Two of the Coast Guardsmen who lived the story depicted in the movie, Andy Fitzgerald and Mel Gouthro, came by the set of the film, which is “a great, true story about the most successful, small-boat rescue in Coast Guard history,” says Pine, 35, who stars as Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernard Webber. The film, based on a 1952 rescue that took place when an oil tanker was ripped open by a storm, opens Jan. 29.